Replacing Hew-Pac OS question

[Heeter]

Hi Guys,

My friend has a HP laptop, not too old. It originally came with XPHome. The thing has been crashing pretty good lately. He would like to replace the OS with XPPro full version, instead of the HP System Restore disks. Will this be possible? How hard does HP make it to find drivers for the different hardware in the laptop?

Heeter

 

[NetRyder]

Yes, it's definitely possible. A lot of hardware will already be supported by the OS out-of-the-box. XP's driver support has been very good in my experience.

Before you take the plunge, you should check HP's site for a drivers download section though. Just make sure there are drivers available for his laptop. I know Dell has one that's updated quite regularly, so I'd think HP would have something like this too. Another place to check would be the individual manufacturer site for each piece of hardware.

 

[Heeter]

If anything, I think he is concerned about his vid drivers. I think he said said that the vid card is a S3 (???).

But I check the HP site for stand alone drivers for him.

Thanks, Nets

Heeter

 

[arson_nick]

The one that you really should be worried about is your network/modem drivers. There will be at least very basic video driver support out of the box, but there's nothing like formatting and not being able to access the net. That'll make it easy to download only the drivers you need once everything's installed.

 

[Mainframeguy]

My friend has a HP laptop, not too old. ...

I have a HP desktop (iDesign) and this also has XP Home installed in just the same way, it seems to be HP policy to do this as a cost cutting measure - I am not too happy about it.

On the other hand if you fork out the money for the OS upgrade I cannot see how they could fail to support you in supplying all necessary drivers. Oftentimes you will be able to find them on the HP website - I know I have been able to do that for the TFT and seen others there.

Wish your friend good luck - should be very doable and make a much better install. I'd like to hear how it goes because if all is well I may do the same to my machine when the disc gets fuller - nothing like a format to free space 😛

 

[Admiral Michael]

Shouldnt have too much problems, I did the same thing, all the drivers were on the HP/Compaq site. Besides I believe all XP drivers are the same Pro or Home doesnt matter.

 

[Elroy Jetson]

I changed my HP laptop from ME to XPPro, and found all the drivers on the web site from HP (before compaq merger). I would spend the time and download all XP drivers before the upgrade and burn them to a CD. S3 is a common grafic chip, XP should support it. Keep the recovery CDs handy, just in case it does not work. But should be no problem.

Good luck. EJ

 

[CrazyBoyS]

Ya for any majore brand name labtop the drivers will be listed on thier web sites. I sell these things and do service on em so. As for the OS it doesn't matter what you use. As long as it is 2k or up.

As for a S3 chipset the driver is on their main page. Just need to know what chipset it is which is listen in the manual or at HP's web site.

 

[Heeter]

Hi Guys,

*Update*

As everyone pretty much said, conversion was very simple. The HP notebook put up no fuss what's so ever. Any drivers that were missing, were actually available on the Windows Update site. All downloaded with all critical updates. Actually really nice to see no more of the useless HP shortcuts that clogged up the desktop and start menu. All he could afford was the XPPro Upgrade, instead of the Full Version, so, during the install, out came my old WinME CDRom. Now I know why MS came out with WinME. LOL

Thanks for all the help guys.

Heeter

 

[NetRyder]

Glad you got it all sorted easily.