So, I wanted a laptop about 3 months ago. I had the money. I bought a HP DV9727cl. Amazing little thing, yet it barely ran Vista. So after running Vista for a few days, I decided to downgrade to XP. Didnt figure there were gonna be any problems, until I started looking for drivers. No wifi drivers for it or sound drivers that were meant for XP. HUGE problem there. So, I just get the Vista drivers and after many hours of trial and error force XP to accept them. Only problems - No sound control, its always at max. And wifi WORKS, it just doesnt light up blue when turned on. Its always orange. Dont really care about that though. But the sound problem really worried me. Mainly because there were other problems with it too, like when I PLUGGED in headphones it still put out sound through the speakers. Which meant whatever I listened to, everyone else listened to. That the quickplay buttons for volume control wouldn't work, because I was using a driver meant for Vista on an XP MACHINE. So, after long hours spent with my faithful companion named Google, I have found the answer to this problem. I have found while searching many other people with my same problem, and I'd hate for them to go through the crap that I did. To fix audio on most laptops that has been downgraded from Vista to XP all you need to do is install the Microsoft UAA driver. Im just so nice that I'll post the link here.

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/SOUND-CARD/OTHER-SOUNDCARDS/Microsoft-UAA-Bus-Driver-for-High-Definition-Audio.shtml

Then, download this and extract it to your desktop.

http://rapidshare.com/files/138162442/ConexantHDAudio-221_XP.zip

Now, go to device manager and CLICK on Conexant High Definition Audio. If that isnt there, then you may not have any drivers installed for sound yet. Just click on the plus next to sound and audio devices and find the one with a yellow question mark. Now, right click on it and choose install/update driver. Dont choose the option that lets it connect to windows update and select the driver. That wont work. Dont let it search for the driver to install - choose to select one from a list. Once you get to that point, click on have disk. Remember when you extracted those files to your desktop? Now, go to that directory and find the *.inf file. Let it install. And enjoy audio drivers that work the way they should. Just thought I'd share my story and help others who had the same problem as me


And sorry if this is in the wrong section, just wanted to share this