Gateway M-6850FX XP Downgrade

ok... so i bought this laptop last week, and vista just wasnt cutting it for me, so i downgraded to xp, and after the first couple days where i was tweaking all the drivers and everything i think ive fixed just about everything.

the hardest parts were getting my catalyst control center back for my video adapter so i could get my multiple monitor setup working just how i wanted it and the touchpad drivers so i could turn that thing off when it was driving me insane and messing with me while i was typing.

now ive never messed too much with computers from a technical aspect like this so i think ive done ok. im definitly not any kind of hardware genius. give me photoshop and thats where i shine.

anyways...

so the last bit of hardware goofyness thats eluding me. the multimedia start center, you know those buttons on the top of my keyboard... i guess windows hotstart is the issue with these?

i can only seem to find drivers for these for vista.... anyone have any ideas on getting these things up and running on xp?

its not like i ever ever think ill use them for anything, it would just be nice to get those "unknown devices" off of my device manager.

any thoughts?

 

if you havnt checked gateway.com support yet, you should look there. they might have an xp version of the driver.

 

oh yea.. i did that... but there is nothing there except drivers for it for vista... nothing for xp unfortunately

 

how were you able to get windows xp to read sata hard drive? I'm stuck

 

You either use a usb floppy, or slipstream the driver into the windows install cd with nlite.

 

wow, cool nlite rocks. thank you for fast reply.

 

I went to the gateway site and got all the ones they offer for my laptop, but i'm still missing a lot like audio, camera, network adapter. where did you go to get all those missing drivers?

 

im about to start trying to do this. hopefully all goes well

 

I have a P6831FX and documented my upgade to XP several months back, however I still cannot get the multimedia buttons to work... I think those buttons only work perfectly in conjunction with Vista.

 

For those having no audio on the M-6850FX with WinXP Pro.

Here is a link to the driver to fix it: http://support.gateway.com/support/...udio DriverVersion: 5.10.5185.0&uid=203157220

Driver is the "D00758-001-001.exe - SigmaTel Audio Driver Version: 5.10.5185.0" for WinXP.

I have the exact same laptop and have gone crazy finding this. The issue is the audio is through a SigmaTel STAC9205 on-board chip that is disabled by the Radeon HD 2600 setup.

This driver will add the SigmaTel back into your audio and it WORKS.

The driver is on the Gateway support site but they would never tell you that.

HAPPY LISTENING FINALLY

 

Well thank you very much for that audio driver!

I attempted a downgrade after I first got my laptop, unfortunately the ones that I could never get working were the sound (which is a rather large thing) and the multimedia keys (a rather convenient thing), everything else wasn't too hard though, but unfortunately since I couldn't get those working I had to 'upgrade' my computer back to Vista, though I dual boot with Hardy.

I have been checking this thread since I have gotten my computer seeing waiting for someone to post something similar to your post, and I thank you for it!

However though, I do still wish the multimedia keys would work, and I don't believe I will be going back to XP without the proper drivers or software to utilize those. Though a part of me believes that you need to have Media Center 2005 on the computer for those keys to become functional, as they may derive a lot of their function from Media Center provided libraries.
That is of course all speculation since I gave up on getting XP to work after I couldn't get the sound working on it. Now though I may consider going back down to it and tinkering around . . . . If anyone has gotten those multimedia buttons to work though, I would greatly appreciate a reply in this thread with the process in which you got them to work! I will probably be checking this thread every few days and at least every week to see, as I am curious too as to how someone got them to work . . . Thank you

-Brandon

 

Brandon,

After installing that driver and getting the sound to work I tried those keys and the "+" "-" keys and slider as well as the mute button all work. I have not put a DVD in and tried the play, stop etc. buttons will try that tonight. If the others work, I don't see why those would not. I'll post again after I do that.

You are welcome

It really sucks that mfg's sell their soles to put Microsoft on their machines and screw the user.

 

Thank you very much Mike, that is definitely something I wanted to know. Like I said before though, I am afraid that the multimedia buttons (excluding the volume) need Media Center to function, but I hope this is not the case.

I may be attempting to put XP Pro onto my 6850 now again, once I find someone who I can use their harddrive to perform a backup. If you got anymore headway in the functionality of those buttons it would be nice to hear of your results. Admittedly it is a small part of the usability, but I do use those buttons quite often, either inside of Winamp or Media Player. Was there any other unknown devices you were not able to find inside of Device Manager?

Anyway, thanks for your input though! Maybe I will finally be able to get rid of Vista and go to back to XP. I've grown to like Vista a bit more . . . . But I know that if I was using XP, there wouldn't be as many issues . . .

-Brandon

 

Hey guys,

Thanks for the thread. I just got my 6850 yesterday and bought a usb floppy drive today. I downloaded the sata driver from the Gateway website here:

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/mydl.asp?tab=MY&os=Windows XP

Under "My motherboards" I downloaded the Intel SATA/Mass storage controller.

The extracted cab file gave me two floppy options:

f6 floppy x64
f6 floppy x86

Which is the right one? Did I even download the right cab file? I tried both but, once you load them, they each give you four different options.

Any ideas?

--Kencathedras

 

If you're trying to use the USB floppy to install the SATA controller from within Windows XP setup, it wont work. You'll have to slipstream the drivers into a completely new XP install using Nlite, burn to a CD and run XP Installer from that.

 

Mr. Dook,

Any instructions on how to do that?

Thanks

 

Sure, this should be of some assistance.

Oh and to answer your question about which to use, if you're installing XP 32bit, then use the x86 drivers, if you're installing 64bit, the use the x64 drivers.

 

{sigh}

I'm about to give up and reinstall Vista. I used the slip thing to create an XP cd with SATA support but once XP is installed it won't let me install anything because "The windows installer service is not working correctly."

Do I have the wrong SATA drivers?

Where did you guys get yours?

 

Hello all. I have fully downgraded, and have everything functioning perfectly. I will now answer as many questions as I can.

As for the Multimedia bar, you do NOT need media center to get them working, they will work on thier own. When I say they, I'm talking about the volume bar, the mute button, and the music controls. As far as I can tell, the dvd, music and that other button all the way to the left do not work. If your not going to downgrade to xp because you need a button to open up your music folder, your obviously not serious about downgrading. A shortcut on your desktop or two clicks on the start bar will do that for you..

And the guy who is asking about x84, x64... What you are trying to do is very simple buy may confuse you in your new to this. If you can, try to ask somebody with a little more expierence to help you if you havnt gotten it working yet. If you cant, i'll tell you again how to get it done.

1) get a working windows xp CD... if you have home 32-bit, that will be x84. Most likely, if you dont know which you have, its probably 32 bit. otherwise x64 is 64 bit.. but like i said your version of xp is most likely 32 but (x84)...
2) you should already have the SATA drivers, now dowload a program called n-lite.
3) follow the nlite interface to slipstream the driver in. if you need help with this, you can google a tutorial.
4) now burn a new XP disc.

If this dosnt work for you, your gunna have to get to somebody who knows how to do this, because I am proff it does work.

As for the drivers, you can grab them all around the internet. If anyone wants them, reply asking for it, and I will make a driver-pack for you guys with instuctions and put it up for download.

Enjoy XP!

 

Havalopez !!

I just downgraded to XP, it works OK so far.
But I need other drivers such as Network ,Video etc..

can you send me the links that you downloaded these drivers from.?

Thanks

swer

 

okay, I will get all that done for you. its going to take me some time, so im going to need an hour or so

 

okay, you can get everything you need on my blog http://orlandojohn.blogspot.com/

 

When I installed WinXP Pro on the 6850 I could not get the SATA drive to recognize either. Tried the nLite slipstream and that didn't work either. Got an external USB floppy and the SATA driver on a floppy.

Started the WinXP install again. When it asks if you are installing any 3rd party drivers you say yes via floppy disk. It should recognize the SATA driver you put on the floppy and do the driver install.

It will then recognize the SATA drive and continue the install.

You will need to keep that floppy / driver incase you ever need to redo the install from scratch again.