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General discussion

downgrade vista to xp - lenovo laptop

Jun 7, 2007 7:02AM PDT

Specifications

Laptop: Lenovo 3000 N100 0768-A52, Vista-Preload
HD: SATA 120gb, 5400rpm
ROM: DVDRW/CDRW
Memory: 1gb ram
Intel 950m

I need help downgrading vista to xp pro for Lenovo laptop. I used Dban to clean sweep the hard drive, then put in my original xp pro (not recovery cd) to load windows setup. After all the drivers are loaded, it's suppose to take me to the partition section of the blue screen but before that happens, it took me to an error blue screen where the cause of the problem is this file "pci.sys". I am assuming this is either the drivers for the intel chipsets or the sata hd. I cannot find any sata drivers at the Lenovo site, but only the chipset drivers. I used Nlite to integrate the chipset drivers to the customized xp pro but the error still occurred. I am running out of option here. I still my have vista recovery cds, and I am WILLING to use vista, IF only it doesn't hang everytime I try to shutdown or load vista. Trust me, it happens every time. I am still not sure if it is still the chipset drivers or the sata drivers, or both. But my question is how to downgrade it back to xp?

Discussion is locked

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Is your XP/OS CD service pack 2 ?
Jun 7, 2007 7:55AM PDT

It may have to be to load properly.

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xp/os with sp2
Jun 7, 2007 12:44PM PDT

It doesn't matter whether my XP has sp2 or not. That is not even related to my main question "HOW can I downgrade from vista to xp?". And again, your response to my question with "It may have to load properly" doesn't tell me anything of importance on HOW to do it. I already know it's not loading properly because I was the one who witnessed an error blue screen stating the error of "pci.sys" but I don't know how to get around with the problem of installing sata and intel chipset drivers to my customized XP using Nlite.

*NOTE: Please do not just reply with a random response/statement stating this is the problem or solution because it is your assumption. Reply with a detail solution on HOW and WHAT to do. This prevents people from prolonging the thread with useless replies, and if I continue to see this happening again, I will report.

Thank you for your cooperation.

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You Will Report???
Jun 7, 2007 3:24PM PDT

This is a forum of volunteers trying to help others.. Shaking your fist and warning others against giving the wrong answer isn't the greatest way to extract support from others..

Remember, the very act of downgrading from Vista to XP is an UNSUPPORTED procedure currently by all the major computer companies. It hasn't been undertaken by a large number of users. (In addition, generally at this time, they aren't providing drivers for downgrades on most computer models.) You take a risk in voiding your warrantee and should be undertaken by those expert in doing such things.. If YOU choose to perform such a procedure, YOU take those risks, NOT those who are trying to help you get through it.

Your statement: "After all the drivers are loaded, it's suppose to take me to the partition section of the blue screen", raises a question as to which drivers you're referring to...IF you're talking about the files and basic drivers that the XP CD loads during the initial phases of installation, then it would help if we knew the EXACT error message you're seeing, not just the file name.. Commonly, any errors in this part of the installation are the result of a bad disc or copied XP CD. Is that the case here? On the other hand, IF you're referring to the SATA driver installation, it's important to know "how" you are loading your SATA drivers and when. Did you press the F6 key as required at the right time? (Watch for the request to "press F6 to install RAID or SCSI drivers".) Using an onboard USB floppy drive or USB floppy drive? You don't explain such clearly.

That said, doing a short search through this forum will give you a few threads regarding downgrading procedures although I'm not familiar with any who have performed the downgrade on a Lenovo of the same model. Still, since each model is different depending on processor, hard drive type, motherboard and BIOS type, the various responses in the link below should help:

Downgrade Vista To XP

Hope this helps.

Grif

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My lesson is I need the XP SP2 CD.
Jun 7, 2007 10:37PM PDT

Here's why. It appears that some installs onto SATA hard disks fail with old XP CDs.

It matters. But if you are willing to try it again to see if you get lucky, go right ahead.

Bob

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thanks.....it works now
Jun 8, 2007 2:49AM PDT

Grif and Bob,

Thanks for the info. I got it to work now. Indeed, it was a SP2 problem. Therefore, I downloaded SP2 from microsoft and slipstream it with Nlite so it is integrated with a copy of XP (without SP2). Somehow, it seems like my laptop does recognize the SATA HD even loading Windows. I am wondering...could it be that when I was using the pre-load vista when I first bought the laptop, I upgraded the BIOS so it recognizes the SATA? But anyways, everything works fine. I hope this will help other Lenovo users to solve this problem.

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Nlite Worked
Jul 25, 2007 9:03AM PDT

Thanks SushiKiller,

I took your advice and used Nlite and sliptreamed it with SP2 aswell. Worked a treat. Life saver!