configuring broadband/PC power protection/cable-satellite TV in India...

As a matter of fact, when you buy a computer with Vista Business or Ultimate, you can legally downgrade it to XP professional with the licence key of Vista.

the dell xps has other ideas. the os is locked in or something... thats the 'conversation' nick, bb and i were having all day... and figuring out my quandary.

oh well - i better get used to the devil till i locate bb's double! OR wait for the servicepack2.


:brishti

I doubt that we will stop scribbling about Vista that soon.
If you look at how long it took for XP to be fairly accepted, I'm affraid it will take longer for Vista

Even the Dell XPS is perfectly reinstallable.
Just today I installed an XPS M1730 with Sabayon linux and it works like a charm

If I had that Dell disk to rebuild vista, and a good backup of any data, I'd stick the XP CD in the drive, and run INSTALL from it

...and see what happens.

If I had more sense, I'd check out the link I found above for any drivers, and download them onto a separate CD first. But I probably don't have any

Just call Dell support and have them ship one to you.
Othewise you can use any Vista OEM CD and download the drivers from the Dell website.

thanks zoeperman - will do


:brishti

fine fine fine nick will stop whining/cribbing/thumpingthetabletop... so stop scolding

Hey, I wasn't scolding... just saying that it is a risk, but I'd probably take it.

There's a cartoon about this: I'll go and look for it.

Here it is. from www.xkcd.com (no permission needed to reproduce in non-profit-makeing...). It certainly sums up a few of my working hours ...days ...nights ...weekends

LOL, Nick - enjoyed that one!

I can't say I really enjoyed it. Been there too often!

For those so inclined, I strongly recommend xkcd: "A webcomic of romance,sarcasm, math, and language" I sometimes just don't understand it. but it is at the top of my bookmarks

I hope she thinks of me as a sparing partner instead, i.e. thinks of sparing me the sparring.

Tell u what, she's already overtaken Amyth (disappeared it seems?) as the female wit/wag of IM, and considering she hasn't been around long, will soon overtake Prashant M the male wit of IM, to become reigning wit/wag of IM, what with all that raining wit. <chuckle>

Hey, Nick and I caught u out already, so none of that feigned innocence!

BTW, Vista can be removed from lappys with ease, certainly from HP. But the problem will be drivers for the SATA HDD, which your Dell most likely has. Friend-cum-techie (a real one!) was able to remove Vista (formatting) and load XP, but no SATA driver avbl that worked on XP, tried various stuff but no luck as far as I know. I think he reloaded Vista, but I'll have to ask.
Certainly this is something not to be tried at home, so to speak.

you are being now resorting to name-calling dd?
paapam paapam

nick: loved the xkcd site... thank you [even though most of it i am not for understanding - but the graphics are great]



:brishti

[ i just have to clarify something - this is my last post on dell nick... cross my heart. ]

zoe - this is my experience with dell:

Day 1 - wanna buy a dell? 269 phone calls from them in a day... the what's, when's and how's.
Day 42 - dell is bought.
Day 60 - dell is functioning like no other machine: screen suddenly turns green - matrix appears - you're waiting for keano reeves to do his stuff - instead machine goes to sleep.
Day 61 - dell is behaving.
Day 71 - repeat of day 60.
Day 72 - write letter/customer care/do pooja/rave/rant
Day 73 - repeat of day 61 [its a cycle... now-you-see-green-now-you-dont kinda thing]
Day 74 - + 4 months - write letter/customer care/do pooja/rave/rant/go on a fast/getscoldedinIM kidding

you see zoe - the tag line of dell customer disservice is - now you got a dell - deal with it.
dell dont have office - its all online, onphone, onvirtual.

i rest my case. as promised nick - Q.E.D.



:brishti

I agree that there have been a lot of problems with customer contact / support at Dell, but (atleast here in Holland) things have pickedup a whole lot and customer support seems to be doing it's thing.
It is true that everything is online, but I personally have good experience with the service. My friends notebook also had a dead display, but after I called support, the next day we had an engineer onsite to replace the display (He has a carepack on it)


Just to make sure there won't be people thinking I work for Dell...
I work for one of the other largest computer manufacturers in the world (HP)