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Changing OS

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by gerardopascal

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I have bought 1n 1999 a Compaq Presario notebook model 1256 in USA. I live in Uruguay. I want to change the OS from Windows 98 to the Windows XP. Is there a way to extract from the Compaq original disc that came with the machine and contains the OS,the drivers of modem, internet buttons, etc. instead of searching then in Internet? If don?t, can you give me at least the site to find the modem driver? Thank you very much in advance.

4 replies

by thechas

Compaq does not list any XP drivers for your notebook.

Start at www.hp.com for Compaq support.

XP may have native drivers for your laptop.
I suggest you go to this site:

http://www.pcpitstop.com/xpready/default.asp

and run the XP readiness test on your laptop.

The only caution is that I have seen some devices that the XP drivers do not operate all functions.

Is your modem a plug-in PCMCIA card?
Or is it built into the laptop?

If it is a PCMCIA card, what is the make and model?

If it is from Compaq, try searching Compaq support on the modem model number.

Chas

by thechas

This is in regards to Chris's answer.

Where do you come up with the need for a 2GHz CPU for XP?

I fully agree that Microsoft's minimum system requirements are optimistic.
Yes, if you run XP on a minimum system, it will be slow.
However, you can run XP very well on 750MHz CPUs and up.
If you are conservative on your XP installation and back-ground programs, XP will work on 300MHz systems as long as you maximize the RAM.

The key is having enough RAM.
For ALL versions of Windows, the amount of RAM has always had a bigger impact on performance than CPU speed.

Chas

by csmith

If you use the normal upgrade path for XP from Win98, you should not need the drivers.
The bigger question is how you are going to cope with the slowdown you will experience trying to get a four year old computer to rrrrun XxxxP?
On a practical basis you need a 2 GHz CPU and 256 Meg RAM, minimum, for XP.
How about a new notebook?
Then you will have the fast CPU, the RAM, and XP preloaded.
Plus, you will have the Presario 1256 as a backup.
Regards, Chris

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