I have an HP Slimline 3200n with AMD Athlon 64x2 dual core porcessor, NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE graphics, Super Mulit DVD Burner with Window Vista Home Premium (which sucks so much!!!!) I'm not worried about the monitor since I have a disk for that.
I want to down grade to XP but I'm a little leery of doing so. I've found some of the driver and chipsets for download and saved them to disk and also backed up my important files.
Just wondering if anyone has downgraded an HP slimline and if it worked or if anyone has any advice or suggestions.
Any help is much appreciated!
Don.
oh and PS, I have been to the HP website which of course recommends not downgrading, like I'm gonna live with crappy vista!
That's an ASUS mobo, the M2N61-AR - however ASUS does not list it in it's support, so it must be an HP-only model. With the chipset shown on the HP web site as an MCP61, you might try nVidea's tool to see if they support the chipset. Click on the motherboard drivers link on this page:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
As you looked at the HP page, you must have seen the various drivers - gForce 6150SE graphics, nvidia networking, Realtek HD audio, Conexant modem, Gemtek wireless (if present). I've set up several of these as office workstations (with Vista - not downgrades). They work pretty good if they are stripped down to classic mode and all Vista "attributes" are turned off.
Yeah, I've been there and to many other sites. I've found that I need to create an MS DOS boot disk but this doesn't do me any good since they don't work, I get some sort of "BANANA" error when looking for drivers or whatever, its been very annoying and I've broken a few CD's over all of this.
Banana errors? Even "monkeying around" with computers for all the years I have, I've never seen anything like that.
when you get down to the nitty-gritty of downgrading pc's that were made for vista your going to come across usually just a few things that just dont work in XP i have found mostly wireless network drivers are not available in my experience. and it becomes a matter of when you do it can you live without or work around the devices that just dont work. you can usually find a pcmcia card to replace what doesnt work.
you should also note that since you have a dual core x64 bit system with a 32bit win XP you are not going to be using the full potential of the system. (since windows XP is so much less of a resource hog i dont think you will notice much) unless you really crunch some numbers in say intense graphics or games or something like 3d rendering (ie cad)
the ms boot disk will be needed to add your sata driver to.
if you try to install windows xp without it you may find that the xp install does not see your sata drive.
best bet is log on to nvidia and use the option 2 auto detect motherboard drivers
no need to download them as they will be for vista look at the top of the screen and see what set of drivers its offered you.
nforce 4 or 5 whatever.
go back to the download section at nvidia.
now call up the same nforce set for xp.
so if nvidia say nforce 410, 430 for vista you tell the download the same set for windows xp.
download that set and unpack it and you should find the sata driver sitting in the unpacked driver files.
you need to copy the sata files ( not the folder )to the floppy
then when xp gets to press F6 to install a controller you do that shove the floppy in the drive and push enter.
xp should load up the driver and carry on with its install.
Just completed an XP upgrade from Vista. Works like charm. -Most drivers you can find on NVidia website ..the wireless card went in through windows update... The only real issue is the modem but I probably didnt try hard enough.
the ms boot disk will be needed to add your sata driver to.
if you try to install windows xp without it you may find that the xp install does not see your sata drive.
best bet is log on to nvidia and use the option 2 auto detect motherboard drivers
no need to download them as they will be for vista look at the top of the screen and see what set of drivers its offered you.
nforce 4 or 5 whatever.
go back to the download section at nvidia.
now call up the same nforce set for xp.
so if nvidia say nforce 410, 430 for vista you tell the download the same set for windows xp.
download that set and unpack it and you should find the sata driver sitting in the unpacked driver files.
you need to copy the sata files ( not the folder )to the floppy
then when xp gets to press F6 to install a controller you do that shove the floppy in the drive and push enter.
xp should load up the driver and carry on with its install.
Does the Slimline come with a Floppy Drive? How else can you load the Sata driver from disk? I'm waiting for my s3300z Slimline to be shipped.
Thanks.
the ms boot disk will be needed to add your sata driver to.
if you try to install windows xp without it you may find that the xp install does not see your sata drive.
best bet is log on to nvidia and use the option 2 auto detect motherboard drivers
no need to download them as they will be for vista look at the top of the screen and see what set of drivers its offered you.
nforce 4 or 5 whatever.
go back to the download section at nvidia.
now call up the same nforce set for xp.
so if nvidia say nforce 410, 430 for vista you tell the download the same set for windows xp.
download that set and unpack it and you should find the sata driver sitting in the unpacked driver files.
you need to copy the sata files ( not the folder )to the floppy
then when xp gets to press F6 to install a controller you do that shove the floppy in the drive and push enter.
xp should load up the driver and carry on with its install.