How to "UPGRADE" your 7811 to WinXP 32bit

How to “UPGRADE” your Gateway P-7811 FX to Windows XP (32 bit)
(revised 9/4/08)

[EDIT: 10/26/08 added info about MS KB958644 patch breaking audio function]

Xuare has reported that kb958644:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0D5F9B6E-9265-44B9-A376-2067B73D6A03&displaylang=en
causes rancid's audio workaround to break:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=313622
I'm sure Rancid will be working on this issue and until then, you'll have a choice to make...

[EDIT: 9/6/08 added HDAUDIO Modem & HDMI Audio device]

I thought I would make this guide for those of you who wanted to “upgrade” your 7811 to the 32 bit version of XP. I used Windows XP Home but I’m sure that the Professional/Media Center Editions would work just the same as well as the 64 bit versions (only the drivers would be different). I didn’t do a dual boot vista/xp but I’m sure you can find help for this by searching the forums at notebookreview.com

I also did a complete wipe of all the partitions on the hard drive. If you wanted to keep the hidden one, I think you can but why? All you need to do is image the original stock hard drive with something like Acronis True Image Home V10 (like I did) and restore it to your hard drive if you want to go back. I would also recommend making the Recovery and Application/Driver disks just in case.

I make no guarantees nor warranty of any kind; if you follow these instructions, you do so at your own risk! Just be aware that if you mess up, it’s on you…

While you’re at notebookreview.com forums, give Ashura, Rancid, Hyawatha15, Dook, DragonRider862, iaMtHeAnimaL, and any others that you may have found helpful a +1 rep.

A summary of all the drivers (including Vista 64/32 bit and XP 64bit) for the 7811 can be found at:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=287180
(kudos to Ashura for providing this thread as well as all who contributed)

SLIPSTREAM XP F6 SATA DRIVERS


First of all, if you want to keep the BIOS (Advanced) setting on AHCI and not IDE you’ll either need the F6 drivers on floppy or you’ll need to slipstream the Intel SATA drivers into your Windows XP install disc. I did this on my Desktop PC running Win XP Home SP2.

1. Get nLite here: http://www.nliteos.com/download.html
2. Once you install it (current version 1.4.9) run it and on the welcome screen click “next”.
3. Pop in the Windows XP disk (I had XP Home SP3). Exit out of the auto installer if it comes up.
4. Click “browse” in nLite to locate your windows installation. Choose your Optical Drive with XP in it.
5. Warning pops up for you to select where to save the CD installation files. Click OK.
6. Make a new folder for your XP files. (i.e. Desktop\SlipXP) and click ok.
7. Copying starts from CD.
8. When finished, you should see Locating the Windows Installation and the directory SlipXP.
9. Click “next” and you should see Presets screen. Here you can load previous settings, just click next.
10. Get the F6 Matrix Drivers from: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...All&OSFullName=All Operating Systems&lang=eng
and download the .zip file. Extract the zip file to a directory (i.e. Desktop\F6sata).
11. In nLite, “Task Selection” click Integrate Drivers. Then “next”.
12. Click the Insert tab and choose Multiple Driver Folder.
13. Browse to your F6Sata folder, click OK, then choose the folder again, and OK again.
14. nLite will say Storage Device Textmode Driver. Hold Ctrl and select all of the listed controllers.
15. After all the controllers are selected click OK. You should see on the next screen about 14 Intel drivers (ver. 8.5.0.1032)
16. Click Next. And click Yes to start the process.
17. After it finishes it should say Integrated drivers 0.18mb and installation grew by 0.53mb.
18. Click Next and then click Finish.
19. Run nLite again. Click Next. SlipXP should already be there. Click Next. And Next again.
20. Choose Last Session and click Next.
21. Click Create Bootable ISO. Click Next.
22. Click Make ISO, and on the next screen choose the desktop to save your iso (WinLite.iso) Click Save.
23. Click Next when done. Then click finish.
24. You should see WinLite.iso on your desktop.
25. Use any cd burning software to burn the .iso file. (I use Nero Burning Rom)
26. Now you have the Slipstream Disk!


INSTALL SLIPSTREAMED XP DISK ON 7811 and DRIVERS


1. Before you wipe your drive, make sure you have all the drivers you want to install either on a USB thumb drive or burned on a CD, especially the Network Drivers. Otherwise, you won’t be able to go online to get the necessary drivers. (a catch-22 situation)
2. Make sure your BIOS setting has the DVD drive as the first boot drive.
3. Put in your slipstreamed disk and boot the computer. (hit space to boot from cd)
4. Install WinXP, if you made it to the Welcome to Setup screen (i.e. to set up Windows XP now, press ENTER) without any BSODs, then you’ll be ok from here on…
5. After installing XP you’ll be at the desktop. Proceed to install the drivers.
6. Nvidia v177.92 drivers (XP/32bit): http://laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=20269 , make sure you get the Modded INF (in green lettering). When you extract the drivers, overwrite the .inf with the modded .inf file (so it’ll recognize the Geforce 9800M GTS). The driver summary mentioned above has 175.76 drivers. I’ve used the 177.92 drivers with no problems.
7. Marvell Ethernet Drivers v10.61.2.3 (XP/32bit): http://www.station-drivers.com/telechargement/marvell/setup_v10.61.2.3(www.station-drivers.com).zip or driver page: http://www.station-drivers.com/page/marvell.htm
8. Intel WiFi 5100 driver v12.0.4.0 (for XP Home): http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&OSFullName=Windows* XP Home Edition&lang=eng or driver page: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2963&lang=eng
9. Intel chipset driver v9.0.0.1011: http://www.station-drivers.com/tele...llOS_9.0.0.1011_(www.station-drivers.com).exe or driver page: http://www.station-drivers.com/page/intel chipset.htm
10. Synaptics Touchpad driver v10.1.8 (for XP/32bit): http://drivers.synaptics.com/Synaptics_Driver_v10_1_8_XP32.exe or driver page: http://www.synaptics.com/support/drive.cfm
11. Chicony Webcam (mic not working yet): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2M510RAY
12. OS Media Reader MR510: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q0CK1SVS
13. Intel Matrix Storage Manager (I didn’t install this but you can check it out and decide to): http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...&OSFullName=Windows* XP Professional&lang=eng
14. Thread to enable Audio (by rancid): http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3871519&postcount=178

The above thread references the 3 sites below:

1. Here’s the Knowledge Base Article for the devcon:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272

2. Here’s the Knowledge Base Article for UUA High Definition Audio v1.0a:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888111/

3. Here’s the audio driver package from rancid:
http://rapidshare.com/files/142269773/rancid7811fx.zip.html


After doing all this you should have Windows XP 32 bit running on your machine. There are a few issues left including:

1. Built-in mic not working for Chicony Camera.
2. 3 unknown devices still listed in device manager
3. High Definition Audio Device (should be NVIDIA HDMI Audio)


[EDIT 9/6/08]

The modem device can be enabled with the driver I got from:
http://www.conexant.com/support/files/HSFhda_WinXP.zip or driver page http://www.conexant.com/support/md_driverassistance.html (choose the HDA driver for WinXP)

You can manually install the driver thru device manager by:

1. right clicking unknown modem device and choosing "update driver".
2. Click no, for windows update then next
3. Click Install from a specific location
4. Click Don't Search. Then hit next
5. Click Have Disk, then browse to the directory where you extracted the modem driver files.
6. GENHDA5.inf should be there then click OPEN, then OK
7. HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax should be listed, Click Next then a warning appears
8. It says it is not recommended but click YES to continue.
9. Click Finished

(After doing this you can actually get an updated modem driver from Microsoft Update. Just run Microsoft Update and you should see the driver listed in the Hardware section)

I was able to enable other unknown device (HD Audio Device) by putting in the Driver and Applications disk that you created with the original Vista install and:

1. right clicking the last unknown HD audio device and choosing "update driver".
2. Click no, not at this time, for windows update then next
3. Click Install from a specific location
4. It should automatically search for the NVIDIA HDMI Audio and install it otherwise
5. Choose search removable media and then hit Next and follow the prompts.


If there are any updates, questions, issues, corrections let me know. And if I forgot to give credit to anyone, sorry; PM me and I'll update. Thanks for any reps!

 

Thanks for the write up. I'll give this a try tomorrow as I have had no luck in any of my attempts.

 

Great post - easy to follow steps
I am dual booting XP Media Center on a 2nd hard drive, keeping Vista 64 on the original 200 G Seagate. What made it difficult in the beginning was that the 2nd drive could only install XP under the IDE mode [ BSOD if XP installs with BIOS set on AHCI ], while the original drive ran under AHCI. If the BIOS was left in IDE, the original Vista would not boot correctly, going into endless loops of unsuccessful repairs. [ This was the first day I got the computer, and before I made any Backup / Application and Recovery Discs ]
Booting up with a USB floppy with the AHCI drivers did not work, but I did not spend much time investigating that, proceeding to slip stream a Media Center XP disk with the SATA AHCI drivers and XP3 service pack instead. It installed but somehow the media center extras did not install, so I did another slipstream with just the SATA AHCI drivers and then manually updated to SP3. Then did the audio batch file [ did not work at first as the devcon.exe file was not in the same folder as the .bat file ] and I can get sound upon rebooting every time. Great job to everyone
I tried your link to the driver for the HD Modem device, ran the setup.exe file but got 'FAILURE' results for device 'HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP'. Not a big problem for me, compared to sound.

Will tackle removing Vista 64 and replacing it with Vista 32 this weekend.

Thanks again for all the great posts on this forum - wouldn't have as much fun with this machine without all your help

 

Good post but XP is the past. Why does everyone think it is better? It's not especially on a machine like the 6860fx or the 7811

 

great writeup for those who use this laptop for work or require XP for specific applications

if it is for home use then I would stick with vista...this laptop makes vista nice and snappy anyway

 

You're right dds999 about the modem drivers. I does give a FAILURE. However, rancid told me that the modem drivers are in the audio install. I'm about to confirm that. If true then you won't need the modem drivers from conexant.

On a side note, in order for you to install those drivers, you need to manually do it. I.e. find the device, then select update drivers, then point them to the driver folder (Have Disk...).

@tim2963, true that XP is the past. But there may be some out there that still want it. As long as some people want old software, there'll be people willing to help make it happen. Have you seen the C64 Lan party in action? ... or how about TCP/IP on the Apple IIgs?

 

question, why use sata driver when IDE mode is available? is there a performance difference?

 

One reason is for a dual boot, Vista drive was set up with SATA. Resetting the BIOS every time you change from Vista to XP or vice versa was too much of a hassle

 

You should be able to do a windows update on the modem device and it will pull the drivers if the ones in my package aren't working for you.

Very nice writeup Fire, good job. Let's work on that eSATA port this weekend

 

As an IT professional who purchased the 7811FX with both work and play in mind being able to run XP Pro x86 is not an option... its the only option. I have customers who I am unable to support due to software incompatibility issues with Vista. I know this is their problem not mine, but if I want to keep their business I have to do whatever it takes to support them.

Thanks to all the helpful people here on NBR.com I now have the best of both worlds. I successfully installed XP Pro x86 and Vista x64 on my 7811FX last night. I installed XP over the default Vista OS partition, and installed Vista over the default Data partition. I didn't bother with the AHCI injection routine, just installed both OS's using IDE mode. Then when my new Seagate 7200.3 320GB drive shows up I will be one happy camper.

I have no need for the mic, HDMI, eSATA port for business purposes so that doesn't bother me in the least. Hopefully someone will get it working, but its not a deal breaker for me.

Nice write up fire268, it was a great idea to pull all this info together.

 

A couple of questions (esp for Schmoof):

How big a partition do you need for XP?
Is there anything hiding (backup files) in the Data partition that I need to look out for?
Do you do choose which OS boots at the startup screen?
What's the issue with AHCI vs IDE?

thanks,

Frank

 

You may want to upgrade to XP because games run much faster. Look how much more system hardware you need to run Crysis under Vista than XP:

http://eastore.ea.com/DRHM/servlet/...age&SiteID=ea&Locale=en_US&productID=77033800

 

Games do not run much faster in XP on the P Series notebooks ^

 

Benchmarks and games run faster in XP then Vista on the 7811. I tested in both OS's with the same forceware drivers, although it was with the base gateway install and not fresh Vista.

 

For those who want a modem driver to download still, the Clevo M570TU modem driver works fine with my P-7811 under XP

http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/e-services/download.asp

Tell it you have a Clevo M570TU (careful, there are other M570 models), and you want ALL drivers.

Use the #2 link, as the #1 goes very slow.

x

Notes:

The nVidia driver here _will_ work as long as you do it manually and ignore Windows please that it won't work. It will also work for Vista64 as long as you downloaded the Vista driver archive vs. the XP archive.

The audio driver is only good enough to get the the first part of rancid's thread on getting audio to work, unfortunately.

 

For those of you that go to XP, please try your eSATA port and see if it works. If it doesn't we need some help trying to figure out what driver we are missing even though there is no unknown device showing up for this guy.

 

This is a very thorough and well-worded post, however switching to XP is definitely not an "upgrade". I understand the need to utilize XP for legacy support, but that's exactly what it is, legacy. Not to mention all the hoops that you have to jump through to get it working. Unless you absolutely HAVE to use XP, stay with Vista.

On another note, XP works great as a Virtual Machine on Vista.

 

Good point on XP being a legacy OS. But there are probably those who want it (for whatever reasons). I personally don't have any qualms about Vista so the guide was mainly informational and users should view it as offering choice. And choice is a good thing, unless of course you are a Microsoft shareholder...

 

Indeed. Wish I jumped on the MS bandwagon back in the early 80s. I'd be out driving my Ferrari instead of in front of this computer.

 

Well Vista doesn't really qualify as an "upgrade" either. Maybe we should change the thread title to "How to install the other Windows OS"

Back on topic, I finally got XP installed using the method outlined in the post. I tried a few other times and failed to slipstream the sata drivers in successfully, but I was using an older nlite rip of my windows xp disc so maybe I had a done something to the rip that I forgot about. A fresh nlite extract and driver insertion worked fine with windows xp sp3 pro retail.

 

Mindstorm, the same thing happened to me. I had previously slipstreamed winxp with lenovo's intel sata drivers which gave me a BSOD when I tried to use it with the Gateway. So I did what you did and performed a new nlite extract with the new Intel F6 sata drivers.

 

I've updated the guide to include the HDAUDIO modem device (alternative from rancid's package/audio guide) and enabling the last HD Audio Device (NVIDIA HDMI Audio). For the HDMI Audio, could anyone verify that this works for them cuz I'm not sure exactly where it got the driver from but mine says 1.0.0.26. Thanks!

 

Thank you for taking the time to write this guide i installed xp tonight on my 7811 and i had a 6860 mind you before this with xp on it as well and i cant believe how much better xp is on this machine compared to that one . i would have to write a full page about how much better crysis plays now at 1920x1200 i can even play with shaders on high now and get 25+fps or shaders on medium and get 40+fps at native res which i couldnt do on my 6860 with the wuxga screen and t9300 . 3dmark6 is 9k not that it matters but i ran it for the hell of it .No OC either all stock .

 

Yup, XP runs great on this laptop. I hit in the 9100 area for my first 3dmark bench after installing XP no OC.

We really need to get the eSATA port working

 

Hey guys thanks for all the help and info so far. I am havingsome trouble when trying to install xp. on my hitachi 320 gb second hd. Basically i get it to boot to xp but then i cant go back to vista with out vista boot pro. that comes up with an error then i can got to vista and not ex on my next boot. follow me so far. My question is what does the error "could not find ntldr " mean, how can i get it fixed and is there a better program to use to boot to vista and xp? thanks all help much appreciated

 

Hi all. This is my first post, I'm not really computer saavy, and I just purchased the 7811. Obviously, my older programs don't like vista.

I've been following this thread and would like to install XP as well...

Please tell me if it is possible to do the following:

I want to download the appropriate xp drivers onto a flash drive.
I want to remove the hard drive and insert a fresh new one.
I want to install a full version of XP Pro on the new hard drive.
Then I want to install the drivers from the flash drive.

Is it that simple? Because if it IS, then I can handle this project!

Also, would I be able to return the computer to its original state by just switching out the hard drives? (ie back to vista 64 bit?)

Sorry for the dumb questions. I just want to make this as simple as possible.

All this work just to be able to play some old games!

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

It is possible to do the above provided you either (1) slipstream the SATA drivers for AHCI support into Windows XP OR (2) change the hard drive mode in the bios from AHCI to IDE. The latter is the easiest way if you want to install Windows XP "as-is"

To answer your 2nd question, yes, you can just take out the hard drive you added and replace it with the one that came with the laptop (based on your statement of "I want to remove the hard drive and insert a fresh new one.")

 

Vista x64 > XP any bit.

 

Yes Shanepilot, I have done exactly as you describe. I still have my stock 200gb hard drive laying on my desk probably until next sunday, at which point it'll be reformatted and used as either a 2nd hard drive or I'll clone my XP installation (currently on a 80gb HD) and use the 200 as the primary and the 80 and the secondary. Make sure you create the app/driver disks as well as the recovery disks (while you're at it). Just hit the Start Menu and navigate to Gateway. The recovery app that burns the cds (or DVDs) should be there.

 

Thanks everyone for the quick reply! I'll try it ASAP. I'm excited now.

One more thing...

How do I change the bios to IDE? (I know... I'm lame!)

Also, must I change the bios every time I swap the drives?

Thanks again!

 

does the audio fix also mean that i can use a mic

 

ok i dont realy understand why i need a Slipstream Disk. can some please explain what it does? if i want to change to IDE do i need to do the slipstream disk. is it possible to just install xp using my xp pro cd and then to a manual install of all the drivers.

can some please help?

 

Anff76, to summarize, if you wanted to install a fresh copy of XP onto your laptop with a SATA drive you will most likely get a BSOD because your drive mode in BIOS is set to AHCI. This is because the XP install disks do not have the drivers that enable SATA support. That is precisely why at the beginning of the install you'll see the "hit the F6" key if you have drivers you want to load (i.e. Intel Matrix SATA drivers floppy disk).

However, if you go into BIOS and change your drive mode to IDE emulation, you will not need the SATA drivers and CAN install XP without any problems.

Slipstreaming just refers to integrating the F6 SATA drivers (or other drivers/service packs/etc) into the Windows install disk. Meaning you make a "copy" of the xp disk; then "slip" the drivers into the image and reburn the disk onto a CD-R. Then when you go and put in the burned XP CD-R install disk, the drivers will already be integrated. Does that make sense?

So the question is, why would anyone need to slipstream if one can just change the setting in BIOS to IDE mode and be done with it. Answer: AHCI (as opposed to IDE mode) can offer features not offered by PATA such as hot-plug and native command queuing. Also if you want to change modes in the future such as enabling RAID mode (which also enables AHCI, but the 7811 does not support, yet) then there may be issues (in other words not recommended). So some say that it is always better to enable AHCI in the first place. Hopefully you're not totally confused now.

Everyone, did I get that right?

 

I installed XP under IDE mode and my performance is great with no issues. If slipstreaming is confusing I suggest just skipping it.

I confirmed that the HDMI port works under XP 32-bit with beta forceware drivers, I hooked my laptop up to my TV tonight. The only thing not working is the MIC and the eSATa port. The MIC I doubt we will ever get to work because it doesn't work on the 6830+'s either under XP with the webcam, but the eSATA port did work.

 

Ok thanks i understand now but i have just one more question when you guys say the mic doesnt work are you just talking about the integrated one or will i not be able to plug in a mic and use that either?

thanks for the help. =]

 

you don't mind telling me what graphic driver version you using to get that score?

 

Can someone that has slipstreamed the SATA drivers for XP test their eSATA port please? Mine does not work using IDE mode for disk mode and it is driving me insane I can't get eSATA to work. I don't have the SATA controller showing up in XP like it shows in the standard Vista install so I have a feeling that is part of the reason.

 

Rancid, no, I haven't left that issue... I just got myself a card reader that has an eSATA port so I can check my external eSATA hard drive on my desktop computer. Once I verify my eSATA drive works then I can start troubleshooting the port on the 7811. Have you heard of any others with the problem?

Btw: did you get audio thru the HDMI when you tested with your TV?

 

Fire: Sure did, audio played back fine. I also confirmed tonight that the firewire port is functional with our drivers and it captured audio/video just fine from my camcorder.

 

I am having some issues with the audio install and getting the camera to work. I followed the steps in this forum pointing to rancid's instructions. I have SP3 installed and had to use a reg hack to change the SP version to 2 to run the update. After that everything went smoothly and I installed the drivers and disabled the devices as described. However, after setting up the devcon shortcut and rebooting, nothing happens. No script fires and I have to re-run the Microsoft KB installer to get everything seen again. Anyone have any idea what's going on?

Also, the webcam will not initialize and I have another unknown device "Mass Storage Controller"

 

Your devcon is not linked to your .bat file correctly. You need to go into the devcon directory and create your .bat file there. Then you want to create a shortcut to the .bat file you created inside the devcon directory and place that in your startup folder.

 

Yeah, I did that. In any case the whole system has given me enough problems that I decided to return it last night and put my money towards something else later. My E1705 with a T7200 and Quadro FX2500M can hold me for a while longer.

 

Caveat to all:

I tried to install XP after slipstreaming SP3, but it kept saying my serial number was invalid (even after calling Microsoft and getting a brand new number). It turns out this is a known issue when you integrate SP3 on a Vista machine.

Quick question: can you install the SATA drivers after-the-fact (maybe changing to IDE then back again in the bios after installing drivers)? Also, I just noticed pressing F2 to get to the bios (and a couple other FN keys causes the speaker to beep). It that normal (seems to be so).

thanks,

Frank

 

Odd, but not totally surprised as it is a Microsoft product we are talking about here. I slipstreamed the SATA drivers into XP Pro (retail) which in turn had SP3 slipstreamed into it, and I used a new (as in previously never used) key from an oem license I purchased a few years ago with no problem. I know that doesn't help you and your case, but it definitely is possible to install XP SP3 with SATA drivers on the 7811.

Not sure if you can install the sata drivers after the fact and get everything working (as in setting the bios back to AHCI and then booting into XP). The F2 bios beep appears to be normal. I get that as well.

 

Thanks. Slipstreaming the SATA drivers seemed to work well.

A couple other things for those dual-booting:

I ended up using EasyBCD. They advise, BTW, not to remove the Vista drive when loading XP onto a new drive-- they say it really messes things up.

I did get things to work, but it was painful.

For XP SP1, you'll also need to download a Microsoft installer (I forget the name) to get EasyBCD to work (they don't mention that on their instructions).

With XP SP1, there appears to only be WEP protection, so if you're using WAP on the router, you can't get onto your network unless you change the security or install SP3.

Initially, after doing that, I still couldn't get internet explorer to work, despite being able to get a good Wifi signal. ipconfig /all looked like it was showing a problem. After hours of trying to figure things out online (with my other computer), it turns out that all I had to do was delete the network Bridge in the networking folder.

Things are finally working. Thanks to all for your help.

- Frank

 

Sounds like you should have slipstreamed SP3 also.
-- The Monday Morning Quarterback --

 

I initially did try slipstreaming SP3 but ran into problems:

Slipstreaming SP3 will cause you to be unable to enter your serial number unless you do the slipstreaming on an XP machine, according to Microsoft.

 

Ahh, I did all of my slipstreaming of SP3 and the SATA drivers on a Windows XP box. I take it you were trying to do the slipstream under Vista?

 

What is it with Vista that screws with something as simple as slipstreaming? I have tried to run other simple procedures like the BartPE stuff and it screws with it. I'll be keeping an XP install handy for some time to come looks like.

 

One last tip: When dual booting, XP will wipe out Vista's system restore points unless you make a little modification:

http://www.cnet.com.au/desktops/0,239029372,339287905-6,00.htm

In my case, Vista is on drive c:, rather than d:.

- Frank