I have a new HP DV6990la laptop that came with preinstalled Vista. All is Spanish. Vista, keyboard etc. I hate Vista, so I want to change it to XP SP3 English version, which I have new disks to do it with. My question is whether or not I will have any problems with internet. I have Cable, but also have wireless. They are interchangeable. Also, I have a built in camera and bluetooth. Can the keyboard be used like an English language keyboard? Anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks
Do you have the necessary drivers for everything? If so, it’ll PROBABLY work, but it’s hard to say for sure. While drivers are typically language-independent, sometimes manufacturers (especially bigger ones like HP) include pre-installation checks in their driver packages – if a driver doesn’t like your new OS and/or language choice, it may refuse to install.
I would suggest you call HP and explain the situation to them. They should be able to tell you whether it’ll work and maybe even provide you with the proper drivers disc for your OS and language.
Are those disks from an EOM Restore set, or did you get them independently from any preinstalled pc?
The reason I ask is that many people mistakenly think that MicroSoft allows downgrades from Vista to XP. This is true for Vista Business, but not Vista Home. If you have a XP From A Box, you can install that on any pc without any problems (provided that you’ve deleted it from any machine that you previously installed it on). But it your XP disks are from some other source, you will not be able to Activate it, and after 30 days, it won’t even boot up.
I did exactly this just a couple of days ago with a Dell Mini 12. (Well, not the Spanish part.)
The only mistake I made was not having all the necessary XP drivers on hand before I started the install, because, without them, the new XP install couldn’t access the built in-network card, WiFi card, or other devices. So I had to sneaker net them via CD-R from another computer that had Internet access. (I realized later it would have been easier to use one of my thumb drives. :smack:) If the laptop had been my only computer, I would have been slightly screwed.
The Dell site was fairly helpful: I entered the model of computer and the OS, and it showed me all the drivers available for that combination.
So, if this is your only computer, before trashing the Vista install, get all the necessary XP drivers from the HP support site, and save them on a thumb drive or on a partition that you don’t plan to wipe in the XP install. Then start the XP installation process as usual.
One potentially important point: Dell provided a page that listed the order in which the drivers should be installed to avoid potential conflicts. I followed it, and everything went pretty well. See if HP has similar advice. If not, my (almost entirely uninformed) suggestion would be to start with the most basic functions first: BIOS, chipset, then essentials like video, LAN, Wifi, then less important features like audio, camera, etc.
commasense, how did you get past the Activation?
I used a valid non-OEM copy of Win XP that I had purchased for the predecessor to this laptop. I thought the activation process might require me to uninstall the old copy, or give me some other grief, but it didn’t. It just approved the activation with no problems.
The two copies won’t co-exist for long, because I will shortly wipe the hard disk of my old laptop, so that I can sell it. But for now MS seems not to mind.
Also, since I didn’t make this perfectly clear in my earlier post, I did a completely clean install of XP: I booted from the CD and reformatted and re-partitioned the hard drive of the new machine before installing the OS.
Thanks. Virtually the same thing happened to me, except that I was moving to a new pc that I built from parts.
About 4 years ago, my wife’s office gave her (for free; they otherwise would have put it in the trash) a not-too-bad pc which was running an OEM version of Win 2000. The only real money I put into it was buying a non-OEM XP Home off the shelf. It worked fine, but now was time for a new pc. All the rules said that I could use this same cd for the new pc, as long as I get rid of the old one. I expected for the activation to fail, forcing me to talk to someone on the phone, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find the activation approved with no problems, just like you.
I suspect that if I would try the same thing again today, only 5 weeks later, the activation would fail. Microsoft is surely aware that some people will try to buy one license off the shelf, and illegally install it in a whole bunch of machines. My wild guess is that their computers see that no one has used this Product Key in four years, so it is probably a legitimate reinstall. Whereas if it gets reused too soon, alarms will start ringing.
I was thinking the same thing.
I’ve had to activate multiple Windows licenses over the phone, and all they really ask you is stuff like “How many computers is the product key used on right now?” I legitimately tell them one and they give me the activation code right away. It’s never been a problem. So even if it comes to that, I wouldn’t be too worried unless you ARE doing something shady. In which case, tsk tsk on you for not being able to find a pre-activated copy 
Well, I think that the only worry I have is drivers. I don’t know if XP SP3 provides all the drivers for a wireless connection and a built-in camera. Perhaps other things, but I think I can find XP drivers for all that I know about. My XP disks are new off the shelf programs, so I don’t have worries about legally installing it. I am going on a vacation to the US, and I don’t want to have problems while there, so I won’t be installing XP until after I return.
If I remember correctly, an XP install disk (even the SP3 version) has little or no support for SATA hard drives. Assuming you have a SATA hard drive*, you may need to use nLite to create a custom installation disk with the appropriate drivers. Otherwise the Windows installation program won’t even detect the hard drive.
As for the keyboard, XP might detect the Spanish keyboard, but you should be able to change it to English layout by going to Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages -> Details. I’ve done it before with Japanese keyboards.
*Safe assumption these days, except for netbooks
AFAIK the OS will have built in Spanish keyboard support. I don’t know if you can switch it over completely to an English layout, though I would assume if you just set it to an English keyboard layout it’ll be fine, but your keys may not allign correctly. (example: I Use a japanese keyboard a lot and the " symbol is above the 2, so if I use a jap keyboard on english settings I have to hit the * button, which is normally where the " is on an english keyboard if I want to get quote marks)
I think I will stay with Vista for now. I found a good translation program that changes everything displayable from Spanish to English. It works very good. I am also using an English keyboard even though it is actually Spanish. I just need to remember all the keys for which I do pretty good. Oh, did I already say that I hate Vista? Actually, it appears that I have Vista in English.
Frankly, If youre asking such basic questions I would ask someone to help you do this in person. You would at least first have to collect all the XP drivers (if they even exist) for that model and maybe even slipstream them in to a custom XP disc if the default drivers dont work. You may need to borrow a usb-to-floppy drive if the XP disc doesnt have the drivers and you cant make a custom install disc.
Lastly, are you sure how have a valid XP license? You cant usually peel one off a computer. Thats an OEM license attached to that computer only. You may have activation issues.