I think you may have to reformat and install XP if you want to use XP on that computer. I'm currently unaware of a capability to switch back to XP or downgrade. Microsoft just wont do that sort of stuff. It may be different if Circuit City upgraded the laptop's OS to Vista from XP, but honestly it would be like having an XP computer and being able to downgrade to Windows 2k. unfortunately it sounds as if you don't have an XP disk. taking the laptop back and returning it sounds like the best idea.
