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A friend in the UK recently purchased a machine with an Athlon processor and
an OEM version of XP64 pre-installed from a mail order retailer.

He has now discovered that there are no 64 bit compatible drivers available
for his existing USB printer and scanner (plus he is having intermittent
problems with his USB ADSL modem) and either has to purchase replacements
or, at my suggestion, downgrade to the standard version of XP Home or Pro.

As I understand it the "downgrade" can only be done with a full version of
either product (not the upgrade package) and has to be a clean install i.e.
formatting the HD and therefore the financial cost of either option
(replacement h/w or downgrading the OS) is broadly similar.

Assuming he decides to downgrade are there any known problems in running the
standard version of Home or Pro on a 64 bit processor? Will this solve the
problem with the device drivers? He is by no means a power user and the fact
that he would be under utilising the Athlon processor is not really an
issue.

Thanks for any advice/suggestions offered.

Garry Douglas

** Please remove SPMOFF to reply direct **
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All outgoing mail content and attachments scanned with Grisoft AVG 7.1

Yes, your friend would have to clean install XP. As for running 32 bit XP
on 64 bit hardware, that should not be a problem at all. I had XP running
well on a 64 bit machine before I switched to XP x64.

--
Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation
"Garry Douglas" <> wrote in message
news:e3Kfgv$...
>A friend in the UK recently purchased a machine with an Athlon processor
>and an OEM version of XP64 pre-installed from a mail order retailer.
>
> He has now discovered that there are no 64 bit compatible drivers
> available for his existing USB printer and scanner (plus he is having
> intermittent problems with his USB ADSL modem) and either has to purchase
> replacements or, at my suggestion, downgrade to the standard version of XP
> Home or Pro.
>
> As I understand it the "downgrade" can only be done with a full version of
> either product (not the upgrade package) and has to be a clean install
> i.e. formatting the HD and therefore the financial cost of either option
> (replacement h/w or downgrading the OS) is broadly similar.
>
> Assuming he decides to downgrade are there any known problems in running
> the standard version of Home or Pro on a 64 bit processor? Will this solve
> the problem with the device drivers? He is by no means a power user and
> the fact that he would be under utilising the Athlon processor is not
> really an issue.
>
> Thanks for any advice/suggestions offered.
>
> Garry Douglas
>
> ** Please remove SPMOFF to reply direct **
> --
> All outgoing mail content and attachments scanned with Grisoft AVG 7.1
>

Do you know what the printer model is - there are quite a few different
sites with XP 64 drivers available now.

The usb modem problem could just be the power saving setting in Device
manager.


"Garry Douglas" <> wrote in message
news:e3Kfgv$...
>A friend in the UK recently purchased a machine with an Athlon processor
>and an OEM version of XP64 pre-installed from a mail order retailer.
>
> He has now discovered that there are no 64 bit compatible drivers
> available for his existing USB printer and scanner (plus he is having
> intermittent problems with his USB ADSL modem) and either has to purchase
> replacements or, at my suggestion, downgrade to the standard version of XP
> Home or Pro.
>
> As I understand it the "downgrade" can only be done with a full version of
> either product (not the upgrade package) and has to be a clean install
> i.e. formatting the HD and therefore the financial cost of either option
> (replacement h/w or downgrading the OS) is broadly similar.
>
> Assuming he decides to downgrade are there any known problems in running
> the standard version of Home or Pro on a 64 bit processor? Will this solve
> the problem with the device drivers? He is by no means a power user and
> the fact that he would be under utilising the Athlon processor is not
> really an issue.
>
> Thanks for any advice/suggestions offered.
>
> Garry Douglas
>
> ** Please remove SPMOFF to reply direct **
> --
> All outgoing mail content and attachments scanned with Grisoft AVG 7.1
>

Garry Douglas wrote:

>He has now discovered that there are no 64 bit compatible drivers
>available for his existing USB printer and scanner (plus he is having
>intermittent problems with his USB ADSL modem) and either has to purchase
>replacements or, at my suggestion, downgrade to the standard version of XP
>Home or Pro.

USB ADSL modems are just a complete PITA. Much better to get an ADSL
Router and convert the connection to ethernet or wireless. This is much
more reliable, and easier to work with (no funky drivers on the PC!).

>As I understand it the "downgrade" can only be done with a full version of
>either product (not the upgrade package) and has to be a clean install
>i.e. formatting the HD and therefore the financial cost of either option
>(replacement h/w or downgrading the OS) is broadly similar.

Correct, XP x64 is not a qualifying product for XP Upgrades, and a fresh
install is required.

>Assuming he decides to downgrade are there any known problems in running
>the standard version of Home or Pro on a 64 bit processor? Will this solve
>the problem with the device drivers? He is by no means a power user and
>the fact that he would be under utilising the Athlon processor is not
>really an issue.

There are no issues about running a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit x64 CPU.

Driver issues may or may not occur - you'd need to check whether the
vendor(s) have XP drivers available. "Vintage" hardware is unlikely to
have XP drivers for either 32-bit or 64-bit, unless it's very common or
basic (eg HP LaserJet 3/4/5 drivers are still provided by MS).

It's also worth bearing in mind that Vista is just around the corner - if
this might be of interest to him, it's probably worth holding on for now
on both the OS *and* hardware fronts (updated/new drivers are going to be
required from all vendors for Vista, and they'll have to provide both
32-bit and 64-bit to get "Vista certified" labelling).

--
Steve Foster [SBS MVP]
---------------------------------------
MVPs do not work for Microsoft. Please reply only to the newsgroups.

"RonK" <> wrote in message
news:uKnSv8$...

> Do you know what the printer model is - there are quite a few different
> sites with XP 64 drivers available now.

The printer is a Lexmark Z708 inkjet which I guess is just over 2 years old.
Can't find a 64 bit driver on the manufacturer's site (likewise for the
scanner, a Canoscan LIDE 20) but I think he will now invest in a new
all-in-one printer with 64 bit driver support and let his daughter use the
existing printer and scanner on her laptop when she goes off to college in a
couple of weeks. That way he avoids the need to downgrade to 32 bit XP and
as he was planning on purchasing a new printer and scanner for her in any
case there's no real extra cost involved and everyone is happy

> The usb modem problem could just be the power saving setting in Device
> manager.

I finally found an updated 64 bit driver CD for the modem (a Thomson
Speedtouch C330) and after installing the new drivers the modem at least is
working.

Garry