jed1154,

The Vista install will not do it for you. As with XP, you will have to install the required drivers.

FYI, Inspiron 6000 is not a good candidate for Vista. It will only run Basic because of the non vista graphics--Intel is unable to provide Chipset graphics drivers for vista and never intends to do so. Save your money and stay with XP. Run the Windows Upgrade Advisor first. It will say Basic only-which is a bad idea-unless you bought it with a high end graphics card.

Audio driver, firmware for whatever optical drive you have, network drivers (wired & wireless), video driver and BIOS update. BTW, Mary G. may have a very valid point. Have you run the Microsoft Upgrade Advisor or Dell's Vista Readiness Advisor?

 

On the Readiness Advisor page, the 6000 is not listed as one of the machines that meets the basic Vista requirements. I'm not saying that Vista will not work, but if it does, you may not be very happy with the performance. Your decision of course.

I agree this is not a great Vista Laptop. But if the 6000d was configured at the high end of its option it will work well for most users.  If it does not have a discrete graphics card, I wouldn't consider it which is why the 6000 is probably not on the advisor list.  Most people probably ordered it with the intel shared graphics.  Just more info to make your decision.  Good luck.

 

Below is my Windows Experience stats greatly affected by the graphics score, then the processor. 

 

Component Details Subscore Base score                                   3.4
  Determined by lowest subscore 
 

Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz                  3.8
Memory (RAM) 2.00 GB                                                                  4.4
Graphics ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300                                         4.7
Gaming graphics 895 MB Total available graphics memory          3.4
Primary hard disk 35GB Free (75GB Total)                                    4.9
Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium

Unless it is a 6000d with discrete graphics.  I run Vista HP and it is fine. More graphics ram would be nice.  A new machine for me would have min 256mb VRAM and hopefully 512mb.  I think that the performance would be minimally different form XP if the windows search was disabled on Vista.  Slower maybe but virtually undiscernable in general.  This is for business oriented stuff with the addition of music and photos.  I am not a gamer.  I do run aero, but have shut off transparent windows as a personal preference.

You could do it.  If I were you, I would upgrade to 2G ram.  If you already have 2 chips for the 1G get 2x1gb that are 533. Most including mine shipped only with 400mhz.  Mine are actually the faster ram, but it is backward compatible to 533.  I can't remember the next speed up off the top of my head.

 

Vista uses extra ram for video support.

Mary G, I have a I6000 D with a X300 ATI video card 128 meg and 2 gig of memory and Vista Premium Home + Aero work very well and a matter of fact it is fast and stable. So don't count the old dogs out of the hurt just yet.

My I6000 has the 915GM chip, integrated graphics and cannot run Aero, never will according to Intel: http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-023606.htm#3  You have better graphics, so Vista is fine for you. I just think that if all you can run is Vista Basic, you would be better off with XP until you can buy a new computer. My 2+ year old Dim 8400 with 2 gigs of memory and the original 128 graphics card runs Home Premium & Aero fine.