Two computer questions

[Ervin Farkas]

I have a Sony Vaio laptop and as most if not all "modern" computers, it came with a bunch of junk a.k.a. bundled software. I would love to get rid of all that and just install XP instead, but it won't let me do it.

Is there a way around this? Although 3 years old, it's still a nice PC (P4 @ 2.4 GHz/512 MB) with a large 16 inch high resolution screen, I could use it for mobile video editing if the junk wouldn't slow it down... (I have the recovery CDs in case anything goes wrong, so I'm willing to experiment).

Also, a computer guy told me I can't upgrade the RAM - it has two slots with 256 MB each RAM in them. Is that true?

[John Miller]

What do you mean specifically by "it won't let me do it"?

[Harm Millaard]

It being around three years of age, I would simply suggest to get a 100 G 2.5" HD with at least 5.400 RPM, format and install from fresh. Just make sure you have downloaded and stored the relevant drivers for the Vaio.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

I have a Sony Vaio laptop and as most if not all "modern" computers, it came with a bunch of junk a.k.a. bundled software. I would love to get rid of all that and just install XP instead, but it won't let me do it.

Is there a way around this? Although 3 years old, it's still a nice PC (P4 @ 2.4 GHz/512 MB) with a large 16 inch high resolution screen, I could use it for mobile video editing if the junk wouldn't slow it down... (I have the recovery CDs in case anything goes wrong, so I'm willing to experiment).

Also, a computer guy told me I can't upgrade the RAM - it has two slots with 256 MB each RAM in them. Is that true?

Ervin,

Motherboards do have ram limitation, which are specific to teh model, try going to Sony's site and doing some research on your specific motherboard/laptop. If you can go to 1 gig of ram or above your ram, then you'll probably have to switch out the ram chips. Just do some research before attempting this.

[Ervin Farkas]

Originally Posted by John F Miller

What do you mean specifically by "it won't let me do it"?

I don't remember the wording but it comes back with something like operation not permitted.

[Ervin Farkas]

Originally Posted by Harm Millaard

It being around three years of age, I would simply suggest to get a 100 G 2.5" HD with at least 5.400 RPM, format and install from fresh. Just make sure you have downloaded and stored the relevant drivers for the Vaio.

I'd be glad to drop in another hard drive, but I'm not sure it's the hard drive that won't let me do what I want to do. I suspect it's rather the BIOS settings but I don't know enough about that stuff to be sure.

[Denis Danatzko]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

I have a Sony Vaio laptop and... a computer guy told me I can't upgrade the RAM - it has two slots with 256 MB each RAM in them. Is that true?

Possible, as I'm not very familiar with the Vaio. Frankly, though, it strikes me as unlikely. (One of my machines is older than yours and has only a 1.8 Ghz chip, but it does have a 2 Gb limit for memory). You may not be able to get faster memory, (if that's what they mean by "upgrading"), but you should well be able to get more memory, or at least replace your existing chips with larger ones. I'll take a chance and mention a computer vendor (who is not a sponsor of this site, but does not sell video equipment, so I think there may not be a conflict). Try 4allmemory.

I needed to max out that 1.8 GHz HP machine and they spent lots of time on the phone helping me decide what I needed, AND it turned out they confirmed that I could simply transfer the old, smaller chips directly into my Mac MDD model. (They could have ignored that fact and simply told me I needed to buy new chips, but they didn't). Their help ended up saving me a couple of hundred bucks. They will even buy back your old memory, though at considerably less than they would charge for the same chips.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

I have a Sony Vaio laptop and as most if not all "modern" computers, it came with a bunch of junk a.k.a. bundled software. I would love to get rid of all that and just install XP instead, but it won't let me do it.

Is there a way around this? Although 3 years old, it's still a nice PC (P4 @ 2.4 GHz/512 MB) with a large 16 inch high resolution screen, I could use it for mobile video editing if the junk wouldn't slow it down... (I have the recovery CDs in case anything goes wrong, so I'm willing to experiment).

Also, a computer guy told me I can't upgrade the RAM - it has two slots with 256 MB each RAM in them. Is that true?

I'm confused ... what is your operating system now? If the computer is three years old I would have expected it to already be Win XP since that came out about 2003.

You said "it won't let me do it." By that do you mean it won't let you uninstall the bundled software or it won't let you reinstall Windows? The bare specs you gave, 2.4gHz P4 w/ 512 meg RAM, are certainly well over the system minimum requirements for XP and I have it running on a much lesser system for my file and printer server - 450mHz P2 w/ 384 meg RAM. So what exactly were you trying to do and what exactly did it tell you when you tried it?

[John Miller]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

I don't remember the wording but it comes back with something like operation not permitted.

I ask because I have an old Vaio (600MHz PIII). It came with Windows Me which I immediately replaced with Win2K(!) Last year, I wanted to upgrade it to XP but I couldn't due to a hardware conflict.

It also has a maximum RAM capacity of 256MB.

But your P4 shouldn't be problematic. Having said that, though, you should check Sony's support site. You may need a BIOS upgrade and Sony usually provide all the hardware drivers.

Is the original OS XP? Are you trying to do a complete re-install (from a retail CD-ROM) or upgrade over the existing one?

[Ervin Farkas]

Originally Posted by Steve House

I'm confused ... what is your operating system now? If the computer is three years old I would have expected it to already be Win XP since that came out about 2003.

The operating system is, of course WinXP, and I have the recovery CDs, but it's not like "this CD will restore your OS, and that CD will restore your other software"... it's CD1, CD2, and CD3. And by the time I re-installed them all three, I have a ton of unwanted software.

[Daniel J. Wojcik]

Going to the Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs won't let you get rid of the extra baggage?