[johannly]

I have a toshiba satellite a215-s7472 it comes with windows vista , but i cant stand it anymore
vista is driving me crazy , hangs all the time , crashes too often , many problems
i have 2 gigas of ram n a dual core of 2.2 Ghz , n this laptop with vista runs slower
than my old laptop that had 512 of ram n a procesor of 1.5 Ghz running xp

right now im desperate, i wanna get XP but toshiba didnt release drivers for my laptop
to run XP , i need help to find drivers that can make run XP in my laptop

any help will b appreciated

thx in advance

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This is a Caveat Emptor.

When i have had this problem i usually look to the Toshiba canada website for a similar computer that has XP drivers. In this case i would look at the a200 drivers for the satellite from their site.

Please use at your own risk here as they may not work well.

http://support.toshi...ln_byModel.asp#

There are some drivers for XP at the Toshiba america website.

http://www.csd.toshi...u...p;x=50&y=13


SRX660

Edited by SRX660, 13 April 2008 - 05:26 PM.

[SRX660]

This is a Caveat Emptor.

When i have had this problem i usually look to the Toshiba canada website for a similar computer that has XP drivers. In this case i would look at the a200 drivers for the satellite from their site.

Please use at your own risk here as they may not work well.

http://support.toshi...ln_byModel.asp#

There are some drivers for XP at the Toshiba america website.

http://www.csd.toshi...u...p;x=50&y=13


SRX660

Edited by SRX660, 13 April 2008 - 05:26 PM.

[John Hook]

johannly,

I agree completely with SRX660's advice and links. I would also concure that while it's most likely possible to get XP running on your Toshiba model with drivers found elsewhere on the Internet - if Toshiba doesn't officially support running XP on your model, you WON'T be able to get support from them and are basically on your own.

That said, I would make sure you have a backup of Vista or the recovery CD/DVD for your Toshiba in case the XP install goes south or turns out to not be possible.

Generally, even if the hardware MFG doesn't offer specific drivers for their model, you can usually find chipset mfg drivers that are specific to the hardware in your particular model. If XP doesn't have built-in compatible drivers for your hardware - you can try going directly to the Mfg sites for the imbedded hardware in your system.

Your laptop has:

AMD M690 Chipset
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 Video

If you find that XP's install can't recognize your hardware, in addition to those site that SRX660 referred to, you might also check out ATI and AMD's sites for chipset/hardware specific XP drivers. In some cases, the MFG of your model (i.e. Toshiba) alters the reported device ID strings in their hardware such that mfg specific drivers WILL NOT match the ID strings that Windows XP needs to install these drivers. In these cases, I've been able to manually edit the .INF files that ship with these device drivers such that Windows is "tricked" into seeing these drivers as a match to your hardware - thus installing them. This can get a bit tricky if you're not familiar with .INF files and Device ID strings, etc. I had this problem with an old USR Voice/Fax modem (OEM Version). The only drivers available were the "retail" drivers for this device - even though my OEM modem was IDENTICAL to the retail version (except for the device ID string hardcoded on the device). I was able to modify the .INF files from the retail drivers and successfully install these drivers for use with my OEM model. The bottom line is that even if Toshiba or Windows XP doesn't have available drivers for your hardware - chances ARE that there ARE workable drivers out there.

Again - I'm sure you can get XP installed and working on your new Toshiba. Just understand that it might be a bit involved and as an "unsupported" OS configuration, you won't be able to get any technical assistance from Toshiba should you run into problems.

- John