Installing XP on dv2-1030us

Hi all,

I posted this question before but got no replies. I'm re-phrasing and re-posting it, hoping to get some help. I have a dv2-1030us that comes with Vista SP1 and trying to install XP on it. I followed some other posts that apparently describe every model except for this one.

Basically, I've installed XP and gotten only the sound card to work (with Vista driver, and that's the farthest I've gone). My wireless card always stays disabled (no clue why!). The device manager detects 5 unknown devices ( Ethernet Controller, Audio Device, SM Bus Controller, Unknown device, VGA Controller). I've had no success with the limited XP drivers I downloaded from hp website.

Could you guys please provide some feedback regarding this issue. Am I missing something that has been covered here already (in that case, please redirect me their).

Any amount of help will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks

P.S. Here are the system specs:
Hardware:
Product Name: dv2-1030us
Product Number: NM325UA#ABA
Microprocessor: 1.60 GHz AMD Athlon Neo Processor for Ultrathin Notebooks MV-40
Microprocessor Cache: 512KB L2 Cache
Memory: 4096MB DDR2 System Memory (1 Dimm)
Memory Max: 4096MB
Video Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD Premium Graphics 3410
Video Memory: with 512MB dedicated
Hard Drive: 320GB (5400RPM)
Multimedia Drive: External LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Display: 12.1” Diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
Fax/Modem:
Network Card: Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN
Wireless Connectivity:

* 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN (13)

Sound: Altec Lansing speakers
Keyboard: 101-key compatible
Pointing Device: Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
PC Card Slots:
External Ports

* 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
* 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0
* 1 Headphone out
* 1 microphone-in
* 1 HDMI
* 1 VGA (15-pin)
* 1 RJ -45 (LAN)

Power

* 65W AC Adapter
* 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery

What's In The Box HP Webcam with integrated microphone

 

have you checked for drivers from the hp site..... http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=endproduct=3914932...i think the graphic drivers have to be downloaded from somewhere else not sure though...

 

UUmmm,i did the same thing as you on my laptop,down graded vista hP to xp pro,long story short,it was just to buggy and i put vista HP back on and havent looked back.
With your specs i would think vista would run very smooth and fast,personaly i would install vista and enjoy your laptop.

 

I wish I could me more helpful, but in my opinion XP is really not necessary. Install win7 and, if you need to, virtual XP mode with it (for compatibility). It works really well.

 

Win 7 installs flawlessly on this laptop. It sucks though that XP doesn't have better driver support.

 

Thanks for the responses guys.
The drivers from HP website for XP dont really work for this laptop.
I have never really used Vista or Win 7 before (I think its pretty slow). HP loads tones of crap on their laptops, which makes it run really slow on Vista. I do a lot of gaming (NFS UG2, POP, FEAR, HALF LIFE, Counter Strike etc.) which have ran flawlessly on XP on my dell inspiron. Although not sure how they'll run (if, at all) on Vista or Win 7. So my first thought was to get rid of Vista and switch back to XP.

Any suggestions on making it run faster on VISTA?

Dbacchus, will I be able to run all the apps of XP on Win7 on Virtual XP MODE?
Mr. Raider, how about the drivers for Win 7, are they a smooth install?

Thanks again all for your input.
DS

 

Yes, absolutely. Anything (according to some reports even games that don't run in Vista) should run just fine in XP mode. I, myself, only tried a very outdated (essentially msdos era ) database software, which simply didn't work with Vista and it worked fine in win 7 xp mode. But before even trying XP mode, I recommend installing your soft in native win7 first - chances are it will work fine too.

 

I've played L4D and TF2 on my DV2 with Win7 and got mostly playable FPS...

Does Virtual XP in Win7 work on the DV2? I thought the CPU had to support Virtualization... which I think the Neo does not...

 

Oh, wow. Nevermind.

I just ran AMDs Hyper-V compatability check utility. Says the Neo supports it. Cool.

 

Win 7 installs everything by default. The only added drivers you need are CCC from ATI's site if you need afvanced graphics, and the HP protected storage.

Another option is to back up your Vista install, extract the activation file, and do a clean format and re-install. I admit I almost vomitted after using the default Vista for 1 hour. I am now dual booting win 7 rc x64 and Ubuntu.

BTW, you can't game in win 7 under xp virtual mode. But most games run fine in Win 7.

 

not sure what the deal is, I've got XP running just fine on my DV2-1030US. I've benchmarked this netbook with it running Vista, Windows 7, and XP (actualy tinyxp), and xp simply blows the others out of the water, especially for gaming purposes. And all my devices were installed without a hitch, except the GFX driver. To install graphics just download the latest ATI package, and mobility modder, and you'll be fine. That being said I might go back to Windows 7 when its finalized and try it out again.

 

I experienced all kinds of problems while installing drivers for xp on my dv2-1030. First had to install .NET 2.0 to get all the setup files running for the drivers. For some wierd reason my wireless always stayed disabled (orange light), even after installing the wireless assistant, which wont do anything with wireless enabled. Only sound driver worked (Vista) but sound quality was crappy. Not being able to install wireless was major setback for me. I installed the XP student release btw. Anyways, gave up and installed Win 7. works great now.

 

Agreed, win 7 is runs pretty smooth on this machine, and so far, it looks great. Steam ran fine (played Half-life ep1, HL Lost Coast, Jade Empire without a problem).
I installed virtual xp, but how do we use virtual xp mode (was expecting dual-boot ).
Any suggestions for anti-virus (currently using AVG) and spyware software (currently Spybot 1.62+Malwarebytes)

 

XP Mode is going to be horribly slow. Don't bother unless you need it for some old application. Frankly I don't see any reason to use an OS newer than XP on this hardware. XP is definitely snappier due to the limited CPU power.

I say skip AV. It will just slow things down more. Just don't be stupid with your browsing. Use web based email that has AV, and maybe some Firefox plugins like NoScript and Adblock.

Actually, isn't AVG only an offline virus scanner? That's what it used to be. That won't slow you down cuz it doesn't do realtime scanning of everything you do. However it's also false comfort if you don't realize this.

 

desertsmoke - I apologize up front for the off-topic - but I'm curious as to which version of Ubuntu that Mr Raider is using? And, did you have any problems with devices? XP was running really well on my Vista 32/XP dual-booter until I put McAfee on it - it's pretty slow now and I'm hoping to get the Win 7 upgrade sometime next month. Thanks in advance ...

 

Have you try general XP downgrade guide in HP consumer forum, here

I read many success stories installing XP using following that guide.

 

Thats a guide that is more recent posted. I used to go in the HP business forum and post my issues and they are very very helpful. Back when Vista first came out, know guides were available. Would have to find similar HPs with the same components inside and match it up. It was very time consuming. But got it done.

 

Hi all.

I managed to install XP on my dv2-1030us quite easily but left out the SATA drivers. Still, it seems to run perfectly fine.

However, I have had to abandon XP because standby mode does not seem to shut down the system; the fan keeps spinning and the machine won't come out of the psuedo-standby state.

Running Windows 7 RTM now but would really like to get XP working with standby. Any ideas, anyone?

EDIT: Problem fixed by unplugging the audio interface's (Edirol UA-25EX) USB cable before closing the lid. Standby works fine now and this thing rocks with XP but I'll probably switch to W7 for good once updated audio drivers are released.

One further question; if the SATA drivers are not installed in XP, should that adversely affect disk performance? I have a drum sample app which loads around 500 Mb of .wav data noticeably faster in XP than in W7, which does have the SATA drivers. I've got XP running like a dream with all of my apps and preferences saved to a disk image. Should I do the entire XP install / config again, this time with the SATA drivers? If so, what are the benefits? If not, what are the risks?

EDIT: I spoke with a friendly tech at work who advised that if AHCI was enabled in BIOS during the XP install, the SATA drivers would have been installed. That explains it pretty well.

I'm 95 percent there with XP on the dv2-1030us. The only problem now is that the ALPS trackpad cannot be disabled by the little button above the trackpad area.
Also, by following the Mobility Modder method of installing the ATI 3410 graphic driver, the graphics card is being recognised as a 3450 in CCC. When CCC loads in the tray icon, it causes the screen to flash for a second, then everything seems fine but there is an occasional flash every now and then when, for example, the left-mouse button is kept pressed for more than five seconds or so.

Given the way my post in this thread has been going, it's very likely I'll find solutions or explanations before anyone responds but what the heck; I'll put 'em out there, anyway.

 

Off the record...I have Ubuntu 9.10 installed on mine. Out of the box no problems. You may have to allow it to use restricted hardware drivers for video and wireless but other than that everything works on the very first boot. Ubuntu runs like a champ on this machine as pretty much any linux install. I am interested in dual booting 9.10 and XP for gaming but until my win7 comes in I will probably stay all Linux. Does handle xp quite well in virtualbox.