Downgrade P-7811FX to Windows XP

anyone successfully downgrade your P-7811FX to windows xp with working audio driver?

 

I don't think anyone has tried, because frankly this thing has plenty of RAM for vista, and It's the driver standard now.

 

well, yes I agree this laptop has plenty of power to run any application smoothly. but one thing that bother me the most is the program compatibility issue. it seems vista only let me run 60% of application that I tried to install. and that's the reason why I want to switch to windows XP.

 

Dual boot. It's not difficult and you've got more than enough space for it.

 

Are you sure it's Vista to blame and not the 64 bit default install? You may want to consider installing 32 bit Vista. The P-7811 FX comes with instructions to do so, but I think by using 32 bit you lose access to 1 GB of RAM, although I may be mistaken.

I don't like Vista either, but it does appear to have a good deal of compatibility options when you're right clicking or editing properties. I've got my install trimmed down quite nicely too.

 

yes, I can dual boot but will I able to get a working sound on XP?

 

you are right, only 64 bit OS can run 4 gig of ram. and I don't think right clicking or editing properties help to run more compatible. correct me if I am wrong.

 

Well, I assumed naturally from your mention of "applications that won't work on Vista," we're not talking about games or any type of application that would require sound.

According to a Google search I just ran for a Toshiba notebook that also has the same Conexant HD audio chip, they're saying force XP to use the Vista driver. Even gives steps.

Read for yourself: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=118803

You're all making me very happy I invested in an ASUS Xonar U1 USB sound card, though.

 

I just picked up a P-7811fx and have not opened the box yet. I did review the product manual online and did not see instructions to downgrade to 32 bit Vista. Can you confirm that these are somewhere in the box before I open it? I have some hardware that I need to run that does not come with Vista x64 drivers yet. Thanks!

 

64 bit os naturally uses more ram than 32 bit due to the way it uses memory. So he might lose one gig...but he would require quite a bit less to run his os.

Personally if you can make things work for you...I would stay vista because we will be forced there eventually.

 

I personally dont think there is point in downgrading such a powerful system to run XP. What kind of applications you are trying to install on this system ? It might be issue with application, if after more than one year being in market if software vendors are not providing vista compatible applications it is their fault not Vista's. I've so far ran into only one thing Crucial memory checker that wont run on my machine. I'm using my machine for development work and so far have installed VS 2008 & PB 11.2 without any problem. I'll be installing few more software applications on it like PS element for digital image editing and few other video editing applications. I'm using Samsung All-in-one network printer and HP color laser network printer and both of those printers works perfectly well with Vista. On my other digital sudio machine I've Epson 1250 scanner connected to Vista (this scanner is more than 6 years old scanner) and Epson has provided drivers for Vista. So I personally dont think there is any reason for me to downgrade to XP. Yes I've 2 machines on my network that runs XP and I'm not planning to upgrade those systems to Vista as it is primarily used by my kids for doing their homework as well as playing educational softwares.

I think atleast being on PC platform is better than on MAC world as you've more option to customize your sytem the way you want it instead of being forced into doing what Apple wants you to do.

 

This information should get you going, since he also stated the use of a USB or Express sound card falls you can’t get the driver for the built-in to work.

 

I "downgraded" to XP and gained a ton of marks in 3dmark06 and all my games run better then when I was under VISTA using the same forceware drivers.

The soundcard is a pain in the *** to get working but it is do-able.

 

@rancid

Could you please elaborate on how you got it working?

I need to run XP for work related purposes, and am going to be setting the 7811 for dual booting XP SP3 x86 and the Vista SP1 x64 that comes with it.

Thanks

 

I second that!!!!!
How'd you do it? Details, please.

 

I will need to upload the drivers I used since I had to modify the ini file and once I get that up I will do a write up describing it.

 

please do, I really appreciated

 

This is how I got sound to work in Windows XP 32-bit. Takes a little bit of work but should work for anyone if you modify the driver package you are using. If someone wants to provide me with the ini files from their OS drivers I will modify them for you to install.

1.) Download this KB file and install it: http://rapidshare.com/files/142270357/kb888111.zip.html

2.) Reboot the laptop once installation is compelte

3.) Ignore any found new hardware messages if they pop up (click cancel.) Go to my computer and select manage then go to Device Manager, go to System Devices and expand this selection.

4.) Locate the Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio and select it. Then up at the top menu bar you will see an option to disable the device. Go ahead and disable and then re-enable the device. This should cause 3 more unknown devices to pop up.

5.) Download my modified driver installer here http://rapidshare.com/files/142269773/rancid7811fx.zip.html and unzip the installer package. Go into the XP32 directory and run setup.exe

6.) After you run setup the modified ini file should pick up your audio device and install it. You can verify this by seeing if Conexant HD-Audio SmartAudio 221 is now listed under Sound, video, and game controllers. If it is you are good to continue.

7.) You will have 3 unknown devices, an extra HD audio device, and a modem device. DISABLE the 3 unknown devices and for the extra HD Audio Device you will want to manually install the wisvhe5.inf file in the XP32 directory from the installer package. This will cause the device to appear as an extra Conexant HD-Audio device but it will not start. After you get the warning message the device could not be started DISABLE IT. This will prevent a popup window appearing after reboot.

8.) Download the devcon installer package here http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/1/f/11f7dd10-272d-4cd2-896f-9ce67f3e0240/devcon.exe

9.) Install devcon to any directory (I put it in C:\ devcon to make life easy) and then go into the directory you installed it from My Computer. Create a new text document by right clicking, go to new, text document and name it audiostart.bat.

10.) Edit the audiostart.bat file in wordpad or textpad and add this line EXACTLY like this devcon restart PCI\cc_0403

11.) Save the file and exit then right click the audiostart.bat file and go to Send To Desktop Create Shortcut. Once you created the shortcut go to the Windows start menu, all programs, HIGHLIGHT startup and right click and go to open. A window should open and you will place the audiostart.bat shortcut file you created here. DO NOT move the auctual audiostart.bat file or devcon will not work.

12.) Once the bat file is in the startup folder (the shortcut to the bat file, not the actual bat file) right click the shortcut and go to properties and under Run drop down the selection menu and select "Minimized"

13.) Reboot the laptop and upon logging into windows you should see your bat file running in the task bar called audiostart.bat which will take 10-30 seconds depending on what else you have loading on startup. When you see the little window disappear you will know the hardware refresh is complete and you should have audio.

14.) Congrats, you should now have audio without reinstalling a single driver

15.) **Optional** for the HD Modem device if you want this installed simply do a manual driver install and point it to the XP32 directory that you unzipped from my modified driver installer. This will install the correct modem audio driver which should leave you with 3 unknown devices and 1 disabled audio device from the previous step.

Please let me know if you guys have any questions or if I need to explain anything better. For people in 64-bit XP or 32-bit Vista I will need your audio package drivers and the hardware ID of your UAA bus controller to make the same method work.

 

Did you perform this under SP2? or SP3?
I tried this method under an XP SP3 OEM and I get a windows error message saying kb888111 update is not needed, makes me click okay and it doesn't install.

 

SP2, the KB is included in SP3. Check your device manager to see if the Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio is already installed.

 

Does the system come with a disc for recovery? If so then 32 vista is on it. It really is getting old about the ram usage in vista, people need to stop and realize its the design of vista to make using ram faster. I use the same amount of ram in xp then I do in vista when gaming/multitasking.

 

Thanks alot!!!!

One additional idiot question.....lol.
I gather then since I'm using an SP3 OEM, I skip step#1,2 & 3 once I verify UAA Bus Driver?

 

Correct, proceed to step #4.

 

Super....
Thanks again, I'll update upon success...

 

Awesome, let me know what we need to change. I wrote it real early this morning after only sleep for 3 hrs last night

 

Thanks Rancid for the write-up. +1 rep to you!

 

Well.......

Didn't work for me
Just did a fresh format....followed the intructions and upon reboot
I lose the audio. Devcon runs but apparently does nothing to restore the audio. I go into device manager to find the smartaudio device gone...I then have to disable UAA & re-enable to restore the audio.
Back to Vista I guess.....

 

Don't give up yet. It is probably because your Hardware ID is different then mine. Can you confirm for me if you disable and re-enable the UAA that is makes the device re-appear without a driver install?

Right click My Computer go to Manage
Device Manager
Doubleclick the Microsoft UAA device
Go to details and give me the hardware ID's.

 

I have some extra troubles with XP on my P-7811--not sure how many are in my boat. Let me volunteer some info:

-My EISA partition is toast. The whole HD was reformatted
-Booting from XP install gives BSOD due to pci.sys before any options come up. *EDIT--XP CD is old (pre service packs)
-Booting from Vista restore CD is fine, but if you try to restore to Vista32 you get a BSOD on the first reboot (once again on pci.sys)
-Vista64 restores fine from the CD
-Windows2000 SP4 installs fine (just there are no compatible drivers for any of the hardware)
-You can boot KNOPPIX / Ubuntu CD's as long as you use a USB CDROM and not the built in one (lack of SATA driver makes the kernel unable to mount the root filesystem).


Any info? I tested the RAM and it was fine. The only thing I can think of is that XP/Vista32 are not able to load the SATA driver correctly and thus aren't seeing the hard disk. However, then why is Win2000 ok to install?

The BSOD's occur when the SATA controller is set to IDE compatibility mode as well as AHCI, so that's another mark against the theory above.

x

 

Once I install the driver for the first time...upon reboot it's lost in the device menu BUT when I disable & re-enable UAA for the second time or there after no driver is needed attesting to the fact that my issue lies in the .bat execution. I looked in the Hardware ID but it looked like Chinese to me. At the moment, I have Vista back on but I'm willing to try again tomm. I've only formatted this thing 8x since buying it 10days ago....lol. I was also thinking maybe I should pick up an XP SP2 on Ebay or something and try from there.

Where can I (I.D.) my Hardware ID? incase it differs from your recommended .bat details. I do know how to get to it......but the drop down has serveral choices...and tons of ID's in each. Thanks ahead for the advice.

 

would this method works for XP 64bit?

 

Anyone do a fresh XP install with ahci enabled in the bios and F6ing in the intel drivers? So far I have not had any luck trying to do it this way (bsod during install initialization)

 

Mindstorm, I've done a fresh XP 32 bit install on my machine successfully. I'm currently trying (like everyone else) to get the audio working. When I'm finished I'll put a write-up of what I did. But for the time being here's a link to slipstream the SATA drivers.

Drivers (Intel AHCI - for 64bit or Matrix F6 Driver - for 32 bit):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=287180

Slipstream info:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/How-To--Slipstream-your-XP-installation

nLite website:

http://www.nliteos.com/

Hope that helps you for now...

 

Is you EISA partition intact? Did you have an XP disc with SP2? I think it's one of those two items that keeps the BSOD from happening...

Mindstorm, what about your setup? XP disk w/o sercvice packs? No EISA partition?

 

I got my P-7811 this past Monday and spent some time trying to install XP onto a 2nd hard drive with BIOS set to AHCI. USB floppy method did not work, BSOD when installation continued.
Yesterday, did a slipstream installation of XP Media Center with SP3 and the Intel SATA drivers following the clear instructions from this site -

http://maxeasyguide.blogspot.com/2008/04/preparations-for-winxp-installation-cd.html

Burning directly from nLite did not work, so created .iso file and then burnt the disk
Able to install XP correctly, then did the bootrec.exe /fixMBR and bootrec.exe /fixBoot. Both Vista and XP working well now. Will tackle the latest sound updates on XP first, then change Vista 64 to Vista 32.

 

this title should be changed to *Upgrade*, going from Vista to anything is always an upgrade.

 

Lol narsnail, I wholeheartedly agree with you!

@ dds999, the first time I tried to install xp I got the BSOD, but I redid the nLite slipstream and made the .iso. Then burned with Nero and it worked like a charm. No probs after that except for the dang audio and modem drivers.

 

Xuare - Change the SATA Controller in the BIOS (hit F10 on the gateway boot screen) to IDE mode and you will be able to install XP.

U.N. - Perfect, if you didn't need to install drivers it is a matter of getting the .bat file to correctly refresh your UAA hardware ID and you are golden. I will post in a few how to get your hardware ID that you will need.

 

ebrn - The method will work under XP 64-bit but you will need to modify your ini file for the drivers and I now know everyone's hardware ID is different so you will need that as well.

 

To get the hardware ID you need for the bat file try this:

Right click My Computer go to Manage
Go to Device Manager
Doubleclick the Microsoft UAA device
Go to the details tab and drop down the selection box to "Match Device ID"
You should see something like pci\cc_SOMENUMBER
You will use the full Match Device ID in your bat file. So mine is pci\cc_0403 as an example

Double check the placement of your bat file and make sure you created a shortcut that is placed into the startup folder off the start menu, not the actual .bat file. If you moved or copied the ACTUAL bat file it will not execute properly because devcon must be in the same directory as the bat file.

A good way to test if your bat file is properly setup is to reboot your laptop WITHOUT the file being in startup and manually run audiorestart.bat and see if your audio device appears in the device manager. If it does not you either have an incorrect hardware ID or you do not have devcon properly setup.

 

IDE mode doesn't work either (still BSOD's), even if putting the CDROM in the USB drive. Looks like slipstreaming the driver onto a custom XP CD is the best way to go. At least that's possible since Vista64 can be restored.

Setting IDE mode is how I managed to get Win2K on it though

 

Has anyone figured out how to get eSATA working under XP?

 

I am not seeing this listed under XP, can someone confirm they see it in Vista?

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2929&SUBSYS_0696107B&REV_03\3&11583659&0&FA: Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller

Also someone that installs XP *WITH* sata drivers can you check to see if you can get the eSATA port to work? I have a feeling because I installed in IDE mode it isn't going to work but this wasn't the case on the 6831-FX.

 

I will be attempting a sata ahci install later tonight. I slipstreamed the drivers into a xp sp3 retail iso and I was able to successfully get to the windows xp install screen (previously it would bsod) so I am at least hopeful

 

I got another hard drive from work and will be doing an AHCI install on it to see if eSATA works afterwards. I am going to be super pissed off if I have to reinstall everything

 

According to Neowin.net forum, you can't slipstream XP from Vista:

http://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/05/05/dont-slipstream-xp-sp3-on-windows-vista

I have been trying with all combo's for folder locations, nLite and by hand, etc. but the Service packs 2 & 3 won't extract and the drivers for iaAHCI can be placed on disk but don't load (followed by BSOD again). At least, I can see them when browsing the CD but they don't show on the bottom white bar when the XP install CD is loading drivers.

It always dies instantly wit the "Failed to copy some or all" dialog

It seems to be impossible to make all the files in the i386 directory of the XP CD folder copied to disk read/write permanently. I wonder if this is a Vista "feature"...

I'll try copying with cygwin "cp" to try and override the permissions, but I'm getting frustrated by all this...

 

Thanks to all the great information, especially from Rancid, sound is working under XP upon rebooting. My device id is the same as Rancid's ( pci\cc_0403 ). What took a little time is that my .bat file was not in the same folder as devcon.exe.

Now to tackle installing Vista 32 - could not find any 64 bit drivers for my printers

 

Yes DDS999, I ran into the same problem. Apparently there's a few differences from rancid's post. First, when you install devcon, the .exe itself is inside either the i386 folder (32 bit) or the ia64 folder (64 bit). Second, when you make the line in the .bat file you should say something like this:

"C:\Devcon\i386\devcon.exe restart PCI\cc_0403"

 

The SP's not slipstreaming (at least from within nLite) can be bypassed by letting nLite copy from the CD itself. When it asks you for the boot files to slipstream, point it to the CDROM itself. It will then let you select a folder to save the CD files in on the HD, and slipstreaming afterwards is OK...

...as long as you delete that folder every time you remaster the CD. nLite changes the contents and the SP .exe's don't like that.

Unfortunately XP installer still doesn't see the AHCI drivers yet that were slipstreamed in. I'm copying them up from the NTDRV folder to the topmost i386 folder to see if XP will grab them from there...

**EDIT** Just noticed that nLite doesn't slipstream the drivers into the actual textmode part of the install (no PCI settings in TXTSETUP.SIS for iaStor or iaAHCI). Perhaps nLite has Windows install its drivers after the initial reboot...which is why XP isn't loading them early enough. Following instructions on http://www.msfn.org/board/Unattended-install-SATA-drivers-and-NO-t13173.html for TXTSETUP.SIF and copied IN_ and SY_ files up to i386. Hopefully that will work...no computer should require this much crap to get it to boot what I want it to boot...

 

I see two close to that under Windows XP in the device manager but the 2929 is actually a 2928 and a 292D device as well; still no ahci mode for me. I even tried some the registry edits and the steps outlined here http://www.msfn.org/board/How-to-enable-AHCI-on-Intel-ICH9-under-X-t109450.html&st=160 making the changes for the devices (2928 and 292D