How would you handle this?

[SolidHandle]

I have a client who has a compaq presario c700 laptop and wishes to have his hard drive reformatted, and replace windows vista with windows xp professional. I finished the reformatting, and installed the OS earlier today to come and find out that Compaq never released drivers for this OS. So now the computer is limited and I'm stuck at a standstill. I could re install windows vista, but I would love to get this working for the income.

Have you ever been in this situation? How would you handle it? Tips?

Thanks

 

[Kitten Kong]

Few questions come to mind.

If you have downgraded from vista to xp p, where did you get the licence details from?. I hope you purchased a new xp prop licence.

Why did the client wish to downgrade. How about a upgrade to 7?.

In circumstances such as this, there are a number of sites, you could use, to get the drivers.

www.driveragent.com
driverpacks

Alsi obviously without having the full model to hand, there is the HP site.

I have just checked a couple of the c700 series drivers, and they all have xp drivers.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/ProductList.jsp?...1957&prodSeriesId=3466274


Have you not

 

[SolidHandle]

Hi

Hello again,

The license is a legitimate product key, not a cracked version. He loved the feel of XP and disliked the newer versions.

Obviously the first place I went to was the hp website, and yes they all have drivers for XP but only for their hp support software. Nothing for the nic card, sound card, video card etc etc.

Still a no go.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Right in that case, you will have to utilise a USB Nic or similar, to actually gain access to the internet, and then use a website, similar to driver agent, which automatically searches for any and all drivers which can be updated/downloaded.

Driverpacks is another way forward.

That looks like the only way forward in this case i'm afraid. And should serve as a reminder if not sure about drivers for a machine to check the manu's site first.

 

[PC-MOT]

Would 3dp help get you online to get to a website like driver agent??
http://www.technibble.com/3dp-net-auto-detects-and-installs-network-driver/

 

[NYJimbo]

Nothing for the nic card, sound card, video card etc etc.

Still a no go.

When you are installing drivers remember that they are an interface to that specific hardware at the O/S level. What I mean is that just because you do not see the driver from HP for a particular component doesn't mean the driver doesn't exist.

Example: I had a Gateway laptop here with a dead wifi card, it was some kind of Intel model, full size mini pci card. I didnt have a direct replacement so I took a Broadcom card from a Dell 9100 and installed it in the machine. If you go to the Gateway website there is no device driver for that card at all. However on booting up Windows XP with Sp3 it saw the card and installed the driver SUPPLIED BY WINDOWS. This is a DELL labeled card with the Broadcom chips. The card works perfectly and has all the normal features expected of the wifi.

So what I am saying is that you might be able to find drivers either from the card manufacturer or if you have not done already be sure you have XP/SP3 and that you manually check windows update for "hardware updates" to see if it supports it there. For drivers at a chip level, many times you can find audio and video "card" drivers for laptops by going to the chip/component manufacturer or googling for them. Sometimes forums members elsewhere will have a zip file of drivers that will load into your O/S and talk to the card/chip regardless of laptop manufacturer.

Good luck.

 

[PCX]

Driver Packs + SAD2 and Driver Genius. You could always just pull the chipset and network drivers from driverpacks.net and then use driver genius to do the rest.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

A learning experience which should get you to "stay away" from doing OS downgrades like this. Primary reason...that OS is not supported on that hardware by the manufacturer.

Most hardware in laptop platforms that are out now was designed after Windows XP was retired. So in many cases, you'll notice that you simply cannot find WinXP drives for new hardware anywhere. Because that chipset, video card, sound card, onboard ports, drive controllers, etc...came out after Windows XP was put out to pasture. No drivers were written..nor will be.

When Vista came out...we found ourselves being asked to do this a lot..and it wasn't that bad. But we're half way through Windows 7's life now..and Windows 8 is on the horizon. Several generations of hardware have come out since WinXP was retired.

You can try to spend tons of time search for drivers, or use one of those driver finder programs..and maybe you'll be able to find some "similar enough" drivers to shoe-horn in there to get it to run and appear fine. But how well will it really run? How about all the "enhancement/system" drivers on laptops for the added functionality of hot-keys, special purpose buttons, and power management needed in laptops? Will the laptop run rock solid all the time? Or perhaps lock up once a month on the user, or frequently never come out of hibernation/standby because of poor/lacking power management drivers? Will a Windows update break a driver?

 

[iisjman07]

One of my laptops is a Compaq C700 (a C742EM to be exact) and there aren't XP drivers or any workarounds. You can put Windows 7 on there; that'll work absolutely fine, but XP is a no-no

 

[strollin]

Downgrades usually work OK on desktops since there are fewer drivers involved. Laptops usually need more drivers to make all of the built-in features workable.

You could always try going to the website for the manufacturer of the particular piece of hardware to see if they have an XP driver available.

In my experience, if you can at least get it connected to the net via wired (best bet) or wifi, many times Windows update can search for and find many of the required drivers. After that, you will need to manually search for whatever drivers are still needed.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

What's his particular reason for wanting to lose Vista and go with XP?

 

[Tepin]

3dp Net should get you the drivers for the network adapters. It will leave a 30 megish unpacked folder in C: afterwards, delete that if it bothers you. From there 3dp Chip will help you get the rest of them if they exist.

You won't be able to get card reader or ACPI drivers with 3dp. These can be a bit more frustrating to locate online but Driverpacks haven't failed me yet for them.

I have the full release of Driverpacks on a network drive for stuff like this. It's a little slow, but I just do a manual update on the device and point it to the folder then come back in 5-10 mins and it's installed. If you are mobile I would suggest putting them on a portable drive.

Even if they didn't load XP on that specific model I would wager money that XP drivers were created for all the hardware that's in it.

 

[SprinterTech-WI]

and this is why we have a LOT of customers running win 7 pro, native VM for XP that works PERFECTLY........ I won't do downgrades to XP, besides if you have to buy a $130 - $175 license why not go up?


The only ones we go down on are the netbooks we refurb.... win7 starter is a POS but now that win 7 HP is ava. through refurbishing I doubt we'll do XP at all.

 

[gikstar]

I have been using the DriverPack solution to aid me in finding drivers: http://drp.su/.
Creates a DVD that I can use over and over. It works real well for me.

 

[Tepin]

I have been using the DriverPack solution to aid me in finding drivers: http://drp.su/.
Creates a DVD that I can use over and over. It works real well for me.

I gave this a try but I can't use a utility in the shop that puts a support link in system properties to a 3rd party company I don't have complete trust for. I would pay these guys a decent sum to sell me a custom branded version but they don't seem to offer that.

I don't recall seeing the Lite version when I downloaded the full image though. It looks similar to 3dp so I'd like to try it tomorrow, if it can do card readers and power management without modifying the system properties page I'll be happy to add it to my kit.

 

[Rob_NNCC]

Look at the device IDs, use the driver pack, heck, there are Linux Distros that help you ID hardware. I used to load XP on brand new Vista Laptops for a mom and pop and filled a 120 GB hdd for New Dell drivers only. It can take an hour or so to find a driver, but XP has more drivers for it than you would think. I will pop the cover off a desktop to look at the sound and network chips to help me find drivers, and I have poped laptops open to look at the wireless card in them.

I have not found a computer that could not be downgraded from Vista to XP. Newer Win 7 pcs, maby.

My point is, get out there, expect to spend at least 2 hours finding drivers for this system.

P.S. Not to be rude here, but NIC is Network Interface Card.

 

[uprighttech]

I gave this a try but I can't use a utility in the shop that puts a support link in system properties to a 3rd party company I don't have complete trust for. I would pay these guys a decent sum to sell me a custom branded version but they don't seem to offer that.

I had the exact same reaction the first time I tried DPS several weeks ago. I have since found that this can be disabled under the advanced settings on the left side of the window. Also don't like that by default it also installs some other programs. However, this too is easy to avoid once you know to look for it. Annoying, but it is such a useful app, I have decided I can deal with it.

 

[Tab Alternatives]

As everyone pretty much said, downgrades are a taboo in the OS field. You run into a lot of incompatible drivers etc. A lot of customers who want a OS reload/format often want to stick with what they are most familiar with and are going back to old habits and to stay in their old "groove" if you will.

You have to look at this as an opportunity.

You can sell the customer a version of Windows 7, the service to format/reload the OS, and hopefully up sell him on a fresh new installation of an awesome anti-virus like Norton 360! Not, hehe. From there you can also throw in data backup services etc, the list can kind of go on. Obviously you don't want to nickel and dime your customers, but you have to keep in mind that you are keeping them up-to-date with technology. You have to urge them to step out of their comfort zone and upgrade, because sooner or later they will have no choice and it's better now than later!