Hi folks. I've got a laptop that had Vista and Win 7 RC1 on a dual boot. I'm wanting to get rid of the RC1 and replace it with WinXP Home.

I have an original retail version of Win XP Home with the licence key. So I created a slpistream version of Win XP using nLite to include SATA drivers, chipset drivers and Service Pack 3. This all went well, and the slipstreamed XP CD boots ok.

I started the installation of XP to overwrite the Windows 7 partition, and the install went as expected until I reached the part where it asks for the licence key. When I enter the key and select Next, I get an error that the key is invalid. I don't understand why it's doing this.

Can anyone help?

The problem I now have is that the laptop won't boot as the Vista partition is not set as the default, and I can't log on to the Vista install using the XP recovery console as it asks for a password, even though I didn't put one on it when I installed it.

Is there a way of using the Vista CD to change the boot record?

Quick question, you used your retail XP Home to create the nLite? correct?

No, I used Windows 7 - but having read another forum earlier today I now realise that using Windows 7 was probably the cause of the problem.

I'm going to try creating another disk over the weekend using a Windows XP laptop.

If you are slipstreaming using an OEM disc they sometimes won't produce a workable slipstreamed finished disc. I'm not an expert by any means and someone with more knowledge may be able to shed some light.
I've only slipstreamed XP using retail OS discs but I've heard of instances where OEM discs supplied with Dell, HP, Acer etc. have failed to initialize or be activated.

I'm using a retail update disc. I've almost managed to create the disc, but I just need to get the correct chipset drivers as it keeps erroring about the pci.sys file.

MS has a KB about this error at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330181

Thanks. I was getting this error with the first slipstream disc I made, but it because I forgot to include the chipset drivers. I downloaded the correct ones and made the new disc with SP3 that didn't work as per my OP, but I then forgot to copy the drivers to my external drive and lost them. I just need to download them again and make another disc.

I'll get there eventually.