Can I switch from vista 64 bit to windows xp?

Hey guys I'm new to this site and I'm trying to find out if I can switch to windows pro sp3 from vista 64 bit. I'm having so much trouble with this vista and I need to switch to a different os. I wanting to switch to Xp pro sp3 if possible.
Thanks.

 

Yes, you can.

 

So if I'm running 64 bit vista right now I can switch to 32 bit xp pro sp3?
Thanks for the fast reply.

 

Yes, you can, by formatting and installing Windows XP from scratch.

 

Look for drivers for Windows XP for your computer first though.. or you might have a bit of trouble getting back on the internet.

 

What's the term formatting mean? Backing up all your data so when you switch you still have it? If yes I have done that.
So would I just buy windows xp sp3 and put it in and start the install?
Thanks for your help +rep

 

Where would I look for drivers? Dell.com ?

 

Why do you want XP?
Vista is an excellent OS. What problems are you having with it?

 

support.dell.com

 

I always get the blue screen of death and stuff after I turn my computer on and stuff, then I gotta turn it back on and what not its just getting old.
Then sometimes I turn my computer on and its just a black screen and I gotta restart again
Then it dissconnects me from the internet always when I don't do anything and it isn't my WiFi or anything.
It's just getting old, these are some of the problems lol

 

That's not a problem with Vista, that's a problem with either your drivers or your hardware.

 

Would I reinstall? I have been hearing the same thing from others.

 

Sounds like you possibly have a RAM issue.

Define 'black screen'. Is it the BIOS screen does not appear?

It isn't a feature or flaw of Vista that is disconnecting your Wi-Fi.

 

No I get booted up and I meant blue screen, it says it shouts down so no more damage happens....
Happens like twice a day
Thanks for da help.

 

Vista's "flaws" are overhyped. Do you really think that MS would ship an OS that crashes that much in this day and age? I've been using Vista X64 for a solid year and have had ONE BSOD ever. And that was my own fault, messing around with unsupported video drivers.

Sometimes, manufacturers ship systems with incompatible drivers, which cause problems like you are describing. Even worse, other times manufacturers ship systems with hardware that is not compatible with Vista. These two things are where the bad press for Vista came from.

What you are describing sounds very much like a RAM issue, or a driver issue for either your chipset or GPU.
What is the stop code on those bluescreens? (Will looks like 0x00000000)

 

No, formatting, in this context, means, in layman's terms, deleting everything on the disk and preparing it for installing an OS, with no trace of the previous OS left. So your backing up the data will help you, since after you've installed XP, you can put it back.

Yes.

No, it doesn't.

 

I will pay attention to the stop code next time it happens.
Also what would be the easiest way to make this problem go away? Just reinstall os to xp or vista again?

 

It depends on the problem. If it's the drivers, then you won't have to re-install the OS, but just install the latest drivers. If it's the hardware, you'd have to replace that. If it's you, you'd have to respawn again. So the next time it occurs, write down everything you see on the screen and post it here.

 

ok thanks for the help next time the problem occurs I will write down everything on the screen.
Thanks to everything.

 

i am with hep! here, vista is not xp, there is some relearning, there are quirks, it is (slightly) slower, but it does not crash. drivers, malware from dodgy sites, suspect torrent programs, randomly clicking on stuff as administrator can make it unstable. do you have a recovery partition? check the laptop manual. backup your own data first. maybe a clean install of vista is all you need. as always, if you provide some specs, laptop model and os, at least, that will also help people answer.

 

ok just I just got the problem again, the stop code is 0x0000001E

I'm running vista 64 bit and I have a Dell laptop is a XPS M1330.
Memory:4 GB
2.00 Ghz

Let me know if you need more information, thanks.

 

There should be some more information, like, for example -

 

aww I didn't write that down, ill do that next time
Thanks tho

 

you can find that info afterwards in the event manager for easy copy-paste. at least you should be able to find it there...

 

As suspected, that code relates to faulty video drivers.
Does your M1330 have an nVidia GPU by chance? You might have a dying GPU...

Either way, I would suggest you uninstall the nVidia drivers and install the latest drivers from nvidia.com or laptopvideo2go.com, and see if the problem persists.

 

what u could do and some might agree and some might disagree. But that is make your laptop into a dual boot system. there is threads on here for making a dual boot system.
i also went from vista to xp one problem i have had since doing that is not all of my ram shows in the system control panel on xp pro 32 bit. the solution to that is xp pro 64 bit

make sure u have your harddrive's controller driver search through the threads for info on dual booting , shrinking vista, createing a partition,and installing the second os onto your computer. anymore questions jsut ask that is what we all are here for.

here is one to help u out

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

 

that's all just too radical for just fixing a broken driver / detecting broken hw. and chances are big, it wouldn't even fix anything..

 

Agree fully here. A dual boot will solve nothing here, it would just offer... a dual boot.

 

the person wants to put xp on his computer. thats why i left it he can put it in as a dual boot till he findis all his drivers then delete vista if he wishes thats all i am saying

 

ne, the person wants his bugs fixed. chances are big, going to xp doesn't help AT ALL.

one should not always just read what a person sais, but ask, what the problem really is.

 

I tried searching for "event manger" on my computer and I couldn't find it...were would I find it?

Here are some stop codes I'm getting.

STOP: 0x00000019 (0x0000000000000020, 0FFFFFA800C6940A0, 0xFFFFFA800C694AB0, 0X0000000004A10007 )

Other one:

STOP: 0x00000050 (0xFFFFFA8209CA300E, 0X0000000000000000, 0XFFFFFA6000C6A205, 0X0000000000000005)

I think I wrote and typed those in correctly.

Thanks to everyone that is helping me, I really appreciate this.

 

what operateing system are you useing?

 

You're getting various BSODs, I think it's a memory problem. In fact, most of those BSODs relate to faulted memory.
Download memtest+, burn the .iso, boot from it and let it run overnight. If you see any red, you've got a problem!

Click the above link
Click "Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)"
Extract the .zip, there is an .iso inside.
Burn the iso to a CD with your favorite burning software. I prefer IMGburn but almost anything (besides the one built into Windows...) will work.
Turn off the computer.
Turn on the computer, tap F12 to enter the boot menu.
Choose your optical drive.
The disc will boot, let it do its thing. If you have lots of red blocks right away, that's an easy confirmation. Let it run overnight, come back in the morning. If you have more than one error you've got bad memory.

PS - To get to the event viewer, right click "My Computer," click "Manage," click "Event viewer" on the left hand pane, then click "Windows logs" right after that.
PPS- Do you have an nVidia M1330?


@randallrivy11 - He's using Vista X64, as stated in the topic title.
@Silas Awaketh - Why doesn't this sound like a RAM issue to you?

 

How would I fix "Bad Memory" if I do indeed have that problem?

 

If you're under warranty, Dell will do it all for you. If not...
Replacing the memory is the only fix. Fortunately in the M1330 that's a cost of MAX 60 bucks for 2x2GB PC5300/PC6400, which assumes both sticks are bad and you want to put 4GB in it, and it's like 3 screws and one door to access the memory. If that's the case, I'll walk you through it, but let's not get ahead of ourselves... let's first find out if it's bad memory, and if it is, which module is bad.

 

careful about 2 posts back to back might wanna go delete one of those they get testy about it.

also to find your event viewer click start then search and type in 'event viewer' without the quotation marks and click search it should locate it for you.

 

I just burned the .iso on a CD, so all I do is let it run overnight? What do I look for?

 

here is some info i found on those two error codes that you posted it's a lot of reading but it may help put some

http://www.google.com/search?q=STOP...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

http://www.google.com/search?q=STOP...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

 

I generally let a memtest run overnight to be sure it's all good. 7 passes is what I shoot for, with 4GB of RAM in 8 hours you're more likely to hit around 3-4 passes.
In the morning, it will looks like one of these two pictures:
(except pass will have a number greater than zero, I estimated above 3-4)

OR


If you have any red like this and it has a number greater than 0 under "errors" the memory has a problem. If this is the case, you'll want to note some information.
See where it says "failing address?" That's where exactly the memory is bad.
You'll want to provide us with the exact memory configuration you have - how much RAM, how many DIMMs, what DIMM configuration (ie, if you have 3 GB, 1GB in DIMM 0 + 2GB in DIMM 1 is not the same as 2GB in DIMM 0 and 1GB in DIMM 1) as well as the failing address (not the hex code, the MB mark).
Say I have a computer with 2x1GB of RAM, and it fails a whole bunch at 852MB. I then know that the 1GB stick in DIMM 0 is bad.
Once you feel confident you've weeded out the bad stick, you run another memtest. If you fail, swap stick and memtest again. If you pass, great!
Also, if you fail with the two stick and pass with one, there is some more troubleshooting to do... I will go over it all as we get there.

 

I would suggest making a list of all your hardware and the driver version. then going to hardware manufacturer and see the driver version of their latest driver for that hardware. Dell does not have the latest drivers on their website for all their hardware. Intel has newer drivers for chipset, wireless card, turbo cache memory. laptopvideo2go has latest mobile drivers for nvidia, Upek has latest drivers for fingerprint reader. I was very disappointed with my oem setup of xps m1530 with vista ultimate x86. I purchased new harddrive and installed vista ultimate x64, leaving my oem setup on oem harddrive. After tweaking it with nbr vista tweaks, installing the latest drivers, and of course increasing ram to 8 gb, I do not have any lockups, bsod's, or any other problems for that matter. You can go to driveragent.com and let it scan your lappy and you will be surprised on how many old drivers you have. You dont have to subscribe to their services, just
go to the manufacturers site and download the latest drivers and update them.

 

"Hep!" you are one helpful person, I will let it sit overnight and take a picture in the morning and post it here.
Thanks.

 

No problem, see you in the morning I guess.
Actually I get to sleep in on Saturdays, might be afternoon

 

Alright, the pass just completed; I let it run for 10 hours and 20 minutes and there were no errors.

 

Good news: You don't have bad memory
Bad news: Back to the drawing board.

Time to answer the question- what GPU is in your laptop?
It's either GMA X3100 (P965GM) or nVidia 8400M GS.

 

I'm what you guys probably consider a "noob" I have no idea how to find that information out. Would it say it on the back of the laptop?

 

Boot into Windows
Start > Run > Dxdiag
Click display tab
What's under "chip type"

ALTERNATE METHOD:
Right click my computer, hit properties
Click device manager
What is listed under "Display adapters"?

 

Chip Type: Mobile Inter(R) 965 Express Chipset Family

 

Alright, so you've got Intel X3100 graphics.
I'm going to have you uninstall your chipset and GPU drivers and re-install the newest versions, see if that solves your problems.
Give me a bit to write up how to do all of that.

 

same chipset as my other computer has i do believe

 

First, we want to remove the drivers you currently have installed.
Start > Control Panel
Click classic view on the left hand pane
Click programs and features
Look for anything mentioning Intel Graphics Accelerator. I haven't had a system with Intel GMA in a long time so I honestly don't remember what it's called. It may not even be listed in programs and features.
If it's not...

Right click my computer, hit properties
Click device manager
Click display adapters
Right click "Mobile Intel 965 Graphics Accelerator" (or something along those lines, it will be the ONLY thing under display adapters!)
Click "uninstall"
Check off the "delete the driver software for this device" box if you have it, and click OK.
Don't be alarmed, your screen may revert to some crappy resolution at some point after this, we will fix it at the end.
Reboot, then move on to the steps below.

Next, we want to install the new drivers.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/con...00&DwnldId=17409&strOSs=&OSFullName=&lang=eng

Download and install that. Reboot.
If your resolution is still bad you can right click the desktop, click personalize, click display settings, then drag the slider around to adjust the resolution (press apply when done)
Hopefully we'll have solved your issues!