best to go from post 1 and work your way down.

now I would make your back up vista disk set now before you even try to downgrade,
that way you can always go back to vista if you find the downgrade to hard.

follow the downloads and get the sata driver set.
now you have two ways to install them normal floppy way with a usb floppy drive plugged in the laptop or the slipstream was as listed in the first section of this topic.

Important install bit

xp pro with sp2
motherboard driver set as listed.
direct x updated
microsoft UAA driver
conexant driver
geforce driver.
then work on the rest of your problems

now if you run in to trouble please start a new thread so we can deal with your problems.

Thanks for the clarifications.

It's my girlfriend's laptop and I'm still not sure if she really wants to go with the downgrade, but Vista is currently running really rough, running into a number of problems on a regular basis.

I'll see where we're standing at and will post any questions in a new thread as you suggested.

Thanks again!

Hey Davey! I was happy to find your forum after working 24 hours trying to downgrade to XP on my HP desktop, and used your handy zip file posted on page one of this thread.

I'm booting off the xp disc, then F6'ing and ran your program, then it told me to insert the xp disc into drive A. I don't have a drive A, so after trying to MAKE it accept the F drive, I backed out of the program and started over booting off the F drive. Problem is, it ignored my boot to bios and I've repeated several times - all times ignored and I'm taken to my regular windows vista.

I'm guessing the program changed my disc drive to A? Hoping you have a fix for this blurry eyed woman.
Thanks bunches.

ok the best way out of your problems is to slipstream your copy of windows xp.
what you do is add the sata controller files to your xp disk.
then boot up using just your cdrom drive as normal.
please follow this very good guide on how to put your sata controller files on your xp cdrom.
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/How-To-...stallation

Ah, yes. Been there, done that. You should see all the downloads I've collected in the last day.
I did want to tell you that system restore got everything acting right, and that your fix was the closest I ever got to allll most getting xp on here. :-)

ok need you to check something for me.
if its failing to accept the sata controller drivers i must check your model number.
turn your laptop upside down and on a sticker you will find the full model number listed.
please let me know what is printed so i can check up with hp what controller is in your laptop.
now one thing comes to mind and that is your version of windows xp.
what version of xp are you trying to load up ?
is it a upgrade disk or the full version of windows xp ?

An easier way to slipstream SATA drivers onto an XP CD is by using nLite. http://www.nliteos.com/download.html Nice GUI and no need to manually edit the INF file as it is all done by nLite. Burns a CD once it is finished. Love it!!!!

Hey there, I just downgraded from Vista to XP on my dv2550se laptop, I got all the drivers needed with the exception of the Video Controller and the Video Controller VGA Compatible ones. Any idea on where can i get them? Thanks!

try this set of drivers.
http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.ph...opic=20121

(08-25-2008 08:20 AM)davey6 Wrote:  try this set of drivers.
http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.ph...opic=20121

They didn't work, what are the drivers I need for anyway?