I foolishly started the formatting process at 8pm. It .. hasn’t gone well, I’m afraid. I’m so very tired, but I can’t sleep – something I did caused a BSOD, then .. nothingness. My machine wouldn’t boot at all. I’d get the HP welcome screen, then an inky blackness that seemed to pierce my very soul and mock me from its depths. I’ve started again from scratch, and am watching the progress bar slowly crawl along as setup copies files. I’ve done this a thousand times before, but tonight it is ominous. I do not know how much longer I can hold out, but I must go on. Dear Elsie, please think of me fondly and do not fret. I will return to you either in body or spirit – I am in god’s hands now, and only he holds the final chapter of my life. Does it end here on these endless sands? Will I be saved and return to you, my body and mind intact? I long to see you but once more to say so many words, but it will have to suffice that I close my eyes and dream of your sweet smile. Your voice echoes in my ears, and though I am tormented by these devil reboots I am comforted.
Yours truly,
Hans
PS: please send me LAN and sound drivers for an HP dv9824ca
delicious juice dot com 
There is hope at the end of the loading process. I think. Maybe. Perhaps. Hopefully.
The chipset drivers are key. Legend states you will find them in the far east. Look for a man named ignacio at dusk.
I don’t miss those days.
The sad part is that I no longer know how to fix the computer at work when it starts acting up, and the IT guy’s answer is always “it needs more RAM”.
Drivers are not on the HP website? Crazy…
Wow – you are brave
We tried once… with this, the cousin of your laptop. It failed misserably, and I’ve been stuck in vista hell since.
I’ve dreamed of the day I try again – time has passed, surely drivers have materialized since my foray with XP in that alley so long ago, when she spit on me and threw me back into the cold, forced back into the big blue doors marked V
Surely it is possible….
Nope. HP ships the machines with Vista, and wants you to use Vista – they’re not making the XP drivers available. I’m having to find compatible drivers instead, but nothing is working as it should. If anyone is a grand internet detective, I’d love some help – this is my laptop: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01411386&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=ca&lang=en&product=3695145
And I need drivers for the Ethernet Controller, sound, and the modem (not important) !!
If you have XP up, go into the device manager and look at the Hardware IDs in the Details tab of the devices that are missing drivers. Try googling for the vendor and device numbers (without any of the other text). Often the Linux folks will have posted what the actual chipset (and manufacturer) are of a device, that way you can get the generic driver from the manufacturer (or another vendor) instead of from HP.