I have no idea why sooooo many fellas think you cant downgrade from vista to xp
you would be shocked how often I hear that
its true if the XP install sees any hint or presence of vista it wont install / to fix this problem; simply wipe/erase the drive with a zero fill utility like the freeware version of Killdisk
I have done over 20 down grades (thats a funny description
) of vista to XP and never had to replace any hardware yet ! knocking on wood >>>>> although laptops can be a real beast to find xp drivers when they came loaded with vista, seems alot of their hardware doesnt have xp drivers
give that a whirl