I want my life back...

lol what a good way to start my first post =P Anyway, I just got my laptop HP DV2412ca Here is the is the specs. for those wondering what it has http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01062865&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=3443967&rule=11211&lang=en Aside from that i'm tired of this uber vista. I would like my xp back, yes i have done some reading before posting and i'm aware that it needs drivers to be downloaded. But if i format the whole main drive and HP_Recovery Will i be ok? or will the laptop start acting weird? I have created the recovery discs and it took 2 dvds. Aside from that say i'm already on xp and for some reason i want back on vista. Will it install vista again? with the recovery discs i made as well create the same partitions? I also am aware that i have to allocate 1gb for quickplay and not make that partition active as from what i read it will make its one once quickplay is installed on xp. Any help would be greatly appreciated to save me from this OS that I belive should have never been shipped with this laptop.

 

ok i think i'm about to freak i just went to the xp download section for this laptop model and all i found was the touchpad drivers. Any clue where i can locate the rest?

 

why not just fully disable the uac and then see how you like it??

 

paragraphs help considerably

so what is it you want to do? format and install xp? is thats it.

 

Try google.

Otherwise, maybe XP doesn't need to install very many drivers for your computer. Unless you are running a RAID array (I don't think you are), then it should install just fine. The GPU driver would be available from ATI or if you own an Nvidia card, laptopvideo2go.com

Sound drivers might be problematic if the initial driver XP chooses doesn't work.

 

Did you save the SWSetup directory in a DVD or CD. All the drivers should be there. XP will hopefully detect the drivers if not install it from there. Good luck.

 

where is the SWSetup and how can i back it up

 

Why do you want to jump back to XP even without giving Vista a chance?. What exactly is the problem ? Performance ? compatibility or the annoying UAC and other new security stuff ?

 

performance. >.< thats what bugs me the most. especially on a cut down turion...

 

Your processor should be fine for Vista, although some more RAM would benefit you.

Anyway, if you want to improve Vista performance, MS has a hotfix that addresses memory usage and some other performance issues.
Other things that could improve performance and make it more XP-like:
- Turn off Aero
- Turn off desktop search
- Turn off the sidebar
- Set Defender to scan once a week (instead of daily... I'm not sure which is the default on Vista)
- Uninstall any unused programs (i.e. bloatware)
- Run msconfig and get rid of unused programs
- Try some of the tweaks in the Vista tweak sticky thread in this forum

But if you're sure you want XP... try asking in the HP forum... you'll probably have better luck there regarding the HP drivers, quickplay, etc. Or search the forums... zillions of people have the HP dv series laptops and I'm sure some of them have gone back to XP.

 

I´m getting your point downgrading to XP. With the specs of your laptop Vista won´t be too fast....

Here´s the XP driver for the graphics card:
http://www.nodevice.com/driver/GeForce_6150/get37219.html

The sound card could be a thing that needs a special driver package. Try to specify the model name of this Altec Lansing/Conexant card and you´ll find the drivers.

Installing Vista back shouldn´t be too hard with the recovery discs.

 

The SWSetup is under it's own directory if you go to Windows Explorer. Don't know why you would want to go to XP unless you're a real hard gamer and lots of software incompatibilities otherwise Vista is fine.

 

HP has all the drivers you need in the main series(dv2000z) download section....
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?product=3177437&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&cc=us

The only thing which might have trouble installing would be the webcam, audio(make sure you install the MS UAA drivers before installing the audio/modem drivers) which might or might not work. Some people have used a workaround to fix the webcam issues. Search through the HP section for more info.