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Installing XP on older laptop

1

1kayaker

Senior member
I have an older HP Omnibook 6000 running Win2ksp4. I have built about 5 desktop pc's with no major problem that I couldn't fix myself (software conflicts, etc). I have never done anything to a laptop except add ram.
1. Is there something "different" I need to know before I start this?
2. Will XP find drivers for this or do I need to have them available?
3. If I replace the HDD with a new one, what do I need to know?
4. Can you point me to a tutorial, just to ease my mind, so I can read over it and make sure I'm ready to bring this system back to life.

Thanks in advance,
1kayaker
 
In most cases a fully patched version of XP should have all the drivers, just not sure about this laptop. Can you list the specs?
 
Just go to the HP website and download all the available drivers for your laptop and have them handy. XP should find most of your components but you never know. Also sometimes even if it finds a driver, it is better to install the drivers you get from HP. It may have software that helps the device perform better. Best example is the touchpad, it always works, but works much better using the HP drivers rather than the XP drivers.

Besides this, there is nothing else different in the windows installation between a laptop and a desktop.
 
specs:
PIII700
256mb(will upgrade to 512)
10gig(will probably upgrade to 30gig)
cdrw
dvdrom(separate drive from cdrw !)
 
IIRC, I didn't need any drivers from HP when I installed XP on my girlfriend's Omnibook 6000 with similar specs. It should go smoothly. The only driver I needed was for her PCMCIA Netgear 802.11b card.

There's one captive flathead screw on the bottom that lets you remove the drive from the laptop. You'll need to remove the drive from its caddy (a couple screws) and swap the little drive interface connector. It should make more sense when you're looking at the old and new drives. 🙂 I replaced her 6GB drive with a 20GB, no issues.
 
Originally posted by: 1kayaker
specs:
PIII700
256mb(will upgrade to 512)
10gig(will probably upgrade to 30gig)
cdrw
dvdrom(separate drive from cdrw !)
Click to expand...


I have installed Win XP on an old AMD K62 400, almost half the speed of your PC. Difference is that I am running about 400 megs of RAM on it. You'll need that additional RAM and hard drive to make up for CPU. Oh, and in fact I am typing this post on an IBM A21M set at 600 Mhz with zero issue.
 
I'm typing this on an x2 downclocked to 800MHZ with 512 megs of ram downclocked to 100FSB (ddr200). Works fine. 🙂
 
Friend runs office apps with XP home on a duron 700 with 192 megs ram fine. just grab all the drivers you can from HP (check for BIOS updates too).

edit im typing this on an acer 508 with a Celly 500M and 128 megs 🙂
 
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