HP Black Friday laptop XP Downgrade help

I've always been searching around and looking through these forums, but this will be my first time posting - so if I do something idiotic, please bear with me! (and let me know)

So here's the story...

My GF really needed a laptop for cheap. There was an HP laptop that seemed to have decent (although I couldn't find info much the particular model) specs for only $450 or so. So of course she jumped on the offer. Problem is, with 1GB of RAM, Vista and HP Bloatware the laptop is REALLY REALLY slow. Of course, Best Buy being so amazing at what they do, they give her the recovery discs for the wrong model (they gave her the discs for the dv6607). So I took the liberty of downgrading from Vista to XP as a favor for her.

And that's when all hell breaks loose.

I've been searching for drivers for a while. Since laptopvideo2go is currently down, I picked up the INF files from the nvidia forums instead. I downloaded ForceWare 163.75 and upon canceling installation of those drivers, moved the INF file from the proper archive into the installation folder (which is C:\nvidia\etc\etc for me). Problem is, the driver's don't seem to work AT ALL. Windows crashes everytime it completes installation and automatically reboots if I run "setup" from the nvidia folder. If I go into Device Manager and "update drivers" from there, it successfully installs the drivers. And I get a nice blank black screen as a result! Unless I'm doing something wrong (which I very well could be) I'm in quite a fix right now and could use some help.

But that's just the video drivers. HP does have some drivers on their website - wifi and buttons - for WinXP. And THAT'S IT. I understand I'm going to be hunting around for INF files a LOT to work with drivers...but after the nvidia experience, I'm pretty frustrated and discouraged.

Oh and here's the laptop specifications (data from PC Wizard 2008 and CPU-Z):
Model: HP dv6407nr
Mobo: Quanta 30B7 - GeForce 6150/430
Proc: AMD Turion TK-53 @ 1.7GHz
Mem: 2x512MB Micron DDR2-667
GPU: GeForce Go 6150
HD: 160GB (think its IDE, XP immediately recognized the HD)
OddsnEnds: Lightscribe DVD burner, Bluetooth

I've looked around and there seems to be plenty of success with people and their HP laptops like the dv6500 series and such. But there doesnt seem to be anything on the internet in regards to the dv6407.

Any help will be truly appreciated.
Like, I'll be so happy I'll send you a box of cookies via UPS

 

Try the drivers listed under the dv6000z series since the dv6407nr is a sub model the dv6kz series...
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3224052&lang=en

As for as the graphics issues, I have found that the newer Nvidia drivers have problems installing on the Go 6150 in both Vista and XP. The newest stable driver I got installed on XP was 156.73 which was available on laptopvideo2go. Since its down if try the drivers from HP's website or even Windows Update should have the video drivers(86.22)

 

i think you can also find drivers in the xp installation thread

 

i'm trying those drivers out right now - thanks for the tip!

 

YAY!

Thanks a bunch miner! Simply using the drivers from HP worked out very well. Only thing I need to resolve now is sound, but I'll figure that one out later!

 

For audio make sure you have Microsoft UAA drivers before trying to install the Conexant audio drivers. This step is necessary in Win XP for the audio drivers to work.

 

I figured that one out since I was downgrading my own Dell Vostro 1400 to XP as well. Things are look great!

Yet again, thanks a bunch for the help

 

I have the same exact model (dv6607nr) but I can't get the audio device to work! Been pulling my hair out.

Was wondering if you could share how you got the audio to work. Thanks!