I had loads of problems with Vista for a while and also thought of reverting to XP...Before going to go to all that hassle though, first of all I would simply try doing an extremely good backup of everything on the PC that you need (ideally to an external drive) and then simply doing a clean new install of Vista from the DVD-Rom. That, for me, actually worked faultlessly and i havent had any problems since.
hucklewoo, Aug 5, 2009 @ 15:32

Hi Valentina,



Frankly I am not surprised that you are having these problems :-/. I have talked to a lot of people who had problems with Vista and elected to downgrade to XP like you did. It also has had a lot of bad publicity in the press.



As a disclaimer, I cannot offer good advice based on my own practical experience, since I have sidestepped these problems by migrating to mac platform in around 2006. I used to use windows for a long time (all the way back to DOS), but I had enough and did the jump to Mac and have never looked back.



Regarding the drivers question, check the dell website (click support) and search for the model and see if they have drivers for Windows XP. I did a quick search for "XPS M1330" on the Australian dell site, and did not find any XP drivers, but I recommend you to try it.



Firstly, have you tried wiping (after backing your data of course), and reinstalling the OS from your recovery disk that came with your notebook? Did your computer crash every five minutes when you first bought it? If not, wiping everything and reinstalling can solve the problem.



You mentioned that you bought your computer in Jan 2008. Is your computer under warrenty/support? The reason I am asking is that you might be able to call Dell support and tell them of the crashing problems, perhaps they can help by showing you how to install the latest patches and service packs. Maybe you can ask them if they have an option for you to downgrade the OS (though that is a long shot).



You can also ask them if the Office that came with your notebook will work with Windows XP. Office 2007 works with Windows XP usually, but I am not sure if your copy has been limited because it can bundled with your notebook. It does not hurt to double check.



To go back to windows XP, you need to get your hands on an Windows XP installation disk. My understanding is that don't think they sell licenses for them anymore (except with cheap netbooks), because Microsoft wanted everyone to move to Vista.



Something that might help, is your are working for a large company, they may have a site licence for all their employees, and they might be able to supply you with a copy of XP for your notebook. Its a long shot, but worth a try.



Cheers,



Angelos

angelos, Aug 5, 2009 @ 16:13

An added note,



Sometimes if computers are crashing all the time, it might be because your memory is corrupt. You can check to see if your memory is corrupt by testing it with a memory tester like this one which can be freely downloaded and burned onto a CD:



http://www.memtest86.com/



Also Windows Vista is a memory hog, it uses too much memory. This means that you might be able to improve the performance of your machine by upgrading your memory. If I was running Vista, I would put at least 2GB (http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=2163). If your laptop only has 512MB or so, its way too little.



Hope this helps.

angelos, Aug 5, 2009 @ 16:23

Disclaimer:  I am a former MS employee so my opinion may be a bit biased.

Your computer is crashing every few minutes.  This points to a hardware issue rather than the software or the OS itself.  Vista when it first came out had a lot of issues but with all the updates and service pack, it is much better now.  Since your laptop is relatively new it should be able to handle Vista just fine given that you have atleast 2 GB of memory. 

I would remove all the extra crap that is sometimes installed by the OEM on the machine.  Stop all the programs from running automatically at startup and run a memory diagnostic test to see if its a hardware problem.  There might even be a diagnostic utility available on Dell's website to help you with that.

Installing XP may not necessarily solve your problem.

-A
JustChilling, Aug 5, 2009 @ 16:47

Vale,

Don't downgrade, it's just too much of a hassle. Vista sucks indeed, but I have 2 friends who tried to downgrade, and the process is hell, and the result isn't gauranteed. The issue is that official MS stores / exployees don't do the downgrades. So you got to use the help of other experts, who are not always experts.

Might be better to wait a while and then upgrade to the new Windows 7/8 that coming out.

Nir

PS - true story: when I bought my new PC, I was willing to pay extra money in order to have it with Windows XP instead of with Vista. But MS refused to sell XP machines...)-:
Nir Ofek, Aug 5, 2009 @ 17:23

Hi



As you mention, the computer is overheating, you will get really strange behaviour. And the overheating could be caused by dust in the fan and intake/exhaust ports.



If you are really gentle with the vacuum cleaner, you can try to vacuum clean the fan and the intake/exhaust ports.



So give it a try!



/Best regards

jagularen, Aug 5, 2009 @ 19:41

Hoiling:

I ran into this article about how to improve your Vista. Bon chance!

Nir
Nir Ofek, Aug 7, 2009 @ 02:29

Actually you can still buy XP; however not in the big media stores like Interdiscount and Mediamarket.

Little specialized computers shops (where you usually also can buy only the components and assemble the PC yourself) are still selling XP.

CHF 129,00 for XP home SP3 at www.TIcomputers.ch
Arnovd, Aug 7, 2009 @ 18:52

Sorry... wrong link.

here's the correct one:

http://www.ticomputer.ch/Files/Liste_de_prix_TI_No113_160309.pdf
Arnovd, Aug 7, 2009 @ 18:53

Hoiling et al,



There is a lot of good stuff said above, nothing that I would disagree with completely. I had one downgrade from hell on an Asus computer, but many, many other downgrades which went quite well.



overheating = problems ABSOLUTELY. try to adress that issue.



memory problems = also a possibility



if you want, send me a message and we can talk by phone. this is what i do for a living.



david
Zonker, Aug 8, 2009 @ 00:44