[MLTX_1]

I have a Compaq Presario Laptop v6000 series. It came with Windows Vista Home Premium 32 installed from the factory. After so long of dealing with Vista, I have had enough. I am debating on installing Windows XP Pro x64 version. I have already contacted Compaq about this, on the issue of drivers, and one of their agents emailed me back a complete list of drivers for my machine.

However, I have been kind of warned against it, for the sole purpose of program compatability. I have been told that older programs generally dont work as well with X64. I was wondering if I could get some insight on this, maybe know what I may be dealing with after I install X64. I am a bit of a gamer, and like to play DOOM 3 (and ROE Expansion), Raven Shield, and other various games. It seems as though with all of the resources that the OS itself takes up, theres not enough left to allow a big program to run, and it tends to frame, and hang. As well, some of my other, non-game related programs are beginning to loose functionality, and it doesn't seem to recognize the network anymore, though I still have normal access, it just doensn't show activity. There is a red 'x' over the network activity icon in my Systray where it should be showing activity. Its just those here and there things that are beginning to collapse, and the fact that it runs so slowly, that has driven me away from Windows Vista. Either way Windows XP Professional is going on there, whether it be 64 bit or not (though I would prefer it to be 64 bit, to maybe speed up the functionality of the machine), but at this point I believe any OS besides VISTA would be an improvement.

Thanks for the insight,
-MLTX_1

[danielcc]

do you have a 64 bit processor? and if so i wouldnt recommend xp 64 because i found it to be quite buggy... i do like the idea of having umpteen billion gigs of ram though

[MLTX_1]

Sorry, I forgot to put that little bit of info in there. I have an AMD Turion 64 x2; 64 Bit, dual-core processor. Lol, I used to have 2 gigs of RAM, and it because corrupt (reasons still unknown) so we swapped it out for the stock/factory 1 gig of RAM. It took a performance hit, but as well Vista just takes up so much of that its not even funny. At minimum it takes with no extensive processes running about half if not more than what I have. XP on another 1 gig machine doesnt take up nearly that much, and I have way more software loaded on my XP machine.

Thanks for the buggy insight though. What kinds of issues have you had, or heard of?

[danielcc]

if i remember correctly we had trouble with drivers, bsod's, and all sorts of crap like that and we hadnt even got the thing installed yet... everyone i have talked to about xp 64 has given a bad feedback, but i hear vista 64 is a little better... if it were me i would just go with the 32 bit xp and scrounge around for a coa(they are dirt cheap now if you get one off ebay or a friend) because your really wont need the 64 unless you are going to get over 4 gigs of ram... or i would experiment with another os like linux for a while, but thats just me

[davehc]

I have a medium level 64 bit computer. I run Vista 32 bit and XP 64 bit on a dual boot. All my earlier XP 32 bit programs run without problems (39 of them) although, of course, they do not give me the 64 bit advantage. I have never, in a couple of years, had any problems with xp 64 bit.