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how long should a new laptop(battery) be charged?

Dad called this morning asking for a final resolution to the non compatibility of his new 64 bit Toshiba Laptop with his printer which is not compatible witha 64 bit OS.

As otherwise he has to unnecessarily keep 2 PCs at home

One of the friendly neighborhood pc guy told him to install XP to get rid of the problem.

- Now my Question is can a 32 bit OS be installed on a 64 bit machine?

- Is it possible to dual boot Vista with XP or is it better for him to get rid of Vista completely & install XP?

My only issue is that if one has a genuine product license(Vista) then why waste it besides new softwares may run better on Vista.

Please advise :)

- Yes it is possible to have 32 bit OS on a 64 bit processor. But by doing this you are not taking advantage of 64 bit apps. (Mostly related to better graphic and games).
- It is possible to dual boot XP and Vista, Vista 32 bit and Vista 64 bit and other combinations.

The important point is if you have a Dell laptop with pre installed Vista 64 bit OS, then do not try any of the above. As, you will not get the drives for mother board for other OSes and also, there is not mother board drivers given even for the installed OS!!! This is important. They only ship recovery CD, (Not same as OS CD). :)

Wouldn't a 64 Bit OS run 32 Bit programs also. If that is the case then the printer's 32 bit drivers should work just fine right?.

We run 64 bit Windows XP OS at our office . I have (touchwood) not come across an issue where the 64 Bit OS did not allow me to communicate with a peripheral

The beautiful part of XP 64 bit is that Microsoft tech supports calls you back.



This is the next best thing at 500$
Lenovo Goes Ion With 12.1" IdeaPad S12 Netbook - HotHardware

Nope this canon printer simply refuses to work with 65 bit OS. I have searched net for solutions & found none.

Well I had this problem in my laptop too, it is a Toshiba 64 bit machine. I could not install even the latest VLC player. I had a RAM problem in my laptop and the OS was re-installed and after that when I tried installing 32 bit programs (including the latest VLC player & the old version of ACDSee 2.3) it worked. The difference this time was that 32 bit programs are getting installed in "Program Files (x86)". Try this for a solution before any OS re-install.

"So, in addition to the Program Files folder, there is a Program Files (x86) folder for 32-bit applications. Also, in addition to the System32 folder, there is a SysWOW64 folder. Contrary to what the names may suggest, 64-bit operating system components and shared libraries go into the System32 folder, while 32-bit operating system components and shared libraries go into the SysWOW64 folder."

Source: Craig McMurtry's WebLog : 64-Bit Windows Part 11: Windows On Windows 64

@anandtheleo- Thanks man but we have tried that too but didnt work, the installer installs in the 32 bit directory but the Printer application simply refuses to start stating non compatibility :(

^^^^

Techno, do you connect the printer through USB ? if you do then there could be a workaround through VM.

The first step I will do is that find Canon's 64 bit drivers for XP or better, Vista. If the printer is really old and not compatible, you might want to find a printer than getting rid of the OS.

Secondly, UAC and some other features of Vista won't let the drivers interact with the kernel directly at all. It is strictly restricted in Vista Design and if that is the case, you don't have any option but to get another printer if no compatible drivers.

For dual boot, if you install XP, your vista partition will still be there but it will not boot into Vista. The reason for that is XP is pretty dumb when it comes to seeing another OS on the system. So the solution is to use a utility called EasyBCD to restore Vista install. Then you can use the same to add an XP boot partition as well. Read the documentation for more info. More on dualboot.

Say “it’s my Windows” How to restore BCD bootloader and add Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 boot entry in BCD

But the root of it is the printer driver. Unless you get Windows 7 with XP mode, it's not gonna help because the driver model has changed starting Windows Vista. The only other option is to downgrade the Vista license to XP.

PS : I forgot, but have you tried using the default print drivers that come with Windows to print. It may not tell you the tanks stats and stuff, but may just do the job.

What is a good laptop between 20-25K. My options are Dell and Acer and Lenovo only if comparable warranty terms. Netbooks, HP & Desi brands are not an option here.

Primary usage will be for studies.

Thanksa lot Netfreak & given2fly for your detailed solutions :)

Damn didnt think of that but then again I am not sure that my father can get VMWare in Bhopal :|

Tried that, the printer was bought new 3 months back Canon 2900B I have searched the internet & people haven't yet found a way to resolve this issue

Thats my worry the hadrware guy isnt that expert & is the regular chap who at the max would be able to install XP, heck I am not even sure if he would be able to get all the drivers for the laptop on XP & hence want to have dual boot with Vista.

The system cant find a suitable driver for this printer from the default drivers & hence the printer is not getting configured.

Hi,

I think they were talking about Virtual Machines (something like the Sun XVM Virtualbox), I think and not VMware.

It would be a slightly contrived, but would not require much setup on his end.

You would need to:

1. Download VMWare player at your end. Its free.
2. Setup a VM with OS that has proper drivers
3. Burn that image + VMWare player on a dvd
4. Send it to your dad

Now at his end:

1. Put dvd in drive
2. Install VMWare player
3. Copy image directory on HDD
4. Setup a shortcut on desktop to open this image
5. Tere is an option where VMWare will take over USB port where printer is connected
6. Printer should now work fine inside VM
7. Export this printer as network printer from VM
8. From Actual OS, add this printer as Preferred printer

Now onwards, printing should be straight forward from any App in 64 Bit windows.


Of course you would have to do everything beyond step #1 for him.

Logmein.com comes handy for such things :thumbs up

@ NetFreak, shouldn't you be saying TeamViewer in the same breath. It is also free and HTTP(S) based remote desktop. Plus is you get all the features of LogMeIn for free for personal use*.