Upgrading from WinXPhome to WinXPPro after purchas

I am looking at buying a custom configured Presario R3000Z for college online. I get as part of my tuition Win XP Professional and Office XP through the MSCA. I need to run both to connect to the campus network and do assignments for my classes.
It is my understanding that I would not be able to restore the HP/Compaq rescue software, if I saved money and bought a laptop with Win XP home and then wiped the HD and installed Win XP Pro, XP Office, and the rest of my software.
Is this true? Does anyone have experience with this? Should I just pay more to have XP Pro pre-installed and then install the rest of my software? Is the HP/Compaq resccue software really that necessary?
Brian

 

Officially, well this is what the r3000z getting started guide says:
-----------------------------------------------------------
CAUTION: Replacing an operating system that is enhanced by
Compaq with a retail version will result in the loss of all Compaq
enhancements. In some cases, the loss of these enhancements might
result in an unresponsive system or the loss of complete USB support.

A Windows operating system provided on the notebook or on
a CD is optimized by Compaq to improve overall system
performance. Compaq recommends that you do not install a retail
version in place of this operating system.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Thats better than what the zx5000 getting started guide says: installing a retail version of windows voids your warranty.

Anyway... you can do as you said and it should work out fine since you can just goto the R3000z downloads page and download all the "Compaq enhancements" (read drivers).

 

Basicly HP does not support loading any other operating system on your notebook than what came with it. If you do, you may be requested to restore your os back to the original os before we can do any type of troubleshooting.

It is like buying a chevy cavalier and then ripping out the engine and installing a V8 from one of the trucks. If you start having problems, you can't take it back to chevy to get a warranty repair, even if the v8 may be one of the options when you order it.

Josh

 

I'm not saying it can't be done, nor that it is improbable to do, nor will it likely create any issues whatsoever. HOWEVER, our support boundaries(the rules we HAVE to follow or we get fired) state that we are not supposed to support any other os on the notebook except what came with it. Doesn't mean we usually won't try to help you as much as we can. We just can't support it, that is all.

Besides, if you know enough to need XP Pro for the features that distinguish it from XP Home, you shouldn't need to call tech support.

Josh

edit: spelling

 

Yes, but y'all need to learn to ignore that rule when troubleshooting things that have nothing to do with the OS. I spent a great deal of time with HP support (American, not Indian) on a memory corruption issue that MemTest86+ identified (boots off CD, doesn't so much as touch the HD much less the OS) and they had me install WinXP SP2 RC1 and do all sorts of other crap with Windows that was completely irrelevant. The problem turned out to be exactly what I first told them it was: HP's BIOS needed fixing (problems reportedly disappeared after R.12 came out, I solved the problem by hunting down Micron-based SODIMMs). Mind you, just using two Infineon SODIMMs triggered this problem so long as at least one was larger than 256MB, including some 2x512MB Infineon stick systems that HP shipped! I gave HP very early warning of this problem and they had no idea how to handle it.

Now, the techs were honestly trying, but suffice it to say that the Indians aren't the only ones who need a helluva lot more training.

 

*sigh*

do you ppl not have gidelines at work???

do you follow them?


we do too! and we have to follow them just like any other person






I'd rather be skateboarding