Downgrading Vista to Xp

[abotiz]

Hi! Like a million others I have problems downgrading Preinstalled computer with Vista to Xp.
And YES i have searched all over the internet for solution but not found any. If someone manages to find me a solution on the internet already for my problem Iam happy to transfer 10000000 dollars to that persons account, that sure am I about have read all solutions out there. I do not want to have vista and XP. Just Xp nothing else

Now to the Problem

I have a Hp Pavilion dv6 1100so

for the specs
HP Pavilion dv6-1100 Entertainment Notebook PC-serien specifikationer produkter - HP Hem och hemmakontoret

Notice " SATA Hard disk drive "

You know my Problems, now my attempts at solving this problem.

1) Inserted a Xp install disk sp1 and booted it. The computer loaded the disc and at the end of the screen wich loades the drivers from the Cd, the computer gave me the " blue screen of death.

2) Reformatted everything, the complete OS and all partions. And inserting Windows Xp install cd with Sp1. Blu Error Screen Again, at the same load screen.

3) Installed Vista again. Put in Xp install disc with Sp2, did not even load, all i saw was, " Press any key to boot disc.. " after i Pressed, it stayed black untill Bue error screen Showed up.

4) Formatted everything again. Put in the sp2 disk, same thing. I also want to mention that i burned the sp2 disc on a Dvd Rw. The sp1 disc was on a Cd R. ( but i did try the Dvd rw after i burned it and it did boot on my other computer )

5) Read the internet about SATA ( disabling it or something, cant remeber now) , okay i thought no problem, i entered bios setup " esc " and could not find anything with the word SATA. The only thing i could change was like the Clock and the priority in Booting things. This is were most pepole solve thier problem, they find this option to turn of something and they can install Xp.

6) Installed Vista again, read more about SATA drives (slipstreaming?) in the boot disc for xp. So i tried with this disc

Still did not work, same with the sp2 disc, it did not boot after the text " press any key to boot disc "

7) Formatted everything again and tried with the same cd, still the same.

Can my computer even install Xp?

I really need help with this. Please somebody

 

[KSoD]

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to use XP. Any machine built in the last year, it is highly unlikely that you will have the proper XP Drivers to run XP on that machine. Companies haev stopped making drivers for XP and as such it is getting harder and harder to try and get XP to work on newer machines.

You already know about the SATA Driver issue. Can try to fix that with nlite by creating a custom disk. But you may also need more. Like chipset drivers and sound drivers which you may not find.

I would not get your hopes up about getting XP installed. We have many topics of the sort around and almost all of them are ending up the same way. Going with Vista or Win7. Moving back to XP is hard with a pre-built as they dont support it anymore. Without their drivers, your XP experience will be worse.

 

[Hefemeister]

Did you find AHCI in your bios? You would want to set this to compatibility mode for xp to see the sata drive.

It seems to be very difficult to get all the xp drivers for this particular notebook.

Any reason you need to run xp?

Win7 is just around the corner and a great OS to consider.

 

[Lexluethar]

As Hef said the option you are looking for is AHCI, and you want to use the compatability mode. Which means it will interface with the OS as if it was an IDE drive instead of a SATA drive (meaning you won't get the speed of the SATA interface, at least that is my understanding).

Your other option is to install the SATA drivers for your MB. This is done by pressing F3 when the blue screen comes up that says 'press f3 for 3rd party drivers' or something like that. At that point you need to find the drivers for your MB and install them on a floppy OR USB drive, or you can slipstream them into the DVD (again i've only done this by using a floppy drive, so i'm unsure of the success rate putting these drivers on a USB drive or by slipstreaming them. At that point you install the drivers BEFORE installing the OS, then you should be able to install the OS without issue.

You probably already know this, but you may not be able to find all drivers for your machine since it was build for Vista. So video, audio, DVD, etc drivers may not be found for your system since it was build for Vista (literally meaning the drivers were built just for Vista and the manf. probably didn't make any that would work with XP).

You probably are already aware of this, but I just wanted to reitterate.

 

[abotiz]

Thanks for your reply folks! I have finally accepted that this is a impossible task, if not somebody makes a 3 party drivers for my computer to support Xp, but i doubt that will ever happen.

 

[Hefemeister]

It is not impossible just very hard. You have to find out what every component on your computer that requires drivers are and go to the manufactures website in hopes they have a xp driver for them.

If you have a specific program that requires xp then just run a VM on your machine.

If not, time to move on as xp will be dead at some point. SP2 made vista a much better OS and win7 is great.

 

[Lexluethar]

You can also make Vista 'act' and 'feel' like XP. Things like the security pops, glass interface, etc can all be turned off or tweaked so Vista acts more like XP.

But ya, drivers may be close to impossible to find. NOT impossible, i mean it really just depends on the manf. But if they don't make drivers for your hardware that works on XP then you're screwed. Also you won't be able to install the OS w/o either installing the MB SATA drive before installing XP or doing as Hef suggested change the bios settings.

 

[patonb]

Thre best question is... whats so bad with Vista? then we can help you..

 

[carnageX]

If you hate Vista so much, just wait for Win7 to be released on Oct. 22nd, and pick up a copy of that. Much better than either XP or Vista.

 

[abotiz]

My problem with vista is that it runs way to slow on my computer. I do not know what the manufacturers were thinking when they preinstalled vista on this model. Did they not test-run it to see how it worked? Its all the animations, Fade in/out ****. Extra crap like Media-center windows-mail. IE , windows media player ( in other words, every thing that you cant remove ). I have disabled them all in " services " but they still exist and use up memory somewhere. I personnaly Use Opera 10 and Media player classic. Simple and fast. And of course some games dont work in vista, but not a bigge, my biggest problem is how slow everything is. I have done most of the " tweaks " on vista so it runs "almost okay" but everything looks like windows 98. Anyways just wanted to say that i have given up on Xp and I have " come to term " with vista, and that I have been given this link in another forum, might help someone else out there.
General XP Downgrade Guide for HP Laptops_Part 3 - Operating systems and software - HP Support Forum

Thanks for your help and replies