How-To Geek

I am about to DOWNGRADE a client's HP Pavilion dv6000 ( dv6208nr ) from Vista Premium to XP Pro SP2.

In order to prepare ahead of time I have created the Vista Recovery DVD's and spent quite a bit of time online in CHAT with HP Tech Support.

I post here the significant contents of our CHAT in the hopes that it may provide help to others performing an HP downgrade. Here's hoping I am successful! ( Tipping Wine Glass )

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HP Support: HP does not recommend retail version Operating System installation or downgrade in

Operating system on any of it's notebooks as some of the drivers and applications may not work.

For more information please visit the following weblink.

Ximbalo: Ok, I understand. However, the client wishes me to to install XP on their system.
Ximbalo: Before I begin I'd like to know if all XP drivers exist for system internals ?

HP Support: I will look for XP system drivers and controllers for you, pleas wait...

HP SUpport: I will provide you with links, copy and past URL's to your browser:

HP Support: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr.....cDocument?

docname=c01092639&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

HP Support: Please follow the below drivers links:
HP Support: I will confirm when I complete providing the complete drivers links.

HP Support: Link 1: HP Quick Launch Buttons
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p38171.exe

HP Support: Synaptics Touchpad
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p37065.exe

HP Support: Synaptics Touchpad
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p37065.exe

HP Support: HP 1.3 MegaPixel (MP) Webcam Software Drivers
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p35414.exe

HP Support: HP Optical USB Mobile Mouse Driver
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p35208.exe

HP Support: HP Wireless Laser Mini Mouse Software Driver
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p35210.exe

HP Support: Yuan EC300 DVB-T TV Tuner Driver
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p33703.exe

HP Support: Broadcom Wireless LAN Driver
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p36684.exe

HP Support: HP Wireless Assistant
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p35333.exe

HP Support: WinFlash for HP Notebook System BIOS
(for Notebooks with AMD Processors) - Microsoft Windows/Vista-Based
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p38061.exe

HP Support: LightScribe Host Software
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p36971.exe

HP Support: Help and Support Center
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p35451.exe

HP Support: HP Software Update
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p34794.exe

HP Support: Summer 2006 Original NVIDIA Chipset Drivers
HP Support: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr.....loadIndex?

cc=us&lc=en&softwareitem=ob-40487-1&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

HP Support: NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 Graphics Driver
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p33549.exe

HP Support: Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver
for High Definition Audio from the following weblink
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....sp32646.ex

HP Support: Conexant High Definition Audio Driver from the following weblink
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p34200.exe

HP Support: Conexant HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem drivers from the below weblink
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p33890.exe

HP Support: Media Card Reader Driver from the below weblink:
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p33604.exe

Ximbalo: Ok, that is VERY helpful...
Ximbalo: What about dealing with SATA drivers for disk recognition during XP Install?

HP Support: HP Notebook PCs - Integrating SATA Drivers on a RIS Server for Automated Setup
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizs.....ument.jsp?

lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c01162171&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

HP Support: HP Notebook PCs - How to add Serial ATA (SATA) driver to a Windows Installation
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr.....=c00758841

HP Support: SATA Drivers Download:
HP Support: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/s.....p32478.exe

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Well... hope that helps, everybody!

Cheers,

Ximbalo

I found something very interesting for you guys as i was not able to install the dual boot configuration as i was not able to find boot.ini in the Vista drive....The following is very simple steps which will make your dual boot configuration work very well...(I will assume that you have completely installed Windows XP)

1. Run the vistabootloader as given in the tutorial.
2. Do not restart your computer.
3. Go to(i hope that at this stage you are using XP) My computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View Tab
4. Uncheck the Hide protected operating System files.
5. Now go to the root of your Vista drive(I suppose C: for most of you).
6. There you go....you will find three important files for which you were looking for....i.e. ntldr, ntdetect.com, boot.ini.
7. Copy these three files and paste it on to your XP root drive....
8. Restart your computer and it should work fine with both the OS working quite well...

Hope this will help you all...

I have the dv6736nr and installed xp pro..(vista froze alot)It took me about 4 hours to find the drivers on the net after HP live chat gave me links to all the wrong drivers....most of them i found on spanish speaking web sites????? well the machine is up and going, running faster then ever and its been a month...I can help walk you through the install and provide you with the correct drivers if needed...
P.S I dont think I ever got the web cam drivers but I never use it anyway......

Hi, I read your article and followed the steps but failed to install XP Pro correctly. I'm attempting this dual - boot configuration on an HP Pavillion a6123w Desktop PC that came pre - installed with Vista Home Premium. I successfully shrank my partitions, booted off the XP installation disk, but when I got to the part where XP restarts your computer, I always get a disk read error. I read the forums and figured I was missing the correct drivers for an SATA HD. My chipset is NVIDIA nForce 430 Geforce 6150SE. I downloaded these from the NVIDIA site and slipstreamed them onto a new XP install disk, tried again, still failed. I think the problem is that I put the entire driver download onto my new install disk. My question is, do I need to slipstream only certain parts of the driver download? If so, I'd really appreciate if someone could tell me which ones, I'm guessing it's in the folder labeled MCP51-->IDE-->WinXP, but I'm just not sure, can someone please help me? Thanks so much!

Thanks jd2066, i'll try that and see if it works!

Atlantor. Could you make a new post of this please

@Atlantor: I think Lighthouse meant a new topic not post. There is a New Topic button on the forums home page.
Also here is a link to the new topic page: http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/?new=1
On the problem what do you mean by "Can't turn off the sound"? Have you tried opening the Volume Control and changing the slider for volume?

I successfully installed XP following all the xcellent steps presented here. But since I only had allocated about 10gb of space as recommended, it quickly filled up as I loaded drivers, programs, etc. I waited until after a vacation to add vistabootpro and dual boot so I could reallocate.

I now have two problems:
1. I shrunk the vista drive (c:), and have 20.33 gb unallocated, but Vista won't give me the option to expand the XP drive (d:). How do I get the xp drive larger so it can function better?

2. I've tried every suggestion regarding the ntldr and ntdetect.com items, and xp won't load, but gives the usual errors regarding those files. I can't find them in the vista drive, even "showing hidden files"; copying them from my xp cd into the d: drive; even trying different boot drives. Nothing seems to work.

I bought this laptop the day after Christmas, finally got xp installed and working with all drivers about 3 weeks ago, and now just want to make the final tweak...

Please, any ideas would be sooooooooooo appreciated.

Thanks!

@jnrussell: Try this:
Download and install VistaBootPro.
Click the "View Settings" button at the top.
Click the "Detailed" radio button.
Right click on the text box and click Select All.
Right click on the text box and click Copy.
Then paste that in a reply or a new topic (new topic would be best).
I'll look at it and see if that information looks correct.

Thanks for an awesome tutorial. I had been looking for something like this. It was easy to follow if you have some computer back round and clear enough for a newbie. That said, I'm still having problems. After installing XP to my D: partition, it booted fine UNTIL after I Reinstalled the Vista bootloader. And like others here it complained about ntdlr not being found. However I found all the files mentioned scattered across my VISTA AND my Recovery partitions, copied them to my XP partition, and came up with a new problem. "Txtsetup.sif not found or corrupt, status 14 etc." Googling that I found LOTS of people reporting the error IF they were installing, or re-installing XP. Since I was not doing that, and it was fine before I reinstalled the VISTA bootblock, I searched my Recovery partition. found the txtsetup.sif file, copied that to XP partition hoping I was all set: but NO JOY. Any Ideas?