New guy with questions about an old topic (MEC to XP)

[malcarney]

Howdy folks.

I stumbled onto this forum while trying to figure out why I can’t record on my computer.

I’ve spent 2 years trying to resolve this issue during which time I’ve called multiple hotlines, joined other forums, taken my laptop into two different music stores and had them trouble shoot it, paid people to come over to my house and try to fix it, etc all to no avail.

It turns out that I got stuck with Window XP MCE when I bought my laptop. (I had no idea that it even existed until yesterday. I thought I just had Windows xp home)

I have both Sonar Home Studio v4, and Mixcraft, and I have a M-Audio Mobile-Pre.

The Mixcraft appears to work well except for a latency issue.

I haven’t tried the Home Studio in a while because I became so frustrated with it.

So my questions are:

If I replace the XP MCE with the XP Home, will that be likely to resolve the latency issue? Will I then be able to use the ASIO setting (which I understand to be the preferred setting) on the Mixcraft?

What sort of functionality will I be losing by replacing one with the other? As near as I can tell, the MCE has stuff like tv and tivo capability, none of which I use. I just want to be able to record music, run my iPod, surf the internet and store photos. I should be able to do all that if I replace XPMCE with XP Home, right?

Anything else I should know before I swap out the OS?

This site has already been really helpful, so thanks.

[Electriclight]

MCE is famously difficult to work with for audio recording. XP Home should do the trick fine. What you haven't mentioned is an audio interface. If you are the least bit serious in audio recording, do yourself a favor and invest in a real audio interface. They start at about $100. Stock soundcards are just not made for this function..Use the Soundcard Wizard on this site to help select one.

[malcarney]

Thanks, Electriclight.


Isn't the sound card part of the M-Audio Mobile-Pre? I thought they had an internal sound card or did I get that wrong?

[Electriclight]

Yes, I apologize.

I had to reread your post 3 times until I saw the M-Box. Load XP, check M-Audio website for the latest drivers, and you should be good to go.

[malcarney]

Thanks again.

Here's the latest in the saga:

Last night, I tried to replace my copy of Windows XP MCE with copy of Windows XP Home.

I backed up my photos and music onto my external drive. I don't have that much additional sw on my computer so I'm made my peace with having to reinstall any programs that I lose.

The problem: I inserted the XP Home disc last night and it would not let me overwrite XP MCE because XP MCE is a more recent version of Windows.

Also, all the instuctions that I've found on the internet seem to deal with removing an upgraded operating system. I'm trying to remove the original operating system and replace it with an older operating system. Any suggestions?

[Electriclight]

Lots of people create dual boot systems adding XP to their Vista systems. I am moving this thread to the computer forum where you may get better advice. However, If you go the dual boot route you will not lose ANY programs. It is very easy but I want someone else to give you specific instructions!

[fmw]

Originally Posted by malcarney

Thanks again.

Here's the latest in the saga:

Last night, I tried to replace my copy of Windows XP MCE with copy of Windows XP Home.

I backed up my photos and music onto my external drive. I don't have that much additional sw on my computer so I'm made my peace with having to reinstall any programs that I lose.

The problem: I inserted the XP Home disc last night and it would not let me overwrite XP MCE because XP MCE is a more recent version of Windows.

Also, all the instuctions that I've found on the internet seem to deal with removing an upgraded operating system. I'm trying to remove the original operating system and replace it with an older operating system. Any suggestions?

Changing operating systems is simple in ways and difficult in others. Here's my advice.

Start by getting some sort of backup for your data. This is critical for every single computer on the planet. Hard drives all crash at some point and we need to protect the data. I suggest you go buy an external USB hard drive or put together one of your own with a drive and an enclosure. You can use USB memory sticks as long as you understand that they are less reliable than hard drives.

Then back up your data fles. Don't worry about the applications themselves since they will need to be reinstalled.

Next step is to acquire all the hardware drivers you might need for the new operating system. These are available from the computer manufacturer or mainboard manufacturer. The drivers on your restore disc may work with the new O/S or they may not. Find out before you start.

If it's my computer, I would remove the existing drive and install a new one and then simply install the new O/S, drivers and applications and then restore the data from the backup. I would have the original drive if something didn't work like I intended. That would leave me with a spare drive. If that isn't your cup of tea, then you need to wipe the drive and start with an emply one. I do this by deleting the partitions on the drive. I use an old DOS program called fdisk.com. There are more modern and sophisticated ways to do this but that is what you need to do.

Then you can install the new O/S, drivers, applications and restore from the backup. If nothing else, be sure to heed my advice about the backup drive. You need to do that no matter what else you do unless you consider your files expendable.