HP Pavilion 510 N Questions

[Grumper]

Im going to upgrade this machine a little--reformat the HDD [ my Grandkids have it so crapped up ] and install Win XP pro [XP Home on there now] install an additional 256MB PC100 SDRAM [total 512]--thats about it.---the question is I was talking to an HP tech and he told me "dont put in Service Pack 1 "????? and dont up grade the BIOS ?????Is HP just not into consumers tweaking things or is there merit to that comment ????

Both audio and video and lan are intergrated on the mobo and XP PRO should have all the drivers for that stuff--I hope so because they [HP] did not come with the computer [2 yrs old] and there not on the HP site.

Thanks
Paul

[diurnal]

I would check the system specs first(control panel/system/hardwaretab). Then go to windows compatibility list and see if its compatible. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx This the link to find the parts to see if they will be compatible.

IF it doesnt have a driver on the hp website and you reformat it, you better hope XP has a built in driver for it. If you dont your going to be even more grumper. Ive worked on HP,hewlett packards,dell,and compaqs. When you dont have a sound card driver it will take you about a week to find the driver.(if your lucky) I would leave the OS on the machine or use the OS it came with.(if OS cd was included with the HP,use that)

Dont know why they would tell you to not to download the service pack. Only reason i could see is there is some sorta bug that sprung up with the service pack and HP computers. Gluck

[Budfred]

You can download a file HERE (http://www.jermar.com/) that is supposed to back up your drivers so that can replace them even if you can't find them again.

I am wondering why you are replacing WinXP Home with WinXP Pro? I have heard that the only real difference between the 2 (other than about $100) is that Pro is a bit better for security and networking...

[Grumper]

HP did not supply a recovery disk--I will never buy another computer from any of those guys again--Ive built 3 new ones to date and rebuilt 4 w/out any real problems, and the home builts run circles around the "Big Names"--sorry about the venting--

I might just remove the junk on the HDD and stay with the OS on the HP--I should be able to get that HDD cleaned up that way---the kids will just put more crap back on it anyway, and with another 256mb of system RAM it should hop along fairly well

Thanks Guys