P-6860 / P-172X-FX Vista 64 Driver Guide?

I see a number of you folks are running Vista 64 on your 6860/172X laptops. I would like to do the same but would rather avoid the issues that many of you have gone through.

Has anyone put together any sort of guide for installing Vista 64 on these machines? Does Gateway provide drivers now or do you have to get them from other sources?

I did a search here and didn't find anything definative, so I thought I'd ask.

 

I posted all the driver links a while ago. Manually install as many of the latest drivers as you can directly from the manufacturers websites:

Chipset: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=816

Wireless: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2753&lang=eng

Video: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=265740

Touchpad: http://www.synaptics.com/support/drive.cfm

Media Card Reader: http://www.realtek.com.tw/Downloads...=25&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Bluetooth: http://www.broadcom.com/products/bluetooth_update.php

RealTek Network Adaptor: Windows Update

And the rest from gateway.com support (Hot Start Utility, Modem, IDT/SigmaTel Audio and Webcam).

 

Man, I posted the exact same thread a few days ago and nobody gave me the links! I feel unloved . Thanks, Animal. I was looking for that.

 

much much love Danja

 

Thanks! One problem, though. The webcam, Hotstart Utility and audio drivers on Gateway's site only show for Vista 32. Am I missing something?

 

No you're not missing anything - they are all 64-bit compatible, Gateway just doesn't tell you that for some reason

 

Thanks for answering the other question that was in my post! Much obliged, thank you.

Thanks, love always appreciated

 

Well I got everything installed and working save for the video driver. I have a few different versions and each do the same thing. They appear to install, but upon reboot, I am still using the standard VGA driver. I see no errors or anything, just no leaded driver.

Any thoughts?

 

The 64 bit version of 175.63 found at Guru3D installed without issue. The only thing I am not sure about is if these are OK to use on a notebook.

 

Yeah are you following my mini-guide? If so are you sure on the last screen before you reboot it doesn't say about the drivers being incompatible? My guide tells you what to do in that situation and should fix your problem.

 

I wasn't getting any errors or anything. It looked like it took the driver but on reboot, nada. They didn't even show up in add/remove after the reboot. (I totally missed your guide about installing them manually so I will try that next time, though I have never had this problem on any other machine I've owned, Vista32 or 64. Is it a problem unique to the 8800 GTS?))

Oddly enough, the version Windows Update wants to install works, as does Guru3D's 175.63s. With Guru's I was able to install them the traditional method of running the installer.

I am curious. Is there a reason for installing the drivers using the manual method rather than the installer? I thought perhaps others were seeing a similar issue. I saw in my searches that folks found a syntax problem in the inf files but I can't find that thread again...

Right now the only thing I am worried about is a) Are the Guru3D drivers OK for a notebook and b) will I have issues with updating to newer drivers

3DMark06 gives me a score of 7964 which is about 400 points higher than Vista 32 ever got me so that's good news.

 

I think there are a number of things going on here.

Possibly the reason the drivers you are trying to install don't install is because they don't have a modified inf file to support the 8800M GTS? If they do then they aren't installing for one of 2 reasons - the inf syntax problem that you mentioned (a , was used instead of an _ on the 8800M GTS entry) or the problem with the 8800M GTS selection not working but the GTX working fine (I'll come onto this in a sec).

The drivers on Windows Update are obviously specific for the 8800M GTS and the 175.63 on Guru3D probably have a pre-packaged modified inf.

Now the reason for installing manually is that you have much more involvement in the driver installation process. This is perfect for the GTS / GTX workaround which I mention in my guide as you cannot do it when running the nVidia setup. I think the GTS problem is happening because there is still a problem with the current modified inf files that are flying around for the GTS entry. The GTX is obviously Ok and as it is so closely matched to the GTS (only thing that differs is the number of stream processors) it's Ok to use it for driver installation. The nVidia drivers automatically pickup that you have a GTS after installation.

You wont have any issues updating if you use my guide and 177.41 are great drivers.

 

Good information! So the 177.41 drivers are worth giving a go? I don't suppose you play Age of Conan, do you? I am hoping to get a new set of drivers that fix a few glitches I am seeing that currently require a client restart to fix.

 

I don't I'm afraid but give them a go. You can quite easily swap to any driver version on LaptopVideo2Go by following my guide again. Only takes a few minutes.

 

Did anyone get the fingerprint driver to work? I try to install mine and it says it's not supported on this platform... probably not compatible with x64. Did anyone find a way around this?

Also, I have an unkown device and I can't figure out what it is. It's not the webcam or the touchpad or the card reader. Any ideas on what it can be?

 

The unkown is probably the SIS RAID controller. Windows update will auto-install it. I had the same issue and was about to go crazy till I figured it out.