Gateway ML3108b - Get Your Windows XP Drivers Here!

As anyone that's bought one of these will know, it comes shipped with Windows Vista Home Basic. Thats lovely, everyone's jumped on the Vista bandwagon, and Microsoft are pleased as punch, raking in the dough! Unfortunately for the home user, Vista runs like a three legged dog after half an hour on a roundabout unless you've got a state of the art PC worth thousands of pounds!

I took it upon myself to rectify the situation (and oh do i wish i hadn't... its been hell) and install XP Pro. The initial install runs fine! ... and then you realise that NONE of the internal devices work! After slogging it out for days on end (well, three, kinda. more like 2 and a half? Some might call that slow, but seriously... AGH!) its all working!!! IT IS POSSIBLE! DON'T GIVE UP HOPE!

In a bid to save some poor sap the trouble that i've been through, I'm going to list the drivers etc i've used to get this ... BEAST running on XP!

PLEASE NOTE! After a clean XP installation, you're left with no network connectivity at all. Thankfully, I have a USB WiFi dongle to hand for just such an occasion. If you're not so lucky, you'll want to download these somewhere else fist


1) Motherboard/Chipset - nVidia nForce 430
------------------------------------------
Not the integrated graphics option though! Whilst you would think that'd work, alas, its not compatible with XP. The nForce 430 package contains the drivers for everything but the Graphics.
http://www.nvidia.com/content/licen...e/430_410/8.26_11.09_nforce_winxp_english.exe


:: Edit
1.1) Ambiguous Coprocessor Device
----------------------------------
Personally, I didnt bother with this device, but in the interests of making this as useful as possible, here's what the guys who've contributed to this thread (particularly tel-b) are suggesting:

After installing the chipset drivers above, right click the co-processor device in the device manager and select update drivers. In the wizard, specify the following folder to search for drivers:

C:/nvidia/nforcewinxp/11.09/mcp51/SMbus

If this folder doesnt exist, open my computer, right click on the C: drive and search for mcp51, this should reveal the location of the folder for you. Then just instruct the add new hardware wizard to install the coprocessor device therin and it should wrap things up nicely!
::End Edit


2) Graphics! - nVidia ForceWare
-------------------------------
The ML3108b's graphics are onboard, so the standard GeForce GO drivers wont work "Panama Jack" pointed me in the direction of these beauties.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DKG07N5S


3) WiFi - Realtek
-----------------
After i'd figured out who it was provided by, this wasnt too difficult to find!

ftp://210.51.181.211/cn/wlan/RTL8185_6.1102.0702,UI_1.00.0006.zip


4) Audio - First up, Microsoft UAA
----------------------------------
There was one problem piece of hardware that just didnt make any sense, but the audio wasnt working, so this had to be it, right? Not directly. have to install the high definition audio bus driver first. Doesnt really matter where you find it, this one is from HP for example!

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...cc=us&swItem=ob-45958-1&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN


5) Audio - SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
-----------------------------------------------
This took forever to find. Heaven knows why.... So many versions, so many that installed and seemed to work, but no sound came out. Eventually found one on the Gateway site (of all places!) that worked...

::Edit
Apparently the old link doesnt work any more... Based on driver versions etc, this link should be the same file as I used originally, but I dont have the laptop to test with (its my brothers, and apparently still running well!). Good luck!

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=21374&dscr=SigmaTel%20Audio%20DriverVersion:%205.10.5185.0&uid=196216183
::End Edit

I THINK that's the lot! if i've missed anything, I'm sure someone will come back at me and tell me so but, I figure this is a MUCH better starting point than I had!

Please let me know if this is of any help to anyone! It took long enough to write!!

Cheers!
Broni



::Edit
Having just reviewed the entire thread (and it seems we really have been having fun here!) I thought I'd list Tel-b's very hepful solution to the audio problems many of you are having up here in the first post. How's that for recognition of brilliance

If my drivers dont work, give this a shot... I've removed some of tel-b's broken links too...

or, you could try the audio driver package he's kindly put together which I believe includes the fix above...

http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=1201501

Enjoy!
::End Edit

 

Dear Bronislaw
I am erecting a small statue in your memory for posting these xp drivers for the gateway: just bought the machine, lovely deal, but as you say no racehorse with vista. and my key software turns out to be highly allergic to vista.
Everything runs smoothly now under XP but I notice the coprocessor still says it has no driver - did you find the same thing or do you have ideas where I might find a driver for that?
with thanks.....

 

Thank goodness I'm not the only donkey who decided to install XP on one of these! I havent downloaded all of the installs yet, but I'm very grateful that you've posted the links I need.

Vista may have some marketing value for selling little laptops like this, but it's crazy to think that anyone who has purchased one would be happy with the utter lack of responsiveness! If I wanted to swim in treacle, I would, and that's EXACTLY what the experience of Vista on a 3108b is!

Thanks again for the links!
T

 

will linux go on a gateway and have all the drivers?

 

I seriously doubt it, mr kite! But I'm sure if you trawl the linux forums and get enough info on the hardware that's inside the gateway, you should find something that will work. I don't envy your quest. Finding XP drivers for it is a nightmare.. Linux can only be harder..

I've installed all the XP drivers from the list above but there are still some of my devices not working.
Coprocessor
Modem Device on HighDefinition Audio Bus
Unknown Device.

I have graphics and sound just now, and it STILL works a lot better than it did on Vista!

Tel

 

After all the hassle of installing XP, was the machine any faster?

I just bought an ML3108B, found it was running slower than my old 600MHz laptop, and was about to refit XP, but I'm now hesitating. I also found that the machine couldn't log on to my Wifi access point (another Vista feature, apparently), and that the Gateway online help doesn't support non-US users.
Should I take it back to the shop, or persist with the XP install?

 

hi jamesb. Yeh, my 3108b is going like a whore on prom night, now that I've put xp on it. My graphics and sound are 100%, wireless is 100% (but use driver only, not realtek app), and ethernet is 100%.

Still have a few drivers that I'm trying to resolve, but I'm sure everyone that's bought one of these will want xp on it so I expect drivers will soon be freely available.

Take it back to the shop or persist with xp? Well, if you install xp and DON'T delete the 'D:recovery' partition, there's nothing to stop you reverting to vista, hence being able to return it as sold.

Personally, I'm happy with how well it runs on xp and I'm going to keep it. If i were stuck with vista, I'd have had it back to Tesco long ago

I'm goin to stick with this thread until all my drivers are sorted (not that i really need an ac'97 modem anyway, i just hate unresolved hardware!), and I'll post whatever solutions i find.

As for gateway support, since they've shipped the 3108s with vista, i doubt if they will ever have any support for xp...

hope this helps
T

 

the 'coprocessor' device listing is actually the nVidia network enumerator. MANUALLY install the driver by going into the C:cabs folder and into the nforce430 cabs. (called something else) and browse down to the mcp51 folder for xp.

The modem device driver ( Agere systems HDA modem) can be found on Gateway support site. I downloaded the vista driver for the ml3109, installed it manually and it works perfectly.
All my hardware devices are listed and working 100% in XP

(XP actually goes like snow off a roof on my 3108... would recommend it to any1 with the patience to install the drivers!)

 

Really useful thread, many thanks.

I've now put on XP and seems like a really good little laptop. The only problem I'm having is with the audio. Despite installing the drivers as listed above I still have no sound ('no soundcard installed' error when i try to play any sounds).
There is an issue when I try to install the last Sigmatel driver from the gateway site. As it installs it comes up with a message saying " The system does not support the driver you are attempting to use ".

Could anyone offer any help/thoughts on this? Is there another driver I could try or does anyone know the make/brand of soundcardso that i can search myself? Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Rich.

 

Hi Rich

Is it possible that you havent installed microsoft uaa highdef bus first? (step 4 of original post)..

Both these drivers work perfectly in my 3108b.
Without the microsoft highdef bus in place, the sound hardware wont be recognised.

Try uninstalling whatever drivers youve installed for sound and then install the highdef bus from the link in step 4.

The sound is reporting on mine as being 'SigmaTel High Definition Audio Codec'.

Hope this helps.

T

 

Job well done mate....Pity the support from the manufacturer was not up to much. Ex-girlfriends old man bought one of these beasts...ran slow with VISTA.

As you do, I removed both partitions and reinstalled XP MCE.....no driver disk.....I then went direct to live support, only too be given an URL to 55 possible downloads....by this time, said old man is peering over the notebook at me....hoomed and haaad for a while and said, " sorry mate but you notebook is not backward-compatable" LOL...I then said...give me a day or so and I will have it sorted...

But thanks to this page I now have all, I hope I need....As pc not here, i have to send disk off...so I will keep you posted if all ok, as I am not sure if drivers 100% compatable with XP MCE.

Again thanks

Jason

 

Nice one have purchased 2, as soon as Vista loaded the lag was unbearable, my first action go and get a gig of ram for each, performance is so much better, but still not on par with xp, the boot up time is still slow, am going to try this on 1 and see the difference in performance, also @ mo having a real hastle with Vista or the wireless adapter on these Notepads?
The Coprocessor driver could you please explain more about the install?

Thankyou for the drivers.

 

hi i have just put xp on this notebook installed everything but not got the driver for coprocessor i have tried doing it manually as a previous post suggest but to no avail..

the 'coprocessor' device listing is actually the nVidia network enumerator. MANUALLY install the driver by going into the C:cabs folder and into the nforce430 cabs. (called something else) and browse down to the mcp51 folder for xp.

its a great machine but this is bugging me its the only thing i need i hate ???in the device tab lol any help would be appreciated..

ps..bronislow many thanks for the drivers you have posted massive help cheers.

 

Just signed up to say thank you for this thread. I thought i had seriously messed up after immediately removing Vista from this laptop.

Could you explain this aagin please mate, it doesn't make sense to me?

C:cabs? nforce430 cabs?

I found a folder called mcp51, but nothing of interest in there

Thanks

 

How have people found this system running with 1gb of ram on vista?

Is it worth the upgrade and exactly what is the spec of the ram in it, have you people found any good deals on ram for it?

Sorry for so many wuestions but have been away from the upgrading scene for a long time and feel well and truly out of the loop now.

 

I have found the solution to the "coprocessor" driver missing.

It is a smu on the nforce 4 chipset.

Goto this link.

http://support.gateway.com/support/...version: Nvidia SB 5.1.2600.121&uid=170482294

Once extracted file, dont use main setup. Go into "D20008-001-001\D20008-001-001\winvista32" use setup in there. Dont worry about it saying vista it works on xp fine.

After its installed, it appears in device manager as "Nvidia nforce PCI system management" in "system devices".


BTW, this thread is amazing and as helped me **** loads, cheerz guys.

 

THANK YOU!!! The audio bit works on the ML3109, too, for anyone who's working with that laptop. My cousin just bought that laptop and I can't believe that they could actually sell a laptop that was virtually unusable with Vista on it. So I went down the XP road, and it was all going smoothly until I went to install the sound drivers. I was about 2 seconds away from giving up until I found this post.

Again, THANK YOU!!!!

 

Just to say thankyou to everyone who has helped, with the xp install, not only do these laptops run very slow "like a snail" with Vista, i have had a nightmare with the wireless, on a BT homehub, hope that this is a comptabiliy issue, spent aprox 11 hours so far on support only for them to end where i ended.

 

has anyone ay answer to the ram question i posted earlier? hope u guys have good results with the xp route

 

yeh, sorry bout the confusion. think my brains were well and truly melted by the time I'd gotten everything working. the xp driver for 'coprocessor' is part of the setup for the nforce drivers you've already installed. On my system, the driver is in C:/nvidia/nforcewinxp/11.09/mcp51/SMbus, although I've reinstalled everything. if you go to the root of C: and search for mcp51, then direct your new hardware wizard to install coprocessor device from there, it will work fine. dont know why it doesnt install with the rest of the nforce drivers though! I've done it this way with two different XP installations and it's worked each time.
Hope this helps
T

 

do a search for "Vista Sucks" on google...
Personally, i think if this lappy had ten processors and 4gig ram, vista would still be rubbish. Vista requires a LOT of HD access, generates a LOT of heat, and if u check your performance in TaskManager, you'll find a scary amount of cpu usage with no applications running. Upgrading/increasing your ram wont make half as much improvement as installing XP would. I havent any additional RAM in mine, and it runs SO much better. perfectly responsive and it hasnt crashed once!

T

 

Hi there.
Havent tried it on HomeHub, but am using a BT voyager router and it works fine. It's worked on the orange livebox. when i tried it on those crappy wireless routers that sky digital provided (my mates house!) it didnt work when every other laptop has. I rebooted the router and it picked it up fine.
Have you tried resetting your HomeHub? (if it's any consolation, my neighbour's homehub shows on my list of available networks
T

 

Well just to say my ML3108B flys now, well sweet, and as for my problem with bt its all sorted, thaks to XP.

If i had to reset that hub another time it would become a fatality!!!

Thankyou to everyone who contributed on this thread.

 

Many thanks. Like others I have made the instant wipe of Vista from the hard drive. I'm now downloading all the drivers and hope to have a running machine much quicker than I could ever do on my own.

Many thanks again

Ian

 

Further to my last thread....Drivers do work on MCE except the wifi drivers, strange happenings with the lan, it works but in the system devices it does say it has no drivers??!!??

XP MCE runs smooth on this laptop, and you will get all the benifits of the multimedia aspect of this OS.

YA Vista does suck, but I bet in 2002, most people who slag off Vista, XP was slated in the same manner. Fancy going back to Win2K/ME/SE??? no way.

The problem with using old OS is compatability in software, lack of service packs/support....so one day Vista will win, only if MS release another OS...ooops they have 2 OS in the wings ready to be beta tested....

BTW has anyone tried Linux on this Laptop?


Jason

 

Totaly agree with you mm3nrx, there will be a day that Vista is the operating system we all deserve just not @ moment, XP sp3 due next year, Vista still a long way to go before the compatabillity issues resolved, that many of us have encountered. When Vista becomes standard in the work place, business, schools etc, is when we know we all have what we want.

 

Yeh, perhaps Vista will be good one day. XP had it's share of trouble when it was launched, drivers were difficult to get and it ran like a pig on anything less than 256 Mb Ram.

Difference being, when XP was launched, it was more stable than anything previously on offer. Windows Vista is even LESS reliable than Windows mE!!

Stability/compatability aside, Gateway (and others!) have scored a massive own goal by releasing Vista on laptops of this spec. The world is full of dissatisfied customers who have bought a brand new laptop only to find it runs more slowly than the one they replaced!

We've all heard the terms "too much too soon", and "too little too late"...
methinks the Vista slogan should be "too little too soon"!

T

 

tel-b id hate to know how many people around the world are crawling or just having a nightmare on Vista @ moment, especially the inexperienced pc user, who doesn't know how to install XP, to be honest Vista isnt just the problem, it's also due to the poor install by these companies, putting stuff on we never use, google toolbar etc, virus scanners that are too processor dependent, after all if we wanted office etc, then shurely we would want a hard copy, seems sensible that way.

The ony real thing that caught my eye was the alt-tab, to which i have just replicated on my xp by the use of top desk, worth a look @.

 

Vista runs awesome on my 3707. I was expecting the worst, but after using it for less than a week I installed Vista on my desktop machine as well. Having XP and Vista installed in dual-boot on my desktop, I can directly compare them side-by-side on the same machine. Vista handles multi-tasking much better than XP, and graphically windows open and close much faster. As far as compatibilty problems, I have yet to encounter a problem yet.

When Vista is first started on a brand-new machine it is a little sluggish at first as it indexs the hard drive. I have never used Vista Basic, but since it doesn't include the benefits of Aero perhaps that is your problem. Also there are a few nice tweaks in the Windows thread on this forum that enhance Vista performance, including disabling drive indexing (two simple mouse clicks).

 

so if i have vista on a laptop can i just put in an xp disc and keep the files on the d drive and that partition with drivers? and use xp?

 

Hi Bronislaw!
I just bought one of these new gateways at bestbuy yesterday and I think it is to slow because of vista. This machine only has the minium requirements of 512 meg of ram. To slow so I was going to reformat it and put a fresh copy of win xp pro on it. Before I tried it I went online to see if it was going to be a headache because of drivers and such. This is how I found you. I have read everythihng that you have said and have downloaded all of the drivers you have posted on this forum. Tomarrow I am going to reformat my new laptop put on xp pro 32 bit and then install these drivers listed. I hope this works. I do appreicate the help because without this post I would have tried it then I would have been in trouble. I do have a desktop though so I can still look online.
I will post you again soon when I have made the BIG CHANGE OVER!! and I will let you know how it went.
Thanks for the help,
ORPHEUS_FU

 

you could get online -youll probably just be missing the wireless and audio and maybe video driver but you would have 16 color anyway

 

Hi all, thinking of buying one of these myself.never had a lappy before but not bad on the desktop PC side of things. Would like to know ( as a previous poster did), did vista work better with more RAM ? and how much RAM can be installed ? as I think I would like to go to the XP option....but have the other option of being Vista in the future if it works, if 2G Ram is available to put in the lappy I would v happily buy.

 

One other question, how is the drive partitioned, as it is 60GB, what amount is taken up by the recovery volume and how much is 'free' to fill up on the other partition after all the vista files are there.

 

i think i got a 3109

80 gig drive 9 for d drive for drivers

vista works ok usually on 512 ram

for the price go buy it id say- why not?

 

although i cant get audacity recoder to work with vista

 

I have just registered to say thank you to everyone on this thread.
Also to report that it works on my MT3705 as well.

I was quite frustrated and had given up on the Audio when i installed XP
Thanks you to you people the notebook is running excellent

 

Thanks for the useful article. I switched a Gateway 3109 from Vista to XP. Similar story.

2) Graphics / Video Card

Radio Xpress ML300 - After trying both Gateway and AMD Drivers Found http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php works.

2) WiFi - Realtek - Used driver from Gateway
http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=20799

3) Network - Marvell Yukon 88E8038 PCI-E
http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=20329

4) Microsoft UAA - Didn't need this. In fact the gateway install fails. Although the driver is still displayed as missing.

5) Sound - Tried multiple different drivers, but found SigmaTel HD drivers from Gateway worked the best.

 

I too became frustrated with the lack of performance of vista and put in XP pro.
Problem I have now though is I can not see video on the laptop screen. If I play an mpeg, I get audio and a black screen, if I connect to an external monitor audio and video play correctly. It appears to be a display driver issue but have not been able to correct it.

 

I found the answer. Just in case anyone has this experience. I opened media player and from the tools-options menu set video acceleration to 1/2.
Video plays now.

 

Great post! I was getting pretty frustrated with this "No Audio Device" problem on the Gateway MT3243. My girlfriend just got it for law school and I wiped it and installed XP since some of the law schools software isn't yet compatible with Vista. I got everything but this figured out on my own. Thank goodness for people smarter than me!

Anyway, Thanks again!

 

Just popped back on here while clearing out my favourites....
WOW, hasnt it been a fun old ride with the 3108b!!!

Have had a little hunt round the gateway site too, and unsurprisingly, the fact that the 3108b is rubbish on Vista hasnt been mentioned..

If anyone from Gateway support happens to stumble upon this thread, for the love of god, feed back to R&D that whoever had the 'clever' idea to release this fantastic entry-level lappy with Vista needs a career discussion- or just a hard slap!!!

Have fun, people!

Tel

 

hi guys i need your help.
i have this gateway laptop with model number mx3414. recently when i restarted my laptop i found no cd/dvd drive icon in "my computer"
and then when i called gateway they said that i m out of warranty and need to pay like 60 $ for them to help me out... and then too with no gurantee..so yeah if anybody can help me out to find and download this cd/dvd drivers for free orwith any other option..i would really appreciate any kind of help..
thank you,
phil evans

 

Hi everybody, not sure if anybody is still looking at this thread but i need some help!....i have just bought a 3108b and i too wiped it in favour of XP pro, all the drivers are installed and working apart from the Sigmatel HD, the link on the previous page has expired and despite trying several over the last few days i cant find one which works...they either say there not working properly or install ok and still no sound....please help me!

 

hey! ya i also have no sound does anyone no wer else to to get these cos the on ye have up expired! i need sound!!!!!!!!

 

hey guys i found the sigma audio tel HD driver on the last site u wud ever ****in expect GATEWAY SUPPORT!!! http://support.gateway.com/support/...udio Driver version 5.10.5031.0&uid=181561160

 

other audio drivers for xp

http://support.gateway.com/support/...udio Driver Version: 5.10.4889.0&uid=18192484

 

Right i wanna put xp on my ml3108b and wanna know the best way of going about it i have already upgraded it from 512 to 2gig. i need to know the best way to do it and wat i need before i do it

thanks in advance

 

Follow the instructions given at start of post and you can't go wrong (Some other drivers in posts so read through), have installed numerous ml3108b's and all work.

 

Hi everyone,

Just waiting for delivery of mt 3108b (after UPS take it on a world tour!! 3 different countys it been in so far!!!)

I was wondering what people thought of the graphics card in this machine. Does it compare to desktop GForce standards?!? (im sure there's some gamers out there who can tell me

Not that I want it for a gaming machine, but it's nice to know next time I'm stuck at the airport (waiting for them to patch a 737 up with duct tape) I could crack out HL2 and nail some zombies!!!

Thanks in advance for any comments and an a HUGE thanks to everyone on the thread for all the vital info!