HP Pavilion ZV5000

[JimW1949]

My daughter has a HP Pavilion ZV5000 notebook which she got thru work. A year or two ago her work upgraded their computers and she bought a notebook really cheap, something like $25 I guess. Anyway, now she has a problem with it and she brought it to me and told me it wasn't working. I checked it out, and she was right, it wasn't working. She had a virus on it, and several malware/spyware problems. It was so bad I couldn't get it to do much of anything so I had no choice but to dump everything and start all over. Normally you get a restore disk, or you get a partition on the hard drive with a restore feature on it. In this case, she didn't get either one. But for the price she paid for the notebook, it is hard to complain about it.

Anyway, I dumped everything and installed Windows XP Professional. I wanted to put Linux Mint on it, but she wants Windows because she is familiar with it. So I put Windows XP Professional on it and I did all the updates thru the Windows update site. I have it working fairly decent, the only problem I have is 3 yellow question marks in device manager.

1. Base System Device
2. PCI Modem
3. SM Bus Controller

I am pretty sure the Base System Device has to do with an input device, but I have no idea what device it is.

I downloaded the modem driver from the HP website and installed it, but for some reason I still get the yellow question mark.

The SM Bus Controller I am pretty sure is part of the chipset, but I don't know what chipset driver to download and install. The thing that puzzles me is, if I am correct and the SM Bus Controller is part of the chipset, why did the chipset lose the driver when I formatted the hard drive and installed Windows?

Any help you guys/gals can give me on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lanyap]

First, see if the label on the bottom of the laptop exists and is readable. If so, look for the actual model number and part number. Model number should be something like ZV5120LA. Part number will be like Z259XY#ABA. The ZV5000 type number is usually the model family. Plug in the part number here to get your drivers or try the autodetect option. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/siteHome?cc=us&lc=en

1. Base system device is the card reader. Probably TI for that model.
2. PCI Modem - That model family came with Intel and AMD versions. Your modem driver will depend on that.
3. SM Bus Controller is the chipset. You probably have the nVidia chipset. Use the above instructions to determine which one. The drivers are for Windows so when you formated the drive you wiped out the drivers loaded in Windows.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Is this the intel model or the AMD model?

I just reloaded the drivers on an intel model so if that's what you have I could upload the drivers someplace. I just went through the same nonsense as you did.

 

[JimW1949]

You guys were right on, after careful checking I found that the model is actually ZV5320US.

I have taken your advice and I have cured the PCI Modem problem, but I still have the other 2 problems to fix.

This computer uses an AMD Athlon processor and I am not sure what drivers I need to download. Unfortunately, the HP website doesn't say "SM Bus Controller driver" or "Base System Device driver" but it did say modem driver and I had downloaded the wrong one which is why I had a problem. This computer uses the AMD modem instead of the Intel modem.

I appreciate the help you guys have given me, with your help I have one issue solved. I am much farther ahead than what I was. If you do come up with the drivers I need and want to send them to me, I can give you my email address. Or just tell me which drivers I need and I can go the HP website and download them.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Look for the chipset drivers. the SMBus is in there. Base system device may be as well.

 

[JimW1949]

I now have the Base System Device fixed, so now all that remains is the SM Bus Controller. It is strange, but I found a driver in the "storage" devices that was the correct driver for the Base System Device. Not sure why it was there, but it is working so I guess I shouldn't argue with success.

But I can't seem to locate any chipset drivers on the HP website. I was reading on another site where someone said the SM Bus Controller driver may be mixed in with the video driver. I had already installed the video driver and that was working OK, but I thought possibly the anti-virus software may have prevented the SM Bus Controller from installing. So I turned off the anti-virus software and re-installed the video driver. Unfortunately, that didn't fix the problem, so I am still trying to figure out what to do.

 

[JimW1949]

Well, I hate to say this, but I gave up on it. I did get 2 of the 3 problems resolved though. I hate to admit it, but he SM Bus Controller kicked my butt. The computer seems to work OK and the daughter picked it up this afternoon. She is happy that it is working so I guess as long as she is happy, I may as well not feel too bad about not getting that one yellow question mark resolved. But I have to tell you, it does bother me. I should have been able to fix that problem, but for some reason I guess I couldn't see the forest for the trees.

Anyway, thanks for the assistance guys. You solved 2 of the 3 problems for me and for that I am grateful. If I can ever help you guys out, please don't hesitate to let me know.

 

[Lanyap]

Not sure why HP does not have the chipset driver listed for that particular model. I did find chipset drivers for model ZV5000 that should work. Give it a shot.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...85148&sw_lang=

As info, the "Base system device" is for the card reader which is a storage device. That's why the driver was in the storage section.

 

[JimW1949]

Not sure why HP does not have the chipset driver listed for that particular model. I did find chipset drivers for model ZV5000 that should work. Give it a shot.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...85148&sw_lang=

As info, the "Base system device" is for the card reader which is a storage device. That's why the driver was in the storage section.

Thanks for the link to driver, I appreciate it. The daughter will be here tomorrow for Easter dinner so I will have her bring the computer with her and I can try the driver then.

I thought a card reader would be an input device, I had no idea it was a storage device. I guess what I don't know about laptops/notebooks would fill several volumes.

Once again guys, many thanks for all your help.

 

[JimW1949]

Not sure why HP does not have the chipset driver listed for that particular model. I did find chipset drivers for model ZV5000 that should work. Give it a shot.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/s...85148&sw_lang=

As info, the "Base system device" is for the card reader which is a storage device. That's why the driver was in the storage section.

The daughter brought the laptop over to the house when she came for Easter dinner. I tried installing the driver, but it didn't seem to want to install. It looked like it was going to to install, but then after it started to install it sort of fizzled out. In any event, I tried it 3 times and it it doesn't seem to work. I checked to see if the yellow question mark was gone, but it was still there.

Thank you for trying though, it was definitely worth a shot. The computer works OK so I am not going to feel too bad about it.