Hi, I have a Acer Aspire m1640 with VISTA pre-installed , i want to INSTALL xp instead but cannot find xp drivers for the m/board or identify it, ACER does not know what m/board it is and there is no numbers on it, any ideas out there, ta,   swampyIf Acer's site was no help try DLoading Everest Home and running a report...
Save the report as a text file and post the Computer Summary portion here...This has been years ago that I did this but I purchased a new computer with Windows ME which was a disaster. I hated it so much and LIKE you, couldn't find drivers for all the hardware in the system. So, what I did was, format and install Windows 98SE from my installation cd's and let it pick the drivers, etc. for all the hardware and it did. I thought, what did I have to lose and fortunately, everything worked. They may not have been the drivers the manufacturers would have suggested but they worked and with no problems. So, as a suggestion, what do you have to lose? You can always put it back like it was when you purchased it if this doesn't work. But, first make a backup of all important data you want to keep first. There may be some that won't AGREE but it's just a suggestion. HTHWindows 98SE and ME used the drivers.

XP and Vista use completely different driver models.

But as you say the system recovery option is available- perhaps they are simply deciding wether they should waste an afternoon installing an OS when it isn't worth the trouble?Have you tired going into Device Manager and seeing if that tells you the exact model and make of each component and then see if you can go to each manufacturers website to see if there are drivers available, its long winded but it might work if the Acer site doesn't. Quote from: BC_Programmer on February 19, 2009, 05:36:18 AM

But as you say the system recovery option is available-