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Need HELP, Installed Windows XP on a Vista notebook.?

J

jiggawhat11

Junior Member
So situation in a nutshell.

I have a gateway notebook that i bought off a buddy used, its only a few years old, and its perfect for what i need (very basic, internet, word, etc.. nothing special). It crashed recently, and needed to be reformatted. hes outta the country so i didn't have the vista disk. all i had was a XP one

So i installed that, and it works fine, but the main issue thats stoping me from actually using it, is connecting to the internet. I do have a ethernet cord, but i can't figure out how to get my connection up and running (it does have built in wifi btw).

Now me and technology are not friends, especially when it comes to computers.

How would i go about getting the internet (via ethernet cord) on it? i know that once i can access the internet, then i can get all the drivers and other programs i need.

Thanks in advance.

P.S - i talked to a few people i knew who are tech savy, and they said their might be some issues with installing XP on a Vista-designed notebook. i haven't ran into anything yet, but it might explain why i haven't been able to configure the internet yet.

 
so i just checked, gateway doesn't have any drivers for xp on this vista.

is their any outside companies? or others who made internet drivers?

basically, any kinda solution would be great (other than resorting to windows vista)
 
If there are no XP drivers for the ethernet card then it won't work. Maybe if you posted the model number of the notebook someone here might try looking.
 
Need Model number of the notebook and serial number or service tag. With that information you can check the Gateway support site from another computer and see what kind of Network Adaptor is installed in the laptop. From my experience, finding a driver shouldn't be a problem. If the laptop is fairly new - ie maybe 2 or 3 years old - then the network adaptor is probably either an Intel built into the motherboard, or possibly a Broadcom adaptor, both of which have drivers for XP.
 
Originally posted by: ReggieDunlap

Need Model number of the notebook and serial number or service tag.
Click to expand...

You may be able to find the drivers you need by identifying the make and model of the chipset and various features, including the video chipset, LAN and wireless, touchpad, webcam etc. Any you can't find may not work if you can't find these drivers.

Check the details of the hardware compliment in your Device Manager, and earch Gateway's site and Google for further specs on these items.

Search Google for your exact model number + XP. This may find discussions on other forums about whether and how others were able to make the switch.

Before you start:

HAVE YOUR RESTORE DISK SET! If your attempt to install XP fails, this is the way you get your machine working again. I don't know Gateway still provides separate disks, but with some makes, including HP, the machine gives the owner the ability to burn ONE set of disks.

Vista creates a second small partition with a format that is not NTFS. You will have to blow off that partition. You can use a utility like Partition Magic. Another program that may work is Delpart.exe. You can download it, here. Delpart is a genuine Microsoft utility from NT 3.1. It is no longer available on Microsoft's site. You should run it from an external floppy disk or a bootable CD or flash drive (if your machine supports booting from a flash drive).

Here's a link to an HP utility that will make a flash drive bootable to DOS 7 (from Win 98 SE).

Create a CD with all of the drivers and other files you need. I recommend adding your favorite spyware remover(s), firewall and other safety programs you want to install, as well. On your CD, keep the drivers in a separate folder. I like to put my other basic programs in separate folders, as well. Once you finish the basic installation, you can copy the entire disc to a "Download" folder on your machine and install everything from your hard drive. Having them in separate folders makes it easier to find them and keep track of your installation.

When you do your base install, do NOT attempt to activate or register your copy of XP. Do this AFTER your safety programs and anything else you can install without going online are in place.

If all goes well, you should be able to log onto the Internet. It will be faster, or at least easier, to use a direct wired connection for your initial downloads because it usually takes some extra steps to set up a wireless connection. You'll get to that soon enough, once you have your basic system up and stable.

The first things you should download are updates for Windows and your AV and spyware programs.

Two other things you may want that can save you a lot of aggravation:

1. A good registry cleaner. I like Registry Mechanic from PC Tools. Others may prefer another program. I like to run it after each round of Windows updates and after installing each new program.

2. A backup drive and a copy of an older version of Norton Ghost (circa 2003 is excellent). Ghost will clone your hard drive to an external drive. Ghost will make an exact, running clone of your hard drive. If you use the same kind of drive (2.5" ATA or SATA) that is in your machine, the Ghost drive will plug in and run on your machine. If you use an external drive, you can use it to clone back to your hard drive to restore your last good backup.

It runs very quickly in a desktop with internal drives. A full installation with a lot of file can take several hours through a USB connection. A new installation without a lot of files will be somewhere in between.

When building a new installation, I Ghost each time I complete a step that I don't want to have to repeat. For example, Ghosting after I install my complete base installation and safety software, but before going online for the first time. Then, I Ghost again after completing all Windows updates and again after updating all other programs.

This saves having to start over from the beginning if the next step screws up everything. Instead, I can just restore my setup to the last known good step.

This is not a task to undertake without preparation, but it can be done. I've done it to my Compaq lappy and a couple of other HP's. Good luck. 🙂
 
So i'm looking around guys, and i'm seeing somethings that i should download, specifically the network driver. but some of them aren't working after i get it onto a flash stick and move it over to my notebook.

any ideas?

also, im wondering, can i get the network driver installed first, and then get everything else? or is there any other drivers that i need first in order to install the network driver?

 
I found this on cnet. Can't take credit for this. Here are all the drivers you will need. Thought I would post it here in case anyone was looking for them. These are XP drivers for the MT6451 laptop.

Before I installed XP, I did a snap-shot of Device Manager in Vista, and it reported using the ATI Catalyst drivers for the Xpress 200m inside. (Pictured here: http://i15.tinypic.com/4uui3i8.jpg ) When I tried using the ATI "Xpress 200m"driver for XP it fails. Then I tried the "Radeon Xpress 1150", and it worked perfectly. I choose not to install the additional "game" and other stuff.(I can't remember) Just the Catalyst.
**Caution: The Catalyst™ Control Center requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0 be installed. Without .NET version 2.0 installed, the Catalyst™ Control Center will not launch properly and the user will see an error message. (.NET Framework: http://tinyurl.com/758p8 )

Source of this can be found here: http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html
You can download it directly from here:
http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/majorgeeks/drivers/7-7_xp32_dd_49709.exe

Download BCM40100.exe This is the Windows XP Broadcom Wireless driver: http://tinyurl.com/2zjvbl
* Be sure you read the notepad file that will appear that will guide you to install this. The file creates a folder called "Cab" where it has all the files need to install. You can delete the Cab folder after your done using it. I burned it to CD for my personal use.

Download "D00516-002-001.exe" Marvell Network Driver Version here:
http://tinyurl.com/yv4cg6
Be sure to read the install instructions.

Download "D00620-001-001.exe" Realtek Media Card Reader Driver here: http://tinyurl.com/yt8cc8

Motorola SM56 Modem is here: http://www.motorola.com/softmodem/public_download/Universal/Windows_SM56_6.12.07_DFV.zip

Download "D00664-001-001.exe" SigmaTel Audio Driver here: http://tinyurl.com/ynnzar
Be sure to read the install instructions.

These are not required, but I would recommend:
The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer can help improve some PC gaming video performance by compensating for those applications that bypass the Windows API for timing by directly using the RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) instruction. Applications that rely on RDTSC do not benefit from the logic in the operating system to properly account for the affect of power management mechanisms on the rate at which a processor core's Time Stamp Counter (TSC) is incremented. The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer helps to correct the resulting video performance effects or other incorrect timing effects that these applications may experience on dual-core processor systems, by periodically adjusting the core time-stamp-counters, so that they are synchronized.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/utilities/amdcpusetup.exe

Get the Gateway Update file, "gtwupd.exe" here: http://tinyurl.com/2bfpvz
 
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