Why is Windows Vista so slow, Can I "Upgrade" to Windows XP Media Center 2005?

Question

I recently purchased a HP Pavilion dv6000 w/Vista Home Basic, Why is it so damn slow and some times unresponsive? Is there a way to uninstall Windows Vista and and "Upgrade" to XP.

Answer 1

Its slow because that particular laptop is just barely scraping past the minimum requirements of Vista. Depending on which upgrades you chose when you purchased it, you might be closer to the recomended specs in memory. That processor was a poor choice however.

It didnt occur to me before the gentleman below me posted, but your factory specs also indicate a substandard video card for Vista. Judging from those specs you also have a 1.6Ghz processor which isnt nearly enough (even for AMD chips which actually run faster than Ghz and Mhz indicate.)

To install Windows XP:
Make sure your laptop is plugged in as this could take a while.
1. Get a Windows XP installation disk (must be a full version! Recovery CD's will not help you here).
2. Insert the CD into the CD-ROM and reboot the computer.
3. When prompted to "press any key to boot from CD" press anything on the keyboard
4. Follow the prompts on the screen and, if you have the windows XP manual, follow the help provided there. By doing this you will have to WIPE YOUR HARD DRIVE. You will lose EVERYTHING thats currently on it. When you are finished you will have Windows XP, IE6, and NOTHING ELSE.

Answer 2

First, vista uses a tremendous amount of resources, why a lot of people will not use it. I am not sure on the CPU or your computer, but unless its a higher end chip, it will be sluggish. I am also hearing of people with lover end and built in video cards with this problem as well.

Second, you don't upgrade to windows XP, that is downgrading and you are looking at another 200 bucks to go and buy a win XP home disk.

Personal- I will be sticking to XP for quite awhile before I even think of getting Vista

Answer 3

I would be surprised if your new computer didn't have the required minimum system requirements, but it wouldn't hurt to check your RAM and make sure you have at least 1GB, or turn off all that cool Aero stuff (that makes it look cool and pretty like a Mac), that would certainly speed things up. You can't "upgrade" to XP, you'd have to format your drive and then install XP on the freshly blanked out hard drive. Check your computer's specs on the HP site and check the minimum requirements at the MS site and see if that could be the problem. Also, if you press ctrl+alt+del on your keyboard, you should be able to open the Task Manager and see what is using your resources and processing speed. It could be a program (like norton internet protection suite) that is checking each item as it opens for security reasons, or a firewall, or a million other things. Start turning off automatically starting programs and see if your performance improves.

Good Luck!!

Answer 4

okay, soon or later, you will need to transition your XP to Vista anyway, so, try to stick with it, if you can. What you can do, is trying to add more ram (memory) as much as you can. For Home basic version, you would need at least 1gig in order to experience it. I bet your laptop came with only 512mb of ram. Most Home Basic pre-installed laptops came with only 512 of ram (this is the minium requirement to run Home Basic by M'soft, but we know better, always double whatver the requirement to have a real experience with it).

Here's what I would do. Go to http://crucial.com. Let it scans your computer (it'll prompt you to download an active script, allow it, it's safe). Once it's done, it'll tell you all the basic info about your computer, including how much ram do you have now, what's the max you can have, and type and speed of your ram.

This is what you need to look for: it would say something DDR2 PC 5300, or DDR2 PC xxxx. Write this # down (the PC XXXX). Also, see what's the max of RAM you allowed to have. Most likely will be 2 gig (since your laptop is a budget one, more expensive would have Vista Premium or Ultimate installed). I would spend money on that 2 gig. I just bought a Compag with Home Basic and 512, so I went out and upgraded it to the max of 2 gig.

When you bough you gig, make sure they are 2 module of 1 gig each. So 1 gig = 1 modude. They might come with 2 modules = 1 gig (512mb each), you don't want that. Your laptop won't have enough slots for all of them. I bet yours only have 2 slots, which most laptops only have 2, anyway ;).

2 gig of ram cost me $140 (on sale). They're not that much more expensive if not onsale, still less than 200 for 2 gig. Unless you want to save money, then you can buy just 1gig, and continuing use the other haft gig (512), then you'll end up with 1.5 gig, which is still good. Otherwise, buy 2 gig, and put this 512 mb in a safe place, in case you need it or something.

Answer 5

good question, upgrade to xp !

basically u'r going down with the operating system
freeing up a lot of resources, feeding the vista shark

yes, system performance shoots up
so yes, you are technically correct to term it 'upgrade' !

question is have u purchased from hp thro internet
> in that case it's tough ... doubt if u receive any support from hp

if purchase is from dealer, maybe he's got earlier stock with xp loaded with him & can swap it for you

you should have used this 'yahoo answers' forum prior to purchase

guess only alternative otherwise is to purchase a win xp pack & install it ... drivers from internet / hp support pages

best of luck ...

Answer 6

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