Hi all,
Got a friends laptop with Vista on it. She bought this low spec, 1gb memory and it's very slow.

So, i fixed one before, by putting XP on it, but this one won't let me ( can't put an older OS on etc etc ).

Any workarounds? There is the format option but i'd rather just get it to boot from cd ( XP ) if i can.

Cheers, Dave.

Its getting to where a downgrade isn't a good idea. For one thing if there are no XP drivers for that computer there isn't a lot that you can do with it. You'll have terrible graphics, no internet, no sound, etc. You didn't mention the make/model so I can't check to see if there are any. As for why it won't let you, I'm suspecting that you are trying to use a disk from another manufacturer and you can't do that. If it is a disk from another manufacturer not only is it illegal to put it in another computer (especially if it is installed on another computer...please tell me that you aren't trying to do that) but in many cases disks are blocked from being used on a computer from another manufacturer. In addition disks from other manufacturers are designed for their systems and in some cases for a particular model and shouldn't be used on other computers because those disks usually come with drivers for the computer with which it came. In short you will have to buy an XP retail disk and of course that is only useful if there are drivers for XP. Now yes that computer doesn't have enough ram for Vista and that is probably why it is slow but why not upgrade your ram?

Hi, yes sorry,

it's an Advent T1600 (also says on the back Advent 5711..) laptop - CPU 1.66ghz, memory 1024mb, 32 bit operating system?!

I have my own retail windows xp disk.

Yes, i'd also rather just upgrade the ram, but am unsure on how to go about this and how much it would cost.
Cheers, Dave.

Sorry if that isn't your problem then I don't know what is but what is your error? I can't figure out if there are official drivers either. There are a bunch of sites that have similar names.

Hi,

She's decided to take it back to the shop (pc world) and get a better spec one.

Thanks for your help and please mark this as resolved.

btw, why do they sell such low spec machines which obviously can't even run vista, but you can't choose xp! lol, thanks.

Dave.