Laptop can't boot windows xp cd or usb

[plasticblack]

I have a laptop running windows 7. I do basic gaming(very old games) on it, along with office applications. My problem is, it only has 1GB of DDR2 ram(512mb x 2) so it runs windows 7 painfully slowly. I decided to rollback to windows xp and see if it would work better, but the windows xp cd that i bought does not boot up. I also decided to borrow one from a friend and unfortunately that did not work either. I also used a tool to create a windows xp bootable flash drive, but that did not work either. However, my windows 7 home premium dvd boots up perfectly.
Here are my system specs:
Pentium T3400@ 2.16GHz
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
120GB HDD @ 5400RPM
Intel GMA X3100
512mb x 2 DDR2 400 RAM

 

[nhasian]

For $50 you can put 4 gigs of ram in your computer:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007609%20600006176%20600000403&IsNodeId=1&name=4GB%20%282%20x%202GB%29&Order=PRICE&Pagesize=20

 

[plasticblack]

Best answer selected by plasticblack.

 

[Zencoli]

You know not everyone has that option... it would be nice if someone could in theory prove that it is possible to install or reinstall Xp on a system that once held windows 7.... a system like my netbook. any real help to actually installing the Xp os onto a netbook that will work 100% would be nice.

i have used:
unetbootin
linuxlive boot
ultra.iso
xubuntu
virtualbox installation
among others...

Any tips or suggestions aside from
1) Buy a USB CD-ROM
2) Buy a better Computer
3) Just use 7

These three suggestions listed are not feasible options, and as much as id kill for a usb cdrom, they are hard to come by here.

 

[plasticblack]

You know not everyone has that option... it would be nice if someone could in theory prove that it is possible to install or reinstall Xp on a system that once held windows 7.... a system like my netbook. any real help to actually installing the Xp os onto a netbook that will work 100% would be nice.

i have used:
unetbootin
linuxlive boot
ultra.iso
xubuntu
virtualbox installation
among others...

Any tips or suggestions aside from
1) Buy a USB CD-ROM
2) Buy a better Computer
3) Just use 7

These three suggestions listed are not feasible options, and as much as id kill for a usb cdrom, they are hard to come by here.

If you have another computer with a dvd drive, or if you have the image file of the windows xp os, i have read in other forums that you can make a bootable windows xp flash drive and install with that. However, i can't seem to find a way to get it to boot. I have tried to boot windows 7 on my pc through a flash drive and it did work, just don't know why it isnt working with windows xp...

 

[Dennis2013]

I have a laptop running windows 7. I do basic gaming(very old games) on it, along with office applications. My problem is, it only has 1GB of DDR2 ram(512mb x 2) so it runs windows 7 painfully slowly. I decided to rollback to windows xp and see if it would work better, but the windows xp cd that i bought does not boot up. I also decided to borrow one from a friend and unfortunately that did not work either. I also used a tool to create a windows xp bootable flash drive, but that did not work either. However, my windows 7 home premium dvd boots up perfectly.
Here are my system specs:
Pentium T3400@ 2.16GHz
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
120GB HDD @ 5400RPM
Intel GMA X3100
512mb x 2 DDR2 400 RAM

Isn't that funny. I just upgraded from xp pro to Vista *** and want to reinstll my XP and guess what? Yup, neither of my dvds nor my external USB drive will boot the XP cd. WTF is going on? Seems MS has something sneaky up their sleave. My system will not support Win 7 so I cannot go up and Vista will not support the video driver I need. Real nice.

 

[electronian]

What exactly are you trying?--to put the XP disk in, and restart? Or, do you mean putting the disk in, after Windows 7 boots up, you are putting the disk in, and nothing is happening?

 

[electronian]

...I assume you mean putting the disk in, and restarting. Did you "hit any key to boot from CD {/DVD}"? (Because you need to hit a key, or else it won't boot from the Windows XP installation disk [and it only gives you about 3 seconds to hit any key])