Recently, after having poor first impressions of Windows Vista which came pre-installed on my new HP Compaq 6715b laptop, I wrote a post asking the question should Windows Vista get another chance. I posed this question not just on this blog, but to Windows Vista discussion groups and anyone who was willing to answer. Overall I didn’t get any response that made me feel, yes, lets stick at it for a while, and out came my old laptop’s Windows XP disc and the reinstall began.
Since then I’ve been quite happy with XP on this HP laptop, and everything feels as springy as it should on a decent system like this. The 6715b is a decent spec machine after all:
- AMD Turion X2 TL-60 – Dual Core @ 2.00GHz
- 2Gb DDR2 RAM @ 667MHz
- ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 (using shared memory)
- 160Gb Hard Drive
Actual Performance Situation
Outside of a general impression of improved speed with the laptop running XP, I had a real example of the performance benefit of XP over Vista last weekend playing a gig in Belfast. Using Propellerheads Reason software as my live music tool, I had a chance to see how well it performed on the downgraded machine.
Ultimately I was very happy. Playing the same tracks which I had attempted to play on Windows Vista at two gigs before, I found that XP ran perfectly smoothly with no glitches. Previously using Vista, the set had maxed out the CPU at about 3 or 4 points. In this situation Reason just stops dead in its tracks – which is not a good thing to have happen when you’re in the middle of playing music to a crowd of people.
As you can see from the screen shot I’ve taken here (click on it to get a larger version), I have Windows Task Manager open displaying the performance of the HP6715b dual-core processor, and to the left of that are two fairly intensive Reason songs, both of which are playing with all tracks active (something that wouldn’t usually happen at a gig). This was impossible on Vista, and though I don’t have a screen shot to back this up with (it’s something I could only get by re-installing Vista, something on which I am not currently inclined to waste time.
Conclusion
Vista is more resource intensive, it looks like there’s no way around that. Perhaps things will improve somewhat with Service Pack 1 for Vista, but it will not be out until sometime early in 2008 and I’d need to hear reports of things having substantially improved before I’d consider switching back.
As a result I would have to recommend that if you are buying a HP6715b, get the XP pro version whilst you can. It’s a solid laptop with an excellent screen and loads of resources for you to run all you want, except maybe Vista.
11:57 am
January 13th, 2008
Hi
I’m interested in your post because I have exactly the same machine. I asked for it to be downgraded to XP Pro. But the screen resolution appears a bit blurred and there are one of two other things e,g, the fan comes on every min for about 10 seconds.
Have you had these difficulties?
Best
Tim
10:36 am
January 16th, 2008
Hi Tim,
That sounds a little unusual. Certainly I didn’t notice any issues like this arising.
Regarding your screen resolution, I’d double check your display property settings. Make sure it’s running at the native resolution of 1680 x 1050, and perhaps double check that “ClearType” is enabled (do this by right clicking on the desktop > Properties > Appearance Tab > Click on “Effects” > Tick “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts” > Select “ClearType” from the drop down box).
Regarding the fan coming on too often, I would check your processes. The fan is probably coming on due to some process running the CPU more than it should. The fan will automatically come on when the CPU starts jumping up in usage.
To check your processes, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc. This brings up the Windows Task Manager. Go to the Process tab and sort the columns by clicking CPU twice. Keep an eye on this and you’ll see what is affecting your CPU.
I hope this is of some help. Let me know if you’ve any other questions.
Cheers,
Alex
6:31 pm
January 18th, 2008
Thanks for your thoughts. I have changed the resolution to the native and had to tweak the fonts and dpi because the native is way to small for my eyes – I’m suprised that no-one is mentioning this. How do you find the high resolution on your eyes?
The fan just comes on when I’m not doing anything. The CPU is at minimal %. I think laptopsdirect.co.uk did a dodgy XP install because other things are mising such as calculator, games and I have a toshiba utilities folder in programmes.
Maybe a bios update. I’ll have to explore. Thanks for your time in responding.
8:03 pm
January 20th, 2008
Hi
I have your above advice which are very helpful.
I have just bought the same laptop with vista business on however I would like to instal xp as well as keeping vista.
Please could you advise me accordingly.
Thank you
7:33 pm
January 21st, 2008
Hi Aliff,
Regarding installing XP I guess it depends on a few things. I had a licensed copy of XP from my previous and now defunct laptop. If you have an old copy of XP lying around you should be able to use that.
Are you familiar with the installation of an operating system? If you are not I would definitely suggest getting a professional to do it, but if you’re fairly comfortable with computers than no harm in having a go yourself.
The most important thing is to back up all your personal documents and settings. Don’t forget things like bookmarks/favourites from your web browser.
I would always suggest doing a clean install where you format your hard drive in the install process. Other than that the installation of XP is fairly well guided and should be straightforward enough. After install I always tweak the settings of XP as much as possible to improve the responsiveness of the system – but that’s an article in itself. I’ve been making notes though and have probably got the makings of an article ready to go… it’s just a question of finding the time!
7:39 pm
January 21st, 2008
Hi Alex
Thank you for your advice.
I will have a go this weekend.I feel confident in installing Xp however to know if you had any tips.
Regards
Aliff
3:35 pm
March 25th, 2008
hi there… first of all great post.
My 6715b notebook will arrive this week and i want do downgrade do XP Pro, but all my legal licences are in use.. Do you know what do i need to do legally downgrade ? Hp, Microsoft ?
Thanks in advance
SergioLopes
Portugal
10:17 am
March 26th, 2008
Hi Sergio,
As far as legally downgrading to XP Pro goes, I’m not sure whether there is going to be any simple course of action. You could contact HP and see if they will help you out, but I doubt they have any specific procedure for downgrading. Other than that you’re looking at buying an OEM copy of XP Pro and doing a clean install on your laptop as soon as it arrives.
First you might want to get all the right drivers from the HP support site to make things a bit easier. At least installing from an OEM version of XP Pro will ensure that you don’t have any of the pre-installed crud that HP have deemed fit to put on a new laptop.
There are some companies out there that offer a downgrade service, but I haven’t heard any good reports about them.
Also, please note that your laptop will probably arrive without any Windows Vista disks. In which case you should make sure that you should boot it up into Vista, going through any of the initial set up questions. Once you’re in there, make sure to create your HP backup disks. These essentially become your Vista install disks. It means that if you so desire you can reinstall Vista at a later date.
Finally, you might want to double check with HP support as to whether there are any warranty issues if you downgrade. I can’t imagine it adversely affects hardware failure support, but it might be worth checking out anyway.
Hope that’s of some help.
Cheers,
Alex
10:24 am
March 26th, 2008
Hi there…
Thanks for the answer…
thats what i’ll do… first create my vista installation discs then contact Hp… i’ll post feedback.
Thaks
SergioLopes
4:05 pm
April 12th, 2008
Hi
I’m about to install XP Pro on two HP 6715b laptops which currently have Vista Business.
Please note that – at least here in the UK – if you have Vista Business or Vista Ultimate then Microsoft will give you a licence for XP Pro if you wish to downgrade.
Back in January 2008 I called the HP helpline and they have sent three disks for free:
A Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2 disk
A “Multiple user interface pack for use with XP Pro SP2†disk
An Application and Driver Recovery DVD.
When installing XP Pro at the appropriate stage you take the option to phone Microsoft to register the product and explain you are replacing Vista Business with XP Pro, and they will give you a licence number.
If at a later date you want to reinstall Vista Business then HP told me to call them and they will send me the appropriate disks, free of charge and even if the laptop is out of warranty.
Hope this helps some people avoid unnecessarily paying for an XP Pro licence.
See
http://news.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029694,49292967,00.htm
11:11 am
April 13th, 2008
Hi Peter,
Thanks for sharing that information. I’ll definitely give the HP support desk a call and see if I can get some free disks from them.
It would be nice to be able to re-use the other Windows XP disk that I have floating around.
Cheers,
Alex
5:58 pm
April 15th, 2008
Hiya Tim,
I found your article really helpful – I am at this very moment considering purchasing the 6715b – with XP, but didn’t know if I was being too particular. Different folks seem to have so many opinions on Vista Vs XP, but I have yet to be convinced that Vista is leading the way.
Another reason I am looking at the 6715b is because of the matt screen. I really don’t understand the joy of having a mirror for a screen in all the ‘brightview’ range etc. (But again, I often feel like I’m in the minority).
My only question, is will this laptop be a good one to choose in terms of performance for photo editing and video and audio editing? I was greatly encouraged that you’re using yours running Reason on etc.
So, would you whole heartedly recommend it?!
Cheers,
Becks
5:59 pm
April 15th, 2008
Alex – I got you confused with Tim, sorry!
6:09 pm
April 15th, 2008
Hi Becky,
No worries on getting me confused :)
I’m really happy with the 6715b, and the price tag is hard to compete with.
Any similar spec laptops with Core 2 Duo chips in them seem to cost another couple of hundred euro, or else, they’re around the same price but come with smaller hard drives and less RAM.
I can’t really comment on the glossy screens, I’ve seen them a couple of times but never really worked out what the advantage/disadvantage might be.
As far as performance goes, I’m very happy. Benchmark wise, the Turion X2 doesn’t match up to the Core 2 Duo, but the price to performance ratio is excellent. I happily work on Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Reason, Cubase etc. I can’t speak for it from a video editing point of view though.
Would I whole heartedly recommend it, yes. Definitely. I’ve recommended this laptop to lots of people, and many friends and clients of mine are now using the same laptop as me! The specs are great, and it’s a solid build, with an excellent screen resolution (you won’t get any other laptop with an WSXGA screen for that price).
Just make sure you get XP. I don’t think Vista’s worth it (hence the downgrade).
If you do go for it, drop by again and let us know how you get on. I’m very familiar with it and should be able to answer any questions you might have – as well as being able to suggest a few tweaking tips!
Alex
12:20 pm
April 16th, 2008
Thanks for your info about this. I just bought the same notebook and am appalled at how many of the resources Vista consumes basically doing nothing, so I’m planning a ‘downgrade’ (!) to XP, to let the machine strut its stuff a bit more.
12:25 pm
April 16th, 2008
@John If you go the route of trying to get XP install discs from HP, let us know how you get on. I’m intrigued to see if this is a simple option.
1:51 pm
April 16th, 2008
I’ve not got far so far, as I can’t get my existing XP disk to install at all – it just hangs at a flashing cursor. Any ideas why that might be? I’ll have to try to get hold of some disks from HP.
1:18 pm
April 17th, 2008
That’s interesting to see that HP seem happy to give people the option to downgrade from Vista to XP. I had a very frustrating experience with Dell on the same subject last year.
Someone we know went and bought a fairly standard laptop from Dell, I don’t remember the model number now but at the time the only option was to get it with Vista, they didn’t offer an XP version. This guy gets his brand spanking new laptop expecting it to work very smoothly and quickly, this was by no menas the case, it was in a complete mess.
For a start the laptop he had bought only had 256 MB of RAM, a more experienced user would have gotten extra memory for it but he didn’t know any better and just bought the laptop because it looked like a decent deal. I was really annoyed that they had sold the laptop like this, as far as I was concerned it’s like selling someone a jeep with a 50cc engine, it just doesn’t have enough power to perfom the purpose it was made for. So I got onto Dell and told them that I expected them to send out some XP disks, they point blank refused and also refused to let me speak to a manager. I told them that they were conning people into buying something that is never going to work properly because of the small amount of RAM that it comes with. Their angle was well you could of bought more RAM for it, which is fine for experienced users but inexperienced users don’t know that they need a load more RAM to run Vista.
On closer inspection it turned out that the install of vista was in a complete mess, the modem didn’t work, the onboard sound didn’t work, it took about 5 minutes just to open Internet Explorer. In the end I decided to do a full re-install which made things run much better and sorted out the modem and soundcard. By the end of this experience I was absolutely furious with the lack of customer support from Dell, the insistance that it wasn’t their problem and the fact they the install of Vista was a complete disaster.
Several months later I noticed that they had started offering XP with this laptop and not just Vista so they must have had lots of complaints. If it had been my laptop I would have persued it further but the guy who owned it didn’t seem that bothered, then again if it had been my laptop it wouldn’t have been a Dell.
12:43 pm
April 21st, 2008
Alex,
I have a compaq 6715b with vista and would like to downgrade to XP pro.
Can you give me detailed steps/instructions to do this please.
Note: I have an XP sp2 cd.
Thanks
12:03 pm
April 22nd, 2008
Hi Dave,
Well I guess it should be a fairly straightforward process, essentially it’s the same as installing any operating system, put your XP SP2 cd in the drive and boot from the cd. From there you can follow the on screen instructions, format your drive and do a clean install.
I would suggest a couple of things though.
1. Make sure you’ve backed up all personal information from your Vista install, as this will be deleted when you’re doing a fresh install.
2. Have you created your HP restore disks? There should be a HP program which will allow you to create a couple of DVD’s which will enable you to reinstall Vista if you ever feel so inclined.
3. I would suggest making sure that you have downloaded all the HP 6715b drivers for XP from the HP website – you can get them from this link.
I hope that helps :)
Cheers,
Alex
7:42 pm
April 23rd, 2008
Hi Alex,
I was looking to buy a HP 6715b too,but came to know that it has some issue with the fan?
Forum Link
Was a bit concerned.Does it get too much heated ?Since,I will be running it almost all day long.Or would you suggest a intel machine in that regard(like dell inspiron 1525:almost same price range)?
And how are the graphics?
Also how is the build quality in general and is it better then other normal consumer notebooks?Though yes,will be using it with XP.
And thanks a lot for your comparison,was really helpful.
Thankyou.
Anuj.
4:43 pm
April 11th, 2009
[...] So my intention with the next system upgrade will include moving to a 64bit OS and opening up the possibility of running 8-16Gb of RAM. This will make it possible for me to run a much larger number of sample libraries in Cubase (such as the large but excellent Vienna Symphonic Library). This will necessitate finally dropping WindowsXP and moving on. I’d like to be able to wait for Windows7 to come out – from the sounds of things it’s already running much better than Vista, and I was quite ticked off with Vista any times I’ve tried it (which resulted in a post over on my web design company website about the performance difference between Vista and XP). [...]
5:24 pm
August 21st, 2009
Hi!
I have the same laptop.. but I don’t know how to use finger print scanner… please give me instructions on my id….
thanx.
11:17 am
August 26th, 2009
Hi Faraz,
To use the fingerprint scanner you’ll need to install the driver and the “Credentials and Fingerprint Manager” along with “HP Protect Tools Security Suite”.
You can download these after choosing your operating system here.
Hope that helps.
Kind regards,
Alex