HP laptop with Vista Home Premium convert to Ultimate?

i just got my new DV9700t HP laptop with Vista Home Premium. during Christmas time a friend of mine gave me a brand new Vista Ultimate. can i use it to redo my system to run Ultimate?

i think i remember reading a thread here a few weeks back that HP laptops prevent you from doing this. is that true?

also is it really a huge difference that i should even consider this?

 

sure you can i did it to my dv2500. had home premium went to ultimate 64. i noticed a huge difference when i did it, probably because i went from 32 to 64 and the fact it was my 1st clean install. no hp crap software. when i did it vista found all my drivers for everything, all the hp buttons the remote in the side, the webcam, wireless video audio drivers. i think ultimate is bigger but if you have the space why not

this is what your gaining

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx

if i didn't get it for free i never would have upgraded you don't gain too much.

 

Yes, you can install it, and no, HP does nothing to prevent this (that would be very stupid). You might find my clean install guide helpful (in my sig).

Here are a few things to think about:

• You have an OEM version of Vista on your laptop now, and it cannot be installed on any other computer
• If your Ultimate version is a Retail license, then you can remove it and install it on another computer later if you want to.

So if you get another computer you can remove ultimate from the laptop and you'll have to reinstall home premium. If you use ABR in my guide to backup your activation and product key, you'll be able to restore home premium at a later time to that laptop if you ever need to.

 

this is very good news. thanks guys but i have 3 other questions now.
1. what about the fingerprinting feature? will this still work?
2. my laptop has a 2.2 intel duo. will this chip support 64bit?
3. my laptop did NOT come with cd but instead it made me create recover disk (2-DVD-DL). it says that this will put me right back to factory install.

 

Please follow through my guide, many of your questions are answered there. The only differences are:

• You will want to enter your Ultimate product key when you are asked for it the first time
• You will not be using ABR to restore your activation, you will be using your own Ultimate key instead.

Also, remember that doing any sort of reinstall will delete all of your data, so make sure to back everything up first!

Answers to your questions:
1. The software and driver are in c:\swsetup
2. If your CPU is the T7500, then yes, 64bit will work
3. Recovery discs will not help you to install ultimate, but you should have the discs you got as your gift. You can keep the recovery discs in case you need them someday.

 

here is the fingerprint reader software when redid my pc i had the drivers but not software. i couldn't get the reader to work without it. here it is. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=ob-49006-1&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&dlc=en&lang=en

these should be the correct 64 bit fingerprint reader drivers, don't worry about the model number the drivers are all the same.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3645849&os=2100&lang=en

im using 64 bit right now and my reader works fine. if that means anything to you lol

 

awsome im readying it now. very informative and yes my CPU is T7500. so im good there.

OREV i have a question about your process to install. when you mention that the HP recover is not as good. i didnt see what was my other option. can you please explain?

 

If you purchased recovery discs from HP they may not work correctly. There are some threads here with people who tried to use them and they did not work. I have seen a very recent report that HP has fixed that and the new ones are working. If you burned them yourself (instead of buying them), they should work for you (but you probably won't ever need them once you have done a clean install).

 

i just read your "Clean Vista Install" awesome info very detailed i think you for it, Hell we all thank you for it. But i still have one more question. is there issues with drivers and software like the finger printing from 32bit to 64bit? which is what im planning to do.
i was happy to read that all of those features will still work provided all drivers and software’s are installed for it. but i never noticed if jumping from 32bit to 64bit would by any issues.

 

i gave you everything for 64 bit. i switched my laptop from 32 to 64 works fine

 

oops i guess i missed that some how. thank you. i guess im all set to do my switch. thank you all for you help

 

Since HP offers the 64bit version of Vista as an option, that means that any/all hardware that is inside the laptop will be supported for 64 bit. That includes drivers and support software.

The only drivers you need to be concerned with are external ones, like printer, scanner, PDA, etc.. Many other devices like mouse, usb drives, etc... use generic drivers and should also work fine too.

 

if you follow the steps exactly it works perfectly however i have one item in my device manager that i cant get to read a driver and im not sure what it is.

on Intel(R) ICH8M-E LPC Interface Controlle
Orev can you help?

 

You need to install the intel chipset drivers. There are 2 intel drivers, the Integrated graphics, which you only need if you have the x3100 video card, and also the intel chipset drivers, which you always need.