[GUIDE] HOWTO: Windows XP on the M17x

This is a tutorial on how I got Windows XP to dual boot with Vista on my new M17x. I like Vista and I love Windows 7 even more, but some of my older games don't work well or at all with Vista.



Notes: I used a retail Windows XP Professional Upgrade to do this. However, as far as I can tell, it should work fine with both retail and OEM. Also, my SATA mode in the BIOS is Legacy AHCI. I have Dual GTX 260M's. I HAVE NOT tested this with RAID, so anywhere that I mention RAID is just me guessing at what should work. For this to work, you must disable hybrid graphics and integrated graphics in the BIOS.

What works:

• Graphics and SLI
• Audio
• Wireless
• All nForce devices (including ethernet)
• Webcam
• OSD Application
• PowerDVD 8
• Touch buttons

What doesn't work:

• Bluetooth (I haven't tried very hard to figure it out yet)
• Infrared receiver
• Alienware Control Center

Not yet tested:

• HDMI output
• VGA output
• Display Port
• eSATA
• Card reader

What you need:

• Windows XP Disc
• nLite (LINK)
• Alienware M17x Resource DVD
• GParted Live CD, if you want to dual boot (LINK)
• Modified nForce SATA IDE Driver (LINK) OR RAID driver (LINK), depending on your configuration

Download the following onto a flash drive

• Broadcom 802.11n Driver (LINK)
• nVidia 190.38 Drivers and Modified INF (LINK)
• nVidia nForce Drivers (LINK)
• VistaBootPro (LINK)

THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE WHAT WORKED FOR ME. THEY MAY NOT WORK THE SAME FOR YOU. THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT THIS WILL WORK IF YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT CONFIGURATION, SO DON'T BLAME ME IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG!

1. INTEGRATE DRIVERS INTO A WINDOWS XP DISC

Install nLite. Copy all the files from your Windows XP disc into a directory on your hard drive, such as C:\XP.

Start up nLite > Point it to the content of the folder you created with the XP files > Choose the tasks "Drivers" and Bootable ISO" ( Note: you can also choose to integrate Service Pack 3, if you'd like).

When you get to the "Drivers" task > hit "Insert" > choose "Single driver" > point to the sata_ide or sataraid folder that you downloaded earlier, depending on your setup. Choose any of the shown INF files, and then a popup window should appear. Press "OK".

Let nLite start its processing and follow the dialog boxes until you get to the "Create Bootable ISO" page. Within the "General" section, set "Mode" to whatever you would like to do, whether it's directly burn the disc or create an ISO image. After this completes, you are done with nLite.

2. RESIZE VISTA PARTITION (optional)

If you are going to dual boot, then you need to make room for XP on your hard drive. You can either use Vista's disk management, or the GParted live cd. I used GParted ( Note: GParted may not work for RAID users). Boot your computer off of the GParted disc. At all of the prompts while GParted is starting, just press "Enter", you don't have to change anything.

One GParted loads up and scans your system, find your Vista partition and select it. Open the Partition drop-down menu, and choose Resize-Move. I put my XP partition after the Vista partiton. To do this, type in the size of the size of the XP partiton you would like into "Free Space Following". This can be calculated by the number of GB you would like X 1024. Then press "Resize".

Nothing has actually been done to the hard drive yet. To finish the process, Click on "Apply". GParted will then apply the changes you have made. After it has finished, it will rescan the system and you should see the unallocated space that was created. You can either format that as an NTFS partition here or during the XP setup.

We are done with GParted, so you can Quit. Sometimes I have to click a bunch of times to get it to quit.

3. INSTALL WINDOWS XP

WARNING: Installing XP will kill the Vista bootloader. After the XP setup, you will be able to restore the Vista bootloader.

Boot off of the new Windows XP CD you created. If the integration of the drivers all went well, you should not have any problems and you should end up in the Setup program. I'm not going to explain how to install Windows XP, just make sure you choose the right partition. If you didn't create the partition earlier, select the unallocated space between the Vista partition and the EISA utilities (Respawn) partition. Make sure to format it as NTFS.

4. SET UP DRIVERS AND APPLICATIONS

The first thing I did was to set up the graphics drivers. Execute the video driver package you downloaded earlier. Make sure to copy the .INF file into the directory where the files were extracted. Then run the Setup file in the directory.

Install the nForce driver package. When you get to the part where you can select the components, you DO NOT have to install the storage drivers, as they are already integrated into the XP installation.

To install the wireless drivers, extract the files from the Broadcom ZIP file that you downloaded earlier. Go into Device Manager. Find "Network Controller" in the unknown devices. Right click on it and update or reinstall the driver. Choose to specify a location to search for the driver, and point to the directory where you extracted the Broadcom files. It should then detect the correct driver and you should be good to go for wireless.

The audio driver that comes on the Resource DVD contains drivers for Windows XP. All you have to do for the audio is run this driver. It is located on the DVD under drivers > audio.

You should now have most of the necessary things installed to use the laptop. Optionally, you can install the OSD application, as well as PowerDVD, from the Resource DVD. When I put a Blu-Ray into the drive, Windows XP didn't show the name or anything in My Computer, but I was able to watch it just fine with PowerDVD.

5. RESTORE VISTA BOOTLOADER

You need to copy some files. First, make sure you have set your folder options to see hidden files and to show protected operating system files. Then open Windows Explorer and go to the drive where Vista is installed. Copy the folder Boot, and the files bootmgr, boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM and ntldr and paste them to the root of your XP drive.

Install the VistaBootPro that you downloaded. When you open it, choose the System Bootloader tab. Choose to reinstall the Windows Vista Bootloader. I selected System Partition and this worked for me. Then press Install Bootloader.

Now go to the Manage OS Entries tab. Check the Add New OS Entry box. Enter a name for the Windows XP setup, then choose the drive letter that XP is installed on. Mine showed up as E:, but yours may be different. Make sure you choose Windows Legacy. Apply the updates. Then select the Microsoft Windows Vista option, check Set as Default, and apply again.

You should now be able to choose between Vista or XP when you start your computer.

Other info:

For some reason, a component is causing errors with DirectInput in DirectX. This was keeping me from playing some games. To fix this, I just tested disabling things in the Device Manager. I disabled HID-compliant device under Human Interface Devices, and this fixed the problem.




That's it! You should now have a working install of XP. I'm going to continue to test things and try to find a complete set of drivers. If you run into any problems or find any updates that will make things work better, please post them!

 

very cool thanks for the info!

 

Has anybody else tried to install WinXP-64 on the M17X ...with success ?

I don't necessarily want to keep Vista, but I would like to know if everything else worked (e.g. the dual SLI ge 280m, raid 0 HD, eSata, etc...)

May thanks,
Kevin

 

Great set of instructions NDJason2009. I had tried to use the VGA port on the machine but the monitor doesn't seem to detect any video output. I also tried to trigger the output by pressing 'FN + F6' with no success. Does anyone have any ideas as to go about trouble shooting the VGA port?

 

You can change your output port from the nvidia control panel (or the icon taskbar) unfortunately FN +F6 no longer works.

I have tested through nvidia control panel and HDMI and VGA both work fine.

 

Hello

Just thought people might want to know I got RAID working perfectly under XP.

I used the following driver :

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zznmnzmjzdg

Suggested by Fernando from the following link :

http://www.msfn.org/board/integration-nvidias-nforce-raid-and-ahci-drivers-t51140-page-1780.html

Short Summary (lifted from the above website) :

Here is what I recommend for you:
Downoad and unzip >this< small driverpack and store it somewhere.
Copy the content of the original XP CD onto your hdd.
Run nLite and let it create a bootable XP CD with integrated nForce RAID driver. Slipstream the SATARAID driver folder content of the just downloaded pack as TEXTMODE driver.
Burn the ISO as bootable Image.
Set the SATA Mode to "RAID" within the BIOS.
Create a RAID array by using the RAID BIOS Utility.
Make sure, that the CD/DVD-ROM is set as first bootable device within the BIOS.
Boot off the XP CD and let Setup do its work. Don't press F6 when prompted.
Enjoy Windows XP on your nForce RAID system (finger crossed)!

NOTE : The >this< link is the driver metnioned at thetop of the post.

NOTE : This is for the Dell/Alienware M17X. I don't think they vary in terms of RAID devices, but just in case they do then this may not work for you.

Everything works fine for me. Hope this helps someone.

 

Thanks, gabrielforums, I was able to also get video out on the display port as well. And I was also sucessfull in getting RAID 0 configuration working with the above raid drivers. I have a few things that I don't know how to fix, have you run into these problems?

1. Do you have four devices with question marks in your device manager? Would this be fixed by installing the intel south bridge drivers mentioned in the other post by Fernando?

2. If I have any external display port connected and turned on, or device connected in the express card slot, and perfrom a cold boot (boot from powered down state) the system hangs at the windows splash screen and the display is dimmed out. A manual reboot selecting last good known with out anything connected fixes the problem. I can connect the external display after boot up just fine. I can also perform a system restart from the windows desktop with the external monitor connected and the OS gets loaded sucessfully. I am currently using the A01 bios. I've tried the A02 bios which seems to fix this problem, but my nVidia CUDA application's through put slows down to unacceptable levels so I reverted back to the A01 bios.

Thanks for any info you may have.

 

Just an update, I was able to take care of all my unkown devices in device manager.

I did some searching and found the ITE CIR driver here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5E20AAX0

1. Extract the zip file
2. Find the ITE CIR 8708 IR Receiver in device manager. Mine was labeld as unknown so I found it by looking for ITE8708 in the device's properties page/details tab, under the 'Hardware Ids' field.
3. Right click and update driver
4. Select 'No, Not this time'
5. Select 'Install froma a list or specific location'
6. Select Search for the best driver in these locations.
7. Check box 'Include this location in the search'
8. Broswe to the location of extracted files
9. Hit 'Next' and continue the dialoge as instructed

The other three unknown devices I had are for the Ricoh Card Reader which I found here:
http://www.radarsync.com/drivers/d159641-ricoh_xd-picture_card_controller

The drivers installed correctly for my machine. I have not tested the devices as I don't have any card reader media with me handy.

So please use at your own risk.

I still have the cold boot up issue, which is more of an inconvienece if anything.

 

Games that dont work on Vista work on Windows 7 right? Like CS?
Windows 7 is pretty much similar to XP in term of gaming compatible.

 

Hello,

thanks to all, who are involved with this manual.

I have installed Windows XP on my Alienware M17x. All works fine, only I can play any games on it, because DirectInput causes an error.

When I run dxdiag on my system, the program hang on the test. When I start dxdiag again, the program said, then directinput causes an error and if it starts exclude the directinput. When I click on exclude directinput, the dxdiag shows no items in the register "Input".

Have anybody have the same problem? In my Alienware m17x is not a geforce installed, I have the ATI Radeon 4870 instead. But I dont`t think the grafikboards causes a problem.

Thanks for the help

 

If you have windows 7 can't you just use xp mode. Thats what i'm using for my older programs. Works great and i don't have reboot to switch from one to another.

 

yeah, ez

go to device manager > human interface devices and disable hid-compliant device

heres my guide http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=441996

 

will it work if i try it on M15x?

 

it has a different chipset, but yes it should work, but you might have to slipstream drivers.

 

anyone know where to get the all new powerful m15x xp driver? cant seem to find it .all i find is for the old m15x =(

 

M17X R2

Thank you so much for support. I've solved it.

I can confirm that Windows XP 32bit on this monster goes very very well.

 

what driver did you use to get crossfire working? I have not been able to get crossfire working in xp 64-bit on my R1 at all and it is very annoying

 

Simple... but remember I'm on Windows XP 32bit...

I've modded the last one 10.3 for Desktop with DH Mobility Modder.

 

I will try the new mobility modder, last I tried it did not work on 10.x drivers but was months ago

 

hello jason murphy.

 

The biggest complaint I have about the M17x is Dell did not enabled TXT (Trusted Execution Technology) in the bios (not even an option). Even though the board is is TXT capable. I have no clue why Dell left the TXT option out, which means you are denied accessibility to Windows XP Mode. I'm hoping Dell is working on a BIOS upgrade to allow use of the TXT capability.

 

I believe so. Doesn't Windows 7 professional and ultimate offer something where you can run programs in compatibility for windows xp? So you wouldn't actually need to have Windows XP if you have Windows 7? I believe Windows 7 Home doesn't support this though. Somebody verify?

 

Hello people,


Which driver do i need to use to get xp installed. my config is

i7820qm
m17xr2
4870x2
no raid setup

I have tried making cd's but keeps bsod when gets to setup. Please can someone point me to the correct driver

Thanks Anthony

 

I have the exact same problem too. Right when it get to setup, I get BSOD too. I have my XP Pro x64 OEM wanting me to install it. lol

My m15x specs is in my Sig.

 

I am having the same issue. I am looking to install XP 32bit on my m17xr2. Has anyone succeeded in this yet? Same issues; blue screening when installing from disk. Got the right drivers. Got the right configuration (ATA). Just no go.

m17xR2
Pm55
Radeon 5870 x2
8 gigs memory.

-star-

 

Hello All,

I seem to have left my Alienware software in the wife that my EX wife now occupies, and without a court order I cannot get it back.

Any chance someone wants to help me out with the drivers from the DISK, or even make an ISO? I have a FTP site I can give access to for an upload, or just post the drivers somewhere so I can download them?


I have a m17x with dual 4870's, I have both LANS, & sound, and the card reader working, but I cannot seem to Google a link to download the video driver?

Thanks,

David

 

My email is howarddavidp@gmail if you want to email me directly.

 

Well, I have successfully installed win xp 64, and then installed win 7--its now a duel boot on my M17xR2--- I only have 2 remaining problems to fix: The video adapter driver, and the sound driver... As far as the video, have been experimenting with the modding program everyone keeps talking about---being as Im a deployed soldier with only a community computer N internet with a time limit of 30 min, I have been handicapped... My real problem that I haven't found a fix for is the sound driver for the IDT 92HD73c1---can't seem to find it anywhere... Any Suggestions?