LATEST DELL DEAL Great Laptop £292 Delivered !

JDPower

grayme-m wrote: »

so I'll try formatting and installing XP until Vista's in a more usable state (both in itself and compatible programs).

Not necessarily that simple:

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/577415-can-you-remove-vista-install.html

And on a side note, stumbled across this article on the subject of Dell amongst others taking a step back and offering XP again due to the problems with Vista:

http://www.crn.com/white-box/200900857

grayme-m

JDPower wrote: »

Not necessarily that simple:

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vista/577415-can-you-remove-vista-install.html

I may be sounding dense, but what is the problem?

JDPower

grayme-m wrote: »

I may be sounding dense, but what is the problem?

From the linked to page:

If it has a SATA HDD (which the Vostro does have), you'll need to put the XP drivers for SATA on a floppy to insert at the start of install (Press F6 to install 3rd Party SATA/RAID drivers).

In short, NO, you will not be able to do that so easily as some people would believe. The reason for this analysis, is that I have experienced this and if your laptop came with Vista and uses only Vista drivers for the hardware, then you will not be revert your machine to XP as we all wish we could.

I was considering doing the same (replacing Vista with XP), that way I could still install Vista at a later date if I wanted but having read up on it I decided it wasn't worth the risk and insisted on it coming with XP instead.

grayme-m

Till I look I can't say anything to the contrary, however I am writing this on a (Compaq) laptop that has a SATA hard drive that I formatted using the method we've discussed (i.e. no floppies or drivers via F6).

balliol

OK so I have missed the deal bit cheese off as I am looking for laptop for my son and would like to get a dell as I think they are great but what I dont know is what grphics card to go for as he is big into gaming and I think he will use it mostly for this with a little homework work thrown in! can anyone advise?

davemuk

balliol wrote: »

OK so I have missed the deal bit cheese off as I am looking for laptop for my son and would like to get a dell as I think they are great but what I dont know is what grphics card to go for as he is big into gaming and I think he will use it mostly for this with a little homework work thrown in! can anyone advise?

If you're going to use a laptop for gaming, the budget end of the market is not the place to visit. Read this list of graphics chipsets and try to find a class 1 or 2 chipset in a laptop, hopefully you'll see from the prices that it's not something you're going to want to consider lightly. In my opinion, gaming is best done on a desktop because you'll get a lot more for your money.

HTH

Dave

bigtel_2

Mine came today. Ordered it on the 15th which was a Saturday so the delivery time was good as it was expected to be delivered 2/8/07.

Impressed with it and the sound is louder than I expected which I need to watch dvds.

JDPower

Ordered mine Tuesday, marked as dispatched yesterday so hopefully get it monday. Quite impressive given the estimated delivery date was August 13th!

twonga

JDPower wrote: »

Ordered mine Tuesday, marked as dispatched yesterday so hopefully get it monday. Quite impressive given the estimated delivery date was August 13th!

ordered mine wednesday and it was dispatched on friday!:T

twonga

twonga wrote: »

ordered mine wednesday and it was dispatched on friday!:T

got upgraded processor, 2gig memory, tru life screen, and 6 cell battery for a total of £400.00

Not bad! I did call up to order it though and blagged some discounts