Downgrading from Vista to XP

Samsung

I am going to downgrade from Vista to XP.
My laptop just arrived today and it has

4 gigs of ram
Dual core processor 2.1ghz

What version of xp do you recommend?

MooseJam

I recommend vista 64 bit, there is no reason to downgrade with that laptop

PogMoThoin

Why downgrade, most of the kinks are Ironed out by now? Upgrade Vista to Service Pack 1 through Windows Update, this fixes most of the speed problems. Vista will feel slow and will have extra hard drive activity for the first few days till it has all the files indexed, then it will be fine.

I'm running 64bit here and there's no way I'm goin back to Xp, prefetch is great, my usual programs open instantly, much faster than Xp.

Samsung

I just prefer XP Moosejam.
Should i look for a 64 bit version of XP Pro.
Will it be real fast because of the 4 gigs of ram and the dual core processor?

AlmightyCushion

XP 64 bit is shíte. Driver support is woeful.

the_syco

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

XP 64 bit is shíte. Driver support is woeful.

I beg to differ. Until my mobo died at 31 months, I never had a problem.

xbox36016

vista 64bit

Gadgetman496

Samsung wrote: »

I am going to downgrade from Vista to XP.
My laptop just arrived today and it has

4 gigs of ram
Dual core processor 2.1ghz

What version of xp do you recommend?

Check to make sure that you can get the necessary XP drivers for your model laptop. Some of the newer laptops have never had XP drivers written for them, so don't get caught.

I wouldn't recommend XP 64. If you can go back, stick with the 32bit XP.

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tribulus

Could someone briefly explain the differences or pros/cons of 32bit vs 64bit?

I have no idea about their significance.

Edit: Microsoft answered it for me.

Samsung

Hey lads, cheers for the responses..

I think i am going to have to look into this a bit more..
Here are the specs on the machine

Base Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.1 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache,)
Memory 4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
Video Card 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450
Hard Drive 320GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows Vista SP1™ Home Premium - English

If i revert back to XP 32 or 64.. Will the machine be running at optimom levels?
Will i be taking advantage of the machine or can xp only hack half the ram?

Pog mentioned above that "Vista will feel slow and will have extra hard drive activity for the first few days till it has all the files indexed, then it will be fine. "

I only started using it yesterday and the fan on the machine has bee on quite a bit, more than expected. Is this normal? Also if i am playing music (winamp) and opening and closing windows, the music seems to skip like it is on a record player. Is this normal?

Anti

Samsung wrote: »

Hey lads, cheers for the responses..

I think i am going to have to look into this a bit more..
Here are the specs on the machine

Base Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.1 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 3 MB L2 Cache,)
Memory 4096MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
Video Card 256MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3450
Hard Drive 320GB (5.400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows Vista SP1™ Home Premium - English

If i revert back to XP 32 or 64.. Will the machine be running at optimom levels?
Will i be taking advantage of the machine or can xp only hack half the ram?

Pog mentioned above that "Vista will feel slow and will have extra hard drive activity for the first few days till it has all the files indexed, then it will be fine. "

I only started using it yesterday and the fan on the machine has bee on quite a bit, more than expected. Is this normal? Also if i am playing music (winamp) and opening and closing windows, the music seems to skip like it is on a record player. Is this normal?

The new intel laptop chips run very hot, so its quite normal for the the fan to be on alot.

If you downgrade to xp 64bit you wont get drivers for most of your hardware. Stay with vista 64bit, ive been using it for over 18 months now and would never go back.

As for the music skipping, that should not happen at all. Try a better media player then winamp.

100gSoma

would benice to see a benchmark tool run on the same laptop. once with xp and once with vista...
don't know much about it myself but it does seem to be that the majority are in favour of keeping vista home premium on the laptop?

Gadgetman496

What make/model is the laptop?

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Samsung

Dell Studio 15

Gadgetman496

Samsung wrote: »

Dell Studio 15

Handy enough to check the driver availability.

Just put your TAG number into their downloads section & see if all the necessary XP drivers are available.

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=gen

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Samsung

Thanks Gman, worth a look.

PaddyTheNth

Bear in mind that you won't be utilising all 4GB of RAM with a 32-bit OS. This is because the OS can only address 4GB of memory in total, and it needs to allocate some of that space to things like PCI devices...so a corresponding amount of RAM will be left unused as the OS doesn't have room to map it. (This is only an approximate explanation, and I'm aware it can be explained much better).

There's a good thread here which I found useful when looking at this issue a while ago.

A 64-bit OS can address much more memory, ~128GB IIRC, so you don't run into the same issues with those systems.

As has been said, you'd want to check driver support before moving to 64-bit. From what I've heard, Vista had better 64-bit driver support than XP, but that's purely anecdotal.

Gadgetman496

Samsung wrote: »

Thanks Gman, worth a look.

According to Dells site there is no support for XP or XP drivers for the studio 15.

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PogMoThoin

There's your answer, stick with Vista. It will get faster when its indexed and pre-fetch is just magical, for me firefox is nearly open before i even click the shortcut

Gadgetman496

Here's an article from a guy who downgraded his Vista Laptop without checking first.

It may still be possible, but is it worth the grief?

If anyone really wants XP on a new Laptop (and it is still available on many if you ask, you might even need to push the issue a bit ) make sure to check driver availability before you purchase.

http://www.thorschrock.com/2007/04/03/think-again-if-you-plan-to-remove-vista-and-install-xp-on-a-laptop/

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Anti

Also, as you notices dells site does not differentiate between 32 and 64bit xp.... but it does for vista.

If you have to throw another os on it just horse ubuntu or soemthing on it.

Samsung

Well lads, thanks for the advice.
I am going to give Vista a go for a while and see how i am getting on.
I do have a few issues with it.

1. My music (winamp) is always catching up with itself when there is any activity on the machine.
2. The control bar will disappear randomly.
3. Firefox and windows explorer has crashed twice each for the last 2 days (i only have it 2 days).

I am running vista home 32bit.

daveharnett

Samsung wrote: »

1. My music (winamp) is always catching up with itself when there is any activity on the machine.

Sounds like the buffer is running out before winamp can get hard drive access. Try increasing the buffer size?

Samsung

PaddyTheNth wrote: »

Bear in mind that you won't be utilising all 4GB of RAM with a 32-bit OS. This is because the OS can only address 4GB of memory in total, and it needs to allocate some of that space to things like PCI devices...so a corresponding amount of RAM will be left unused as the OS doesn't have room to map it. (This is only an approximate explanation, and I'm aware it can be explained much better).

There's a good thread here which I found useful when looking at this issue a while ago.

A 64-bit OS can address much more memory, ~128GB IIRC, so you don't run into the same issues with those systems.

As has been said, you'd want to check driver support before moving to 64-bit. From what I've heard, Vista had better 64-bit driver support than XP, but that's purely anecdotal.

Thanks for the info. I am going to look into this at the weekend.

Spiritine

Samsung wrote: »

Hey lads, cheers for the responses..

Also if i am playing music (winamp) and opening and closing windows, the music seems to skip like it is on a record player. Is this normal?

Is this on battery or plugged in?

Ive an xpsm1710 laptop and it dosnt perform as good on battery as plugged in, your probleby in the same boat...

As reguards ur OS, ide recommend vista, It is very easy to navigate and networking is great over xp, i have both 32bit and 64bit of it, 32 on laptop, 64 on pc, im well happy with it, dont think you need to downgrade to xp;)

Spiritine

Samsung wrote: »

1. My music (winamp) is always catching up with itself when there is any .

Try install the latest sound drivers,sorted my problem, i had a similar problem with media player, sounds took up on a minute to start, might work


By the way people talking about dell alot, i didnt see if you said it was a dell or not(havnt time 2 read all posts but wanted 2 post a tip), but if this is a new dell u bought, You need to send it right back to them if its crashing on you! pronto!, and if its not, nvm that but u should take it back 2 where u bought it

Samsung

Cheers guys, I downgraded to XP in the end.
I really wanted vista to work out but i would get a blue screen a day, Windows explorer would crash at least 4 times a day and firefox would crash a handful of times. I tried to reinstall vista but it didn't make a difference. I am happy enough with XP, i know what i am doing on it and it is 100 times faster than my last laptop. The only issue i have at the moment is trying to find the drivers. I had to go to the Chinese dell site to find most of them. I have about 5 more to get but i havent a clue what they are for.
Also, i installed the graphics driver which only semi works. Do i need catalyst or something like that to run it fully. It seems a bit grainy at the moment..