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General discussion

DOWNGRADE WINDOWS 7 TO WINDOWS XP

Jun 15, 2010 11:30AM PDT

THE NEW COMPUTER I PURCHASED CAME WITH WINDOWS 7 INSTALLED. AFTER DEALING WITH EYE STRAIN AND HEADACHES FROM THE FUZZY FONTS AND BRIGHT BACKGROUND FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS, I WOULD LIKE TO GO BACK TO WINDOWS XP. MY QUESTION IS......IF I CAN OBTAIN A NEW COPY OF WINDOWS XP, CAN I INSERT IT INTO THE CD/DVD DRIVE AND WILL IT INSTALL ITSELF OVER WINDOWS 7 OR IS IT MORE INVOLVED?

THE PROBLEM IS NOT THE MONITOR AS I HAVE MOVED IT TO AN XP MACHINE AND HAVE NO FONT PROBLEMS. I HAVE ALSO PUT ANOTHER MONITOR ON THIS WINDOWS 7 PC, AND THE SAME PROBLEM WITH FUZZY FONTS APPEARS.

IF I CONNOT GET THIS PROBLEM RESOLVED, THIS NEW PC WILL BE AN EXPENSIVE BOAT ANCHOR.

Discussion is locked

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The good news is
Jun 15, 2010 11:39AM PDT

This has been discussed many times.

But since you didn't supply a make or model no one can give the details about such a downgrade. You MUST have a full Windows XP SP3 or XP SP2 CD. Trying to recycle some old XP CD from another machine or say "XP" or "XP SP1" is known to be trouble.

Sorry that we can't start the conversation but it looks like you could try again with details if you want to see if this machine has Windows XP drivers.
Bob

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More information
Jun 16, 2010 2:07AM PDT

Bob, I really appreciate your reply. As you can tell I am desperate to solve this problem.

I am new to this forum and am not yet familiar in using it. that is why I have not seen any previous discussions. If possible could you point me to these discussions so I could read them.


The computer I am using is an Asus Essentio model CG5270-BP004 with windows home premium. If you need any other information, let me know.

Again, thank you for any support you can offer.

Jim

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Sorry
Jun 16, 2010 2:58AM PDT

But there are literal some tens of thousands of those discussions on the web today. How did you search and miss those?

Ok, with the make and model BUT NO XP CD LISTED you may be in for a really rough install. Many forget how important it is to have the right XP CD so I wonder if you are ready.

Check List One:

1. Your XP SP3 or XP SP2 CD. Full retail version please since all the methods I know that work use these. Cracked versions only cause pain.

2. You'll go to http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
and find your machine then download the drivers for XP. I found them by selecting Desktop then Consume then CG5270.

It will ask for which OS then for XP I see 11 drivers.
download all and create a CD with those on the CD.

If you can not complete step 2, take this information to a shop that installs Windows.

3. Now CREATE AN INSTALL PLAN. An example plan would be to install Windows XP (plenty of web sites about that) then the motherboard drivers, then audio and then video drivers. That should get the basics out of the way.

If XP can't see the hard drive, look in the BIOS for any IDE emulation and enable that.

Good luck!
Bob

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PS.
Jun 16, 2010 3:01AM PDT

Looking at the Asus supplied drivers was a hoot.

It looks like XP is not a supported OS so you'll be fishing for drivers for quite some time.

Looks like you bought a boat anchor.

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PS.
Jun 17, 2010 12:49AM PDT

Bob, thanks again for your help, even though it was not the answer I wes hoping for. I am a little confused, in the earlier reply you gave instructions for downloading the xp drivers, and in the last post you said Asus does not support Windows XP. Which is correct.

If I cannot downgrade to Win XP, I will have to work on ways to fix the fuzzy font problem, or just go fishing since I already have a boat anchor.

I do appreciate your help.

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Why that was.
Jun 17, 2010 12:57AM PDT

I like to show my work so others know how to research and find stuff. After I posted the research then I came back with the second to state what I found. Now Asus could always update that page without notice so you can keep looking.

I see there are other replies here but I have yet to find the XP has any edge on display clarity.
Bob

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Research lesson
Jun 18, 2010 4:47AM PDT

Thanks for the research lesson.

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Fuzzy Fonts..
Jun 15, 2010 11:49AM PDT

Have you tried adjusting Clear Type setting in control panel/display ??

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True Type
Jun 16, 2010 2:11AM PDT

Yes, I have. Adjusting It has had little or no effect.

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What about?
Jun 16, 2010 4:14AM PDT

Since your laptop does not have XP drivers, we'll have to work with Windows 7. Have you tried adjusting the screen's DPI resolution?

1. Go to Desktop
2. Right-Click "Screen Resolution"
3. Go down the page and click: "Make text and other items larger or smaller"
4. Set custom text size (DPI)
5. Experiment with Sliding the DPI size as appropriate.

Cheers,
Cassandra

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Fuzzy display
Jun 16, 2010 10:57AM PDT

I am not using a desktop, not a laptop. How can I tell if it has windows xp drivers?

Thanks

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xp drivers
Jun 16, 2010 11:11AM PDT

I just found an answer about the xp drivers on another post.

Thanks for your reply

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About XP and screen fuzzies.
Jun 16, 2010 5:03AM PDT

I have yet to find XP have any edge on screen fuzzies. I'd try again with the display set to the LCD NATIVE RESOLUTION or you may be fuzzy. Example at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_resolution

That image shows how badly it can look if you did something odd like that.
Bob

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Screen fuzzies
Jun 16, 2010 8:11AM PDT

I actually found the exact opposite, going from XP to Vista I found it clearer, then from Vista to W7 much clearer.
I'm nearly 70 and spend a lot of time on my pc, I find W7 much easier to look at for prolonged periods, I'm using an LG 23 inch at 1920 x 1080 resolution.

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Working Double Boot in Windows 7 and XP.
Aug 21, 2010 1:39AM PDT

I am double booting with ACRONIS in both Windows 7 and XP. I have all the XP drivers but have the CG5270 with the two circular LAN tranmitters for Wireless connection. If you have the same CG5270, I can provide you with the names of all the XP drivers. You have to get them from the vendors. I have tried many of the recovery disk and packaged disk setups and all crashed my machine or were a random combination of Windows XP and Windows 7 drivers. Reply to this post and I will put a list together for you.

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xp drivers
Aug 22, 2010 11:09AM PDT

Thanks for the offer, but I do not have the same model machine.

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A couple thoughts...
Aug 25, 2010 4:58AM PDT

Don't know if you're running a GPU or integrated graphics, but is it possible that there is a problem with either your graphics card or drivers (Windows 7) for it? Also, I assume you didn't but an ultra cheap monitor or that there's a problem with it?