HP dv8000t Reinstallation Guide

LAST UPDATED: 7/1/06 2:00PM

This guide is based off the knowledge from tph's dv2000t reinstallation guide. I found that a few things varied with the dv8000t, so after much pulling out of hair and swearing at the laptop, here's what I've come up with on how to do a fresh reinstall of XP on the dv8000t.

1. First things first: BURN THE C:\SWSETUP FILES TO DVD!!! That directory will be too large for a single DVD, so split it up. Take the Media Center Feature Pack folder (MedCtrFP) and burn that to its own DVD. Then delete it from SwSetup, and then burn all the folders in SwSetup to DVD. This is absolutely crucial!! Without the drivers and apps in SwSetup, your laptop will be pretty much useless after reformatting.

2. Double check that all your important data is BACKED UP!!

3. Reboot, and enter the BIOS (F10). Go to the System Configuration page and set "SATA Native Support" to Disable. This is CRUCIAL!!

4. Boot the Windows XP CD, and enter Windows setup.

5. Hit Enter (continue). press F8 to agree with the legal stuff. Hit ESC (don't repair).

6. Delete all partitions except the QuickPlay partition if you still have it. If you already removed it, you will have to recreate it.

7. Select "Unpartitioned space" and hit "C" to create.

8. The size will be whatever you want, minus 1028MB for Quickplay. Or if the QuickPlay partition already exists, put whatever size you want. For example, on my laptop, I set up three partitions: 1st partition @ 84338MB (for WinXP), 2nd partition @ 9970MB (for Linux "Ubuntu"), and 3rd partition @ 1028MB (for QuickPlay).

8. Select main partition (1st one, biggest one) and hit Enter.

9. Format NTFS. A full format is recommended if it's your first time formatting this drive. Otherwise, do a quick one.

10. Windows will copy files to the HD after format.

11. Reboot (it will auto reboot). XP install continues, this time in a slightly more graphical environment. Answer all questions it asks (which are mostly self explanatory. this guide is more about getting XP to work on the dv8000t, not a guide on how to install XP in general..you should already know that part)

12. Windows will reboot again.

13. Go through the brief setup process.. then Windows will log you in. You should NOT get any hardware wizards..especially for the IDE controller or IDE channels. If you do, this is bad news (make sure "Native SATA" in the BIOS is disabled!)

14. Very first thing you'll want is the chipset drivers. Pop your swSetup DVD in the drive, and go to SwSetup\Chipset and run the setup. Reboot.

15. Once back in Windows, click Start, click "Run" then type "devmgmt.msc" (shortcut to the device manager)

16. Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and right click on "Primary IDE Channel" and choose "Update Driver". If prompted to connect to Windows Update, always say no. Chooes "Install from a list or specified location".

17. Choose "Don't search, I will choose the driver"

18. Click "Have Disk", and browse to SwSetup\HDD, and click OK. Choose "Intel(R) 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller", and click "Yes" to any update driver warnings you get.

19. Reboot. (you should be prompted)

20. Go into the BIOS, and enable Native SATA Support. Save & exit.

21. Boot back into Windows. You will probably get more hardware wizards. Here's where things get weird, and we near the end of our install process:

If a wizard comes up asking you where the heck iaStor.sys is, just point it to SwSetup\HDD. That will take care of that. If prompted to install the ICH7 Family Ultra ATA, just do default/recommended install and that should go away. Same with Primary IDE, you might get prompted to install that hardware, just choose the default recommended options and let it install. Here's the deal now, in the device manager (devmgmt.msc), you SHOULD see the following devices under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers:

- Intel(R) 82801G (ICH7 Family) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 27DF
- Intel(R) 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller
- Primary IDE Channel

Basically, the DVD-ROM you have runs on the primary IDE. Your hard disk(s) run on the SATA controller. Simple as that.

Get your video driver out of the way too. That's in SwSetup\Video.. run the setup file there.

Now, look in the device manager under "Other Devices". There will be a bunch of question marks. go through each one and double click it, and click "Reinstall Driver". Always point the hardware wizard to SwSetup to find the file. No need for folder names, it will locate the right files. This will take care of your Ethernet port, wireless, Bluetooth, and several others. Only a couple drivers didn't work for me this way, "Unknown device" and "PCI Device". I believe one of these is the audio, I think the other is keyboard or touchpad. Audio is the trickiest of the drivers, besides the whole SATA business.

Audio: go to SwSetup\1UAA\Disk1 and run setup. You may have to reboot. Go into the device manager again (Start->Run, devmgmt.msc) and look for a PCI Device with a question mark by it. It might be under "Other Devices." Reinstall/update the drivers for it, and just choose the default (recommended) options. It should say something about a modem audio device or something. Only AFTER that's installed can you go into SwSetup\Audio and run that setup file. It took me a while to figure that out.

Install the touchpad software.. the setup file is in SwSetup\Touchpad.

Install the QuickPlay software. SwSetup\QPW. This will also give you the MPEG2 codec you need to play DVDs and use the TV tuner.

Install the QuickLaunch buttons. SwSetup\QLB.

That's about all I can think of. if I'm forgetting something, please post a comment and I'll be sure to edit this guide to include it. After all is said & done, you should have NO "other devices" in the device manager, and no question marks. Everything should be accounted for. The only thing I can't help with is if you trashed your QuickPlay partition. I think you need to call HP and get them to send you the CD (450'ish MB). If you didn't touch that partition, SUPPOSEDLY you can run the setup file in SwSetup\HPQPDP and that will fix the boot blocks. I can't really verify that though. I have the QuickPlay CD and tried to install it, and I get this error:

If anyone knows how to fix this, please post in this thread and I'll edit the guide.

Hope this is helpful! Best of luck. If you have questions, post a reply and someone will help you out.

 

Thank you so much for this...I will try this process for dv5000t and see how it works. Very well done guide, instructions are explicit and detailed.

 

WOW THANK-YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!! MAD PROPS TO YOU! I will try this today sometime, and will let everyone know how it goes.

 

hi there. thanks for the thorough guide. will try tomorrow.
anyway, over at notebookforums in the lengthy QP2.0 thread, another user had the same error message you got.

unfortunately, his fix was just to leave enough unpartitioned space for quickplay, and it worked. you already account for this in your install guide, so i don't know what's causing it. have you tried leaving more than 1024 mb for QP?
in the post, they say to make sure there is no drive letter associated with the unpartitioned space reserved for qp. just something else to keep in mind.

 

I can't delete my windows partition says it contains setup files that are required to compelte the installation

 

nvm fixed it!

 

The only problems that I am having is the sounds. It says Driver Installation Failed: Coul not find the MEDIA device for this driver. Im pretty sure I installed the 1uaa file correctly. Any help would be great!

 

That's the tricky part.. after installing the 1uAA drivers, try rebooting. It actually asked me to install again, which I just picked "Recommended installation" and then it finally worked. I had a really hard time getting the audio to work.

 

aznron911, how did u fix the "contains setup files that are required to complete the installation" when you were trying to delete windows partition?

 

make sure you have the boot disc in, and that you run the boot disc before you start the windows install

 

k i fixed it but i did something different then you mdesigner. The way I did it was that you have to guy in the device manager and other devices you should see an exclamation mark on pci devices. Upgrade that device like you did with the other devices. But make sure you have the 1UAA installed first. The next step after you upgraded the exclamation mark is to run the setup in the audio folder. That pretty much does it!

 

all right, just attempted following this format. all good until i installed the hd drivers and rebooted. got stuck in the bsod flash and restart cycle. now i'm reformatting/reinstalling xp. more updates as they come.

 

I got stuck in the BSOD cycle too.. it's because I tried to install those SATA AHCI drivers by double clicking on the SATA controller in the device manager rather than the PRimary IDE. Did you happen to see two Primary IDE devices, by any chance? That might be why.. unfortunately I don't know which is the correct one. I do know that one really IS PATA IDE, and the other one is really SATA but it's confused since there's no SATA support (turned off in the BIOS). If anyone can clear this up, let me know.

 

I did see two IDE devices. both said "IDE channel". i'm not sure what changed this time around, but when i reformatted and installed windows xp the second time, a "Primary IDE channel" showed up, and i was able to install the ich7-m drivers for it properly. things look like they're working out.. gotta take care of more IDE stuff now, but it looks like the glitches are out.
woot, thanks MD, that was helpful.

ps. all this restaring/rebooting business is painlessly fast. there are absolutely no startup programs running now, and it takes about 30 seconds to restart the laptop.

pps. for dv5000t users who are reformatting using this guide. MD suggested having the driver updater point to the general swsetup folder. my computer would not let me do that.
for the ethernet controller, i pointed it to network. the same goes for the other devices, just pick some folders that look promising (i didn't write down the right choices).

 

That's weird that it wouldn't let you point to the SwSetup folder. It may not work for all drivers, but many of them will search all subfolders in SwSetup and find the right drivers. Maybe I'm off my rocker. I'm actually going to reformat & reinstall again, so I'll see how it goes this time around.

 

Guys, check the first post. I made a change..

When you boot WinXP for the first time, and those hardware wizards come up, DO pay attention to them and keep clicking "Next". That will install the IDE controller. THEN you will properly have a Primary IDE & Secondary IDE. If you look at the "Advanced Settings" for Primary IDE, it should say UDMA 5.. this is your hard disk. Secondary IDE has a UDMA 2 device on it (your DVD burner).

Follow the rest of the steps (update the driver for Primary IDE & choose the SATA AHCI driver).

****** EDIT: I take this back. I can't get it working now, I keep getting blue screens. If anyone has an idea, let me know. PS, if you keep getting blue screens, pick "Last known good configuration" when Windows asks you.. that will get you back in and revert the drivers back to the way they were before. I will post as soon as I have a solution to this annoying problem.

 

How funny.. I wrote this guide and now I can't even get it working myself. nosabe, when you got it working the second time around, did you let XP install the Primary IDE & Secondary IDE drivers? What about the PCI IDE controller? Did you install the chipset as soon as you booted, before the hardware wizards? AFter?

 

Hey MDesign thanks so much for writing this up, i would be so lost without it! +rep

 

hey MDe, let's see, to the best of my memory, i did install the chipset drivers before doing the PCI IDE controllers, which is what you recommend in your guide.

i'm a bit fuzzy on what i did earlier, when i got the IDE controllers to work.
the second time around, i saw "Primary IDE Channel" and rightclick-update driver-no, not this time-next-advanced-don't search-Primary IDE Channel-next. i think i clicked "next" instead of the "have disk" button. that's all i can say.

right now i'm having problems with my wireless bugging out frequently. no idea why..

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that this guide does work, or worked on my computer I had to do a few small things different but for the most part it works.

 

OH THE IRONY!! I'm the only person who can't get it working now! This sucks. I've tried everything. I had it working right when I made this guide. I don't know what's wrong this time around. nosabe and aznron, do me a favor. Boot up Windows, do Start->Run, type devmgmt.msc, and expand the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section and tell me exactly what devices are listed there. It might help me figure this out.

Thanks, guys.

PS: Was Native SATA enabled in the BIOS all the way until the first blue screen? Or did you start the entire reformat process (from when you first boot on the WinXP DVD) with Native SATA disabled? Keep in mind, your system isn't really functioning at 100% unless "Native SATA" in the BIOS is set to "Enable".

 

yeh right now my native sata is enabled, what kind of problems are you having? Does XP keep blue screening? I had that happen to me even though I thought I installed the right drivers.

 

SOLVED!!!

This is crucial: you HAVE TO HAVE NATIVE SATA DISABLED from the very first step! No wonder it worked the 2nd time you tried, nosabe.. you left the native SATA disabled in the BIOS from the very first step of reformatting & installing XP. I knew it would work this time, because when I installed XP & booted, it didn't ask me to install the IDE stuff at all, it was just there.

WOO! Editing the 1st page instructions to reflect this new info..

 

IDe ATA/ATAPI:
Intel(R)82801G(ICH7 FAMILY)ULTRA ATA STORAGE CONTROLLERS-27DF
INTEL(R082801GBM SATA AHCI CONTROLLER
PRIMARY IDE CHANNEL

 

I'm up & running See the 1st post, I think it might be possible to skip the first 20 steps.. but I'm not gonna try it to find out, I'm done reformatting. Period!

 

no i think the first twenty are important you need those drivers or w/e so you can type and w/e. w/o those windows won't let you reformat. Thats what happened to me any way. Against good job mdesigner i hope they sticky this

 

Right but if you disable native SATA from the very beginning, WinXP should boot fine.. I mean the copy HP sends you (without the SATA drivers on it). That's my theory anyway.

Glad this helped everyone get their systems going. Mods, please sticky this

 

i am working on my laptop right now, so you are saying i should skip strait to 21, and just use the original media center disc instead of using the nlite?

 

i noticed the guide saying "use the dvd you burnt" ?

 

Right. if you're going to skip to step 21, the "DVD you burnt" will refer to the standard XP CD that HP sent you. You don't have to skip to step 21, but if you want to try it, you can.. it will certainly save you time. And then you can report back here and I'll make it an official note in the guide.

 

alright, everything is working fine for me right now, i skipped strait to step 21.. using the original windows media disc. Just follow the instructions after step 21 and you are good.


The most important thing is to make sure that the native sata is disabled!

i reformated twice frst without disabling, and it did not work... the second time i disabled and it works great. hope this helps.

sticky?

 

Awesome.. you're a pioneer man I will update the guide and remove the whole process involving nLite, since there's really no need for that whole ordeal.

 

ahh one problem, i cannot get the audio to work!
i went into 1uaa/disk1 and installed the setup file.
after installling it i still get an error message while trying to runt he setupfile for my audio


"cannot find the media device"

 

Yep, I had that prob too.. I had to install the file in 1uaa\disk1, and then I found a PCI Device in the device manager with a "?" next to it. I double clicked it, said update driver and pointed it to the SwSetup folder.. I think it failed, so I just said "recommended" and it installed some kind of modem audio thing. THEN I ran SwSetup\Audio\setup and it worked great. Try that.

 

nice nice, you are the man! It worked out fine.. now my audio is running.. after the fresh install the computer is running strong and alot faster without all the bloatware.. il run another 3d06 see what i get.

 

Good to hear. I will edit the guide once again to include these notes about the audio, even though I'm still kinda vague on the steps I took to get it working

 

what i did to get mine to work was install the 1uaa file, then go to the device manager down to the pci device and update the drivers. the next step that i did was to install the setup in the audio folder.

 

Can we please get this stickied?? It's been proven to work perfectly now, and I put quite a bit of hard work into this We all did.

 

Can you update the original guide? It would be very helpful!

Thanks

 

MDe, did you get quickplay to work? i'm getting the same error message you reported. i'm pretty sure my quickplay partition is untouched, so not sure where the source of the error is.

 

Nope, I gave up I don't even have a partition for it anymore, I trashed it.

 

MDes, thanks for the detailed guide!

Do you typically install anti-virus software right after the clean OS install? Do you use the Norton Anti-Virus that comes with dv8000t? Where can I find the installer for NAV?

 

Check this post

 

MDe, could you please post the SATA driver from your SWSetup folder (the one you use when updating the driver for "Primary IDE Channel" in the device manager)?

I would greatly appreciate it, as I accidently trashed that folder. Also, my device manager shows TWO primary ide channels and one secondary IDE channel. Is that normal? If so, which one do I update using the driver?

Thanks in advance, and I hope you get this stickied!

 

If you accidentally trashed your SwSetup folder, you're in for a lot more trouble than just missing SATA drivers, I hate to tell you. As stated in the guide, the SwSetup folder is crucial. I don't know how you can get that back..

To answer the question above about anti-virus. I can say with confidence that Norton and McAfee, although popular and mainstream, are crap. The software is bloated, and it really doesn't catch as many viruses and trojans as other applications. Check out Bitdefender at http://www.bitdefender.com -- I've been using it for over a year, and it's an excellent alternative to the mainstream anti-virus apps.

And to answer the question about two primary IDEs.. is that a screenshot before your reformat, I take it? If so, disregard it. The steps I posted should yield only two IDEs, Primary & Secondary.

 

That screen is actually after the reformat process... that's why I was confused about the 2 primary IDE channels. Any ideas?

Yea, it was a stupid move to delete that folder... I don't suppose anyone can upload the entire folder? If not, the SATA drivers would be a good start.

 

I am getting a STOP 0x0000007e BSOD....


Any ideas anyone?

dv2000t here

 

Are you sure you turned off Native SATA in the BIOS, per the instructions?

 

Positive...

I am using a 2002 Win XP Pro Full Disc OEM...would that be a problem?

 

Were you talking to me?