Need a lot of help with Vista

[Narutoman14]

Hello everyone, I am having some major problems with vista.
First and foremost this comp was a hand me down, and somehow many things have happened to it beyond my understanding. 

Anways here is my problem, the two seperate hard drives in the computer are on two different OS's the main drive is on Vista while the other is on XP, the big problem I think I have is that all my graphics drivers are on the XP hard drive. So anything requiring any more graphics than flash wont work. I've tried downloading the packs to be able to make my graphics card compatible but it did nothing. SO whtI want to know is 1. Is there any way to downgrade to XP? Should I reformat the computer? 2. How do I reformat Vista? 3. Is there any way to upgrade the XP drive if there is no way to downgrade.

Thanks to everyone that helps me out.

[soybean]

So, you have a dual-boot configuration on that computer and you can boot either OS, right?  In other words, during startup, you can choose which OS to boot?

What problems are you having with Vista?  Any problems with XP? 

So anything requiring any more graphics than flash wont work.

Is this referring to Vista or XP?

You have a genuine Microsoft Windows XP CD, right?

What are the hardware specs on that computer?  Maybe it's not a good machine for running Vista.

[Broni]

Also, do you really need dual boot?

[Narutoman14]

I'm sorry let me clarify, the XP does not work at all, when my comp boots up is asks me to choose an OS, but it only gives me the options of Vista and "an earlier version of windows" whenever i try to boot the earlier version it shuts itself down and wont let me access the drive. As for the Graphics card not workig that is a vista problem. I don't know how to get vista to read my Graphics card I tried downloading patches for the card but the programs said the patch was downloaded already and didnt help at all.

edit: Also the dual boot thing was not my Idea when this comp was given to me it was already like that. And the problem is I can't access the had drive with XP at all.

[Broni]

What are the hardware specs on that computer?  Maybe it's not a good machine for running Vista.

...to start with.

[Narutoman14]

How do i find the system specs?

As of now I think this is what your looking for:
Processor: AMD Athlon 3200+, 2199 Mhz
Total Physical memory: 446.94 Mb
available phys mem: 64.89 MB
total virtual memory: 1.41 GB
available virtual memory: 825.84 MB

I'm not suhow to fnd anything else. -_-

[soybean]

One way would be to download, install, and run Belarc Advisor. 

[Broni]

Get Everest: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
After install go Computer>Summary, then Report>Quick Report-Summary, save it as text file, and paste it back here. In that text file, you don't need to post anything below Debug - PCI line.

[Broni]

We posted at the same time. Either one will do.

[Narutoman14]

operating system: Windows Vista Home Basic (build 6000)

system model:Compaq Presario 061 PC136A-ABA SR1150NX NA430 0nB1411RE101KELUT00
System Serial Number: MXK4241R5R
Enclosure Type: Desktop

Processor:2.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board:Board: ASUSTek Computer INC. Kelut 2.02
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 3.03 02/09/2004

Drives:203.92 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
100.26 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

_NEC DVD+RW ND-2100AD ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]
ASUS CD-S480/AH ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]

Memory Modules:448 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 512 MB
Slot 'A1' is Empty

Display:RADEON 9200 SE Family (Microsoft Corporation - XDDM) [Display adapter]
RADEON 9200 SE SEC Family (Microsoft Corporation - XDDM) [Display adapter]
Standard VGA Graphics Adapter [Display adapter]
ViewSonic A71f+ [Monitor] (16.3"vis, s/n P3P044304021, October 2004)

Bus adapters:Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controller (4x)
VIA USB Enhanced Host Controller


Maxtor 6L200P0 [Hard drive] (203.93 GB) -- drive 1, s/n L40YPLEH, rev BAH41G10, SMART Status: Healthy
Maxtor 6Y200P0 [Hard drive] (203.93 GB) -- drive 0, s/n Y62WDH0E, rev YAR41BW0, SMART Status: Healthy

I think thats good enough right Sorry it took so long.

[Broni]

512 MB of RAM should work OK with XP, but it's not enough for Vista. I'd say 1GB minimum, but you'd prefer 2GB.

Then, there is something unclear here:

Memory Modules:448 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'A0' has 512 MB

Display:RADEON 9200 SE Family (Microsoft Corporation - XDDM) [Display adapter]
RADEON 9200 SE SEC Family (Microsoft Corporation - XDDM) [Display adapter]
Standard VGA Graphics Adapter [Display adapter]

Where is 64MB of RAM? It looks to me, that someone installed Radeon video card without disabling on-board graphics. That's how I see missing 64MB of RAM.
Maybe someone else will correct me.

[Narutoman14]

Yeah I wish I could help I just copied what the program gave me.....

[Broni]

Go to Device Manager, and post what is listed there under "Display Adapters".

[Narutoman14]

ok what I see is this
Radeon 9200 SE Family
Radeon 9200 SE SEC family
Standard VGA Graphics Adapter(has a yellow triangle with an exclamation point on the icon over the computer pic)

sorry I have to head out for a moment I'll be back in about half an hour

[soybean]

If the info at http://www.shopping.com/xPF-Compaq-COMPAQ-SR1150NX-DESKTOP-PC is correct, that computer has onboard video and an AGP slot.  I suspect onboard video needs to be disabled, since you have an AGP video card (the Radeon 9200 SE) installed.  The 64MB difference between RAM actually installed (512MB) and memory Windows reports (448MB) indicates the onboard is set to use 64MB of system memory, and that has not been disabled.

Can you access the BIOS and look for an option to disable onboard video?