I have bought a secondhand hp compaq nx 8220 and am wondering about the windows installation. I understand they come out of the shops with windows pre-installed but is it a 'hp modified version'. The reason i ask is that there is a lot of utilities etc for a basic windows installation including hp credential security to name but one

As the system is slightly unstable, occasional random crashes, wont save any settings on shutdown and comes up with a profile error on boot up, can i install my own version of xp.

Therre does not appear to be a recovery partition and i never recieved any discs.

many thanks in advance for any assistance
Regards
Dave

Hello,

Im not much of a computer person, but i found this via a google search (this is not my words)

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum...fm/838268.html

"Few things we should cover 1st.

1: Installing xp on this new laptop will likely void the warranty (it sounds dumb i know but it does).
2: When he 1st got the pc he should have been able to make a recover disc (built of the recover partition). So many people ignore this but they shouldn't.

Now on to the issue. No removing the recover partition will not brick the pc. You are correct it it like any other Partition. However you don't have to remove the recovery partition, you can leave it alone and install xp on the partition vista is currently using.

The next issue will be to make sure that your cousin can acquire the drivers needed for this HP laptop. Check the HP website to see if they have windows xp drivers, or do they only have windows vista drivers. This is a key issue as you don't want to install xp and suddenly realize you have no audio drivers.

those that the main things you should be looking at /thinking about with your cousin. But what he/she wants do it is possible. "

Im not sure if it relates to what you want but i hope it helps,

Gog.