Did MS finally get me? (Acer Aspire One 722 - no drivers for XP)

Mayday

So I bought a netbook- an Acer Aspire One 722-C6Crr (the C60 Cpu version aka. latest). It came with only a simple Linux distro and a bunch of Windows 7 drivers.

And I thought to myself (what a wonderful world)- I've got this valid Windows XP license and I've never had problems with XP, why would I buy a new Windows system?

So I happily formatted the drive and installed a Windows XP. Only problem is, no downloaded drivers recognize the Radeon HD 6920 on board. I've spent the whole day searching the web on this subject.

found this: http://www.driverlook.com/download-acer-aspire-one-722-vga-graphic-driver-for-windows-xp/ DOESN'T WORK
read this: http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/56690/target-stores-acer-ao722bz454-notebook-amd-dualcore-c50-1ghz-2gb-ddr3-250gb-hdd-11.6-1366x768-led-radeon-hd-6250-wifi-n-6cell-battery-win-7-prem-30-target-gift-card (the part about Windows XP Video Driver for C-60) DOESN'T WORK
tried ATI's automatic driver installer- it closes immediately after I run it (??)

before I shell out and buy a Win 7 (which I REALLY don't need otherwise, this would be the only reason) I thought I'd ask if maybe someone has a similar experience.

Djeet

Well ATI/AMD did this to you, not MS. While I don't have an Acer Aspire One, I've encountered this type of problem several times since Vista dropped. I haven't encountered it in recent memory since I haven't installed XP in years. Starting with Vista, MS introduced a new driver model. It may be this is not uncommon as why develop drivers for new hardware for an OS that's basically end of life?

syndalis

Windows XP is 11 years old.

There has been a new windows operating beyond XP for almost five years now (will be 5 years exactly on the 8th). And another, superior, version of Windows has come out since then and has been on the market for two years.

A time has to come when you realize that holding on to something that old and flawed isn't doing you any favors, and the support for it has dwindled to almost nothing.

get a Win7 license. You will be happy you did.

proyebat

I have to ask: In what ways are you benefiting by using XP (or Windows in general) over the linux distro?

I totally understand if you play games and that's why you want Windows, but for a netbook you wouldn't be able to run most games that would need WINE. Also if this netbook was bought for school and Microsoft Office, there are plenty of free word processors like OpenOffice (can read/save DOC/DOCX extensions).

Sorry if this post sounds like a ditch Windows, but you're kind of creating problems by using an old OS.

jungleroomx

syndalis wrote:

get a Win7 license. You will be happy you did.

During the Vista heyday (If it even existed) there was a great excuse to hold off on getting rid of XP.

With even semi-modern hardware these days Win 7 actually runs well and, in benchmarks, runs better than XP in some areas. 7 is such a great and solid OS that I can't even imagine downgrading to XP ever again, especially with the pumped up performance 7 has on multi-core processors and how silky smooth it runs on my last-gen i5 with all the visual bells and whistles running.

Mayday

Yeah, I myself have an OEM win 7 license on my gaming PC.

What we're talking about is a new netbook I bought for my wife- who won't be using it for anything else than WWW, Skype and Office work.
I've been trying to convince her that Ubuntu+OOO will be the best choice in this case but she's really stubborn, doesn't like to try new things and is so used to MS Office that she says she can't find the functions she needs in OOO. I myself do practically no office work, so I don't know how true it is, but meh.
I guess maybe Ubuntu + Wine + MSOffice?
We'll see.

tsmvengy

Yeah if you need to do real office work especially Excel, OOO doesn't cut it.