Compaq F730US; going from Vista to XP

[WinnieThePujols]

I was able to get a F730US laptop for really cheap. The general consensus was that you should downgrade from Vista to XP. I wiped everything clean and installed Windows XP; however, a lot of people also complained about finding XP-compatible drivers for it. I thought this link explained it perfectly:

http://answers.yahoo.com/quest...=20071219181542AAEfRtX

However, I followed that to a "t" and it does not work. One part in particular really has me scratching me head:

7. Click Browse C:\swsetup\sp34200 folder and select the .inf (wis30b2a) file and click open and Continue with the onscreen instructions.

I download the exact EXE file they say to download (sp34200.exe) directly from the link they provide; however, when I extract it, the only driver file in there is "At8VEN5a" -- which is clearly different from the wis30b2a file they mention. I googled the latter and found a download link, but that didn't work either.

So I don't have sound on this laptop at all. Actually, that's a lie, I do have sound; every time I click something that generates an error, the internal speaker makes this obnoxious loud beep. Fantastic to have happen when you're in the middle of a class lecture and your computer starts beeping -- makes you look like a moron. I can't disable it. I tried going into Device Manager and disabling "System Speaker" but it still makes noise. I can't go into volume control at all, because I have no drivers for my audio device at all.

Can someone please help? This is driving me crazy!

 

[robisbell]

: Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio
: <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softp...2501-33000/sp32646.exe"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/softpaq/sp32501-33000/sp32646.exe">ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub.........00/sp32646.exe</a></a>
: Installation Instructions

1. Download the file to a directory on your hard drive.
2. Execute the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions.
: Then restart the notebook to install Audio driver
: <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp34001-34500/sp34200.exe"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp34001-34500/sp34200.exe">ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/sof.........00/sp34200.exe</a></a>
: This will create a swsetup folder in C drive ("C:\swsetup\sp34200")
: Installing this driver may result in an error. But continue with the following steps to get the audio driver installed correctly.
: 1. Click on Start and select Run. Now type devmgmt.msc and press enter.
2. Right click on "Audio device on High Definition Audio Bus" and click Update driver.
3. Select "Install from a list or specific location"
: 4. Click Next. Then select "Don't search, I will choose the driver to install"
5. Click Next and then select "Sound, video and game controller" from the list.
6. Click Next and then click Have Disk.
7. Click Browse C:\swsetup\sp34200 folder and select the .inf (wis30b2a) file and click open and Continue with the onscreen instructions.

there's 2 different files you need to get from the looks of it

okay, this is the system correct? http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr...093&rule=44219&lang=en

they say the audio is Altec Lansing, and then they also say its Conexant HD Audio.
I'd get both of those files and see if the file wis30b2a is listed in either.

 

[WinnieThePujols]

Yep; I've installed that UAA Bus driver multiple times!

 

[WinnieThePujols]

I wanna bump this up in case someone else runs into this problem:

The reason it wasn't working is because the UAA drivers apparently do not work with Windows XP SP3 apparently. As far as I can gather, Microsoft does not provide support for them with that service update.

 

[robisbell]

well, compaq is hush hush about the hardware so, that's it unless you can get them to tell what chipset the mobo uses etc.