Looking for Windows XP Driver for Presario CQ60-216DX

Lol, got one already, I just noticed someone's selling "XP driver CDs" on ebay... lol Not sure how much I'd trust it but they have one for your model it looks like. 16 bucks is kinda steep for something that is basically free.

So your audio stopping working and DVD playback are the only two issues right? I'll have to make another driver search later today.

 

Yeah I saw those on ebay too and LMAO. I figured I probably already have everything on them. Course for $15 it might be worth it to save a lot of time downloading at chatting with (mostly) dummies at HP.

yes, those are my 2 issues for now. I'm off to update XP at the library

 

Now my wireless isnt working,though it shows no conflicts or problems. I couldnt pick up a wireless anywhere in town today, so I couldnt update XP. Its time for me to give up, but I'll watch and see how our other contestants with Presarios do...I'm not exactly computer brilliant so someone else may fare better, though so far nobody has come back and said they got it working fully.

I've got a new HD for my old Presario coming Wed and I will have to do this all over again (though I know it works on that one) so I think its time for a time-out.

 

here's the string for the audio driver, it's by Conexant.
HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VVEN_14F1&DEV_5051

 

Koolio, do you get video from DVD? I can get it from other file types, but not DVD

 

Wayne99, no i haven't tried playing DVDs yet, but i got my sound problem solved now. went and got a different driver off HP site, and now it works fine.

 

Do you want to tell us which driver?

 

So how is it going?

 

I got to the win32 error you had, then i followed what you did, and I'm at the point where you're at. No wireless, bad audio. But I'm continuing what other folks did.

At this point, I'm glad I did this thanks to big mike and you guys for contributing info. It's been fun, but I might even go back to a clean windows vista install, since this computer is for my parents and my brother as an office/net/entertainment laptop.
But i've come this far!!! I've been XP'ed out since SP2 and I'm probably gonna be on it till it reaches sunset in 2012. I had a conversation with my buddy about how windows vista reminds me of windows me or 2000, the forgotten windows. Windows 7 might be the next stable release, who knows? I could be wrong. Anyways we still gotta figure out the wireless and audio situation, it's been fun. A clean vista might be the easy way out but better than the stock bloated vista that comes with it.

 

Once I get my main PC put back together (hopefully today if my parts arrive) I'll see if I have the other wireless driver package I used for one of my laptops, I think it will work. I might have an audio driver bouncing around in there too.

 

Thanks pac, for letting us know where you stand. Glad I'm not the only one.
My wireless worked at first, though it took a long time to 'see' the network. But now it appears not to work. HP suggested I try

WinDVD for DVD

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp29001-29500/sp29298.exe

This for audio

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp35501-36000/sp35682.exe, where you have to go through device manager and manually install the inf that is extracted from the exe.

I cant get the downloads since wireless isnt working and I only have dialup. Now my new HD for my old C501Nr just arrived so I'm going to be busy getting XP back on there (the only issue I ever had on it was, rarely, audio garble which was cured by reboot). If I get that up and running I will probably just reinstall Vista and return the 214DX while I still can, unless someone solves all these issues soon...

Summary of mine:

1)audio comes and goes, restored only by reboot
2)no DVD image (but I think this shouldnt be hard to fix WinDVD may do it)
3)no wireless, or sporadic wireless

 

wayne, for the audio driver, i'm using the conexant Venice 5045. here's is the link to the driver on HP site AUDIO. download that and open the package, it'll try to find your sound card or whatever but it'll fail, don't worry. once the folder is extracted, go to Device Manager and update your audio driver from there. i'm sure you know where to go from here. just be sure to select the audio driver in the Thrifty11 folder.

i tried using the one from Thrifty10 folder and it gave me a similar problem to yours. everytime i restart, the sound goes off and i have to go into Control Panel to make it work again. i hope this helps you.

 

I thought I knew where to go too, but when I try to install it I get a list of devices that I have to choose from, none of which seem to be correct, and I cant seem to get to the point where I choose the actual driver.

Have you tested your wireless?

 

go to Device Manager, go find your audio driver, right click and select "Update Driver". Select install from specific location, then choose "Don't Search", here you'll see a list of manufacturer's drivers, but you don't want that, so click "Have Disk" and go browse for the folder containing the driver as explained before.

you're wondering if my wireless is working? it's working perfectly fine, although i had to set up a static ip address.

 

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, still no go. Nobody can figure whats wrong with my old Presario and I cant get this to work (probably because I'm not that patient or tech savvy) and I need something next week so I just ordered a 6735 with XPpro. I'm also running out of return period so I better bring this back before I have to eat it. Thanks for all the help! Its been fun trying.

 

Hi Big Mike,

Thanks for all your help, wouldn't have gotten anywhere without it.

I obviously a noob, how important is it to install/update the chipset?

The reason I ask, is because my USB ports were working before I did this, now they don't. I'm thinking about redoing this downgrade. The first time I got everything working except the USB's and the WLAN.

I have the CQ60-216dx

Thanks.
Allen

 

If you don't have any unrecognized devices I don't really think it hurts anything to not do the chipset INFs, do you get any errors in device manager or do your USB ports just not work?

 

I get errors in the device manager.

 

Hi

Thanks BigMike and others for the info on this thread. I followed most of the steps here and was able to get XP up and running on CQ214DX. So far I have the following working.
- XP Pro (Used XP-SP2, nlite and slipstreamed the latest version of the intel drivers from the URL given below)
- Audio (Used the steps outlined on the first page, Conexant 221 and Intel HD audio - but I still don't have mic working)
- Wireless (Used the Atheros 5007 version of the driver from the web)

I still don't have the mic working and haven't tried playing DVD yet. I haven't tried the registry entries for the wireless blue light. Will try those tonite. I still have a few yellow warning icons in device manager. Need to check what those are for.

One suggestion for people trying to downgrade from Vista to XP would be to note down all their model numbers from the device manager before they try and downgrade it.

Thanks,
--Tom


http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2991&lang=eng

 

For what items? (if its unknown whats the VEN_ and DEV_ #s?)

 

Hi,

I finally managed to get all the warning signs (yellow indicators) off my device manager and XP seems to be running fine on CQ60-214DX. I have audio working including the mic (although the mic volume is very feeble), wireless blue light comes on/off when wireless is turned on/off, DVD seems to be playing fine in VLC player (windows media complains about lack of DVD decoder). I've also run windows update and installed SP3 on it as well. Thanks to the links/info on this thread!

Thanks,

 

I just received one of the discs from eBay with drivers for CQ60-214DX in specific. I have been following this discussion daily while waiting on delivery. Everything appears to be well layed out with plenty "Readme's" and is a full package including all drivers and the nLite program for the slipstreamng. I will post results shortly as it sis instaling XP PRO right now.

 

Did these work? I'm thinking about doing the same thing for my CQ60-216DX because I can't get my wlan to work, and the audio isn't great.

 

Yes, everything went 100%. Well worth the trouble. These new laptops run well on XP. One thing is, straight out of the box used 1 Gb Ram just idling on Vista. Now it's half that after installing numerous programs many of which run in the background still under 500mb. No ram upgrades even needed for me @ 2Gb.
The Disc I purchased from eBay had everything including detailed Readme files. Some of the folders for each device held more than one driver depending on which hardware you have example, Wireless Lan had 3 drivers to choose form Atheros, Broadcom, & Intel ProWireless.
I can give you this if it helps I'm not sure which you have. If it's Atheros Ar5006 here, Intel Pro/Wireless here, and Broadcom here . If you do have the Atheros and the driver doesn't work try this one Atheros Ar5007 here.
If you installed the Audio drivers by using the installer I would sugest uninstalling them in Device Manager & reboot. Then manually install them from the Device Manager using instructions posted by Wayne99. I'm definetly not a Pro at this I just know what works for me. Very rewarding once done. Feels like a major upgrade nothing to do with a downgrade!

 

I purchased a CQ60-214DX about 2 weeks ago. I have read all the posts in this thread (and after 8 pages have probably forgotten half their substance but failed to notice if anyone was attempting to dual-boot with XP installed on a second primary partition. I created a 2d partition and could not install XP from a CD/DVD because i kept getting a message to the effect that it was not allowed due to some need to protect Vista. I can rerun the CD and get the exact message if necessary. Has anyone successfully dual-booted their CQ60-214DX or 216DX?

I also note that everyone seems to be on their own (i.e. no help from HP) attempting to find XP drivers. This is a contrast to my Acer experience. I bought an Acer Extensa 5420-5687 last year which came preinstalled with Vista and someone discovered that Acer had posted almost all the XP drivers on an ftp site in Europe. I think the European Community's rulings against the Microsoft monopoly has forced laptop manufacturers to make XP available as an alternative to preinstalled Vista. HP may have done so as well, but so far I haven't been able to find anything on their overseas websites & of course their tech support will not volunteer that info. Anyone else have any success?

Lastly, I note that several users have experienced problems with installing the modem or sound drivers in XP. I am posting below my solution to a similar problem with my Acer Extensa 5420-5687. I believe the problem is due to the integrated modem/sound card:

2008-04-02 19:27:17
I bought an Acer Extensa 5420-5687 a few weeks ago and created a separate partition for XP. I was able to download XP drivers for almost all my hardware from the Acer-Europe ftp site. Everything installed correctly except (1) the Conexant HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP and (2) the Realtek HD Audio Driver. In fact the Device Manager in XP didn't even identify these 2 devices-it only had an entry in System Devices for an unidentified PCI device with a yellow question mark. However, I knew my laptop had these 2 devices because they showed up in Device Manager on my original Vista partition. I could have lived without the modem but not without sound. I tried running "setup" for both the Realtek and HDAUDIO soft modem installation software, but doing so had no effect. However, I discovered advice about "updating" the drivers through the Device Manager was the solution. See http://randombitsbytes.blogspot.com/2008/02/acer-xp-drivers-hd-confusion.htm for more detailed instructions. First I selected the unidentified PCI Device and updated that by selecting the folder containing the extracted Realtek folder. This resulted in the successful installation of the Realtek HD audio sound device and also spawned an entry for a modem in Device Manager. After a reboot, I "updated" the modem by selecting the folder to which I had extracted the Foxconn Modem files. That successfully installed the HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP as the recognized modem in Device Manager. Lastly, I had a "Mass Storage Controller" with a yellow question mark which I updated using the folder holding the extracted SMS bus files (turns out this "mass storage controller" was for reading MS/MS Pro memory cards). So now all is good and I have both Vista and XP partitions with fully-functioning hardware devices.

 

Back a few pages (one of those you forgot) I posted a bunch of info and drivers that HP Chat gave me. They will tell you they dont support the change but if you say yeah I know that but will you tell me anyway, the chat people usually will try to help. But the drivers ARE NOT TESTED so....However I've come to the conclusion that HP chat personnel have almost no technical experience, they just look stuff up and paste what they find. IOW, they arent very good. I didnt try to get phone support on it so I dont know if they would have been better (they usually are), but they also may have refused to help.

I dont know why I'm still reading this thread. Nostalgia I guess. I dont regret coughing up a couple hundred more and getting a 6735 that comes with XP AND support for it....No hassle. As far as I can tell from reading this whole thread only one person has got everything working doing the XP upgrade (and for how long?). Most vanished without ever saying what ultimately happened...

 

Doing the downgrade is definitely a task because you have much to work with in or at least a knowledge (feedback) out there and having to search for several pieces to a puzzle. There's also variables in the process. Most that have done they're homework probably have all the drivers etc. they need it's a matter of getting them in correctly. When I seen there was very little info out there I knew it was either it doesn't work or it's a new thing with little feedback and this is when I decided to buy the Disc for $20. That alone was worth saving the time & headache. I'm not saying everyone should go out and buy one of these discs I'm just saying if that guy can acquire everything and compile on a disc to sell then the missing pieces are out there!Only thing left is properly installing them. XP will work at least on CQ60-214DX. Why not others with the same hardware. I received the disc on the 13th and started that night and by 1:00am I had Xp Pro, Office Pro & much more installed without a problem.
I have been working this laptop for approx. 35 hours without one single issue. Honestly, the smoothest Laptop that I've owned and there's been good ones. I would choose this setup over a $900 machine running Vista any day! It updates with no issues and work it's tail off without choking up that's for sure. It even runs cooler than with Vista. Before the downgrade I heard the fans alot but now they will barely come on with a cool bottom to touch. I don't foresee having any issues with the downgrade in the future. If this thing quits it won't be because of XP. For those of you who have purchased or thinking of purchasing this model for the low price it's been (under $400) and thinking of a downgrade it's well worth it. Not easy, but worth it. It feels like I took a $350 laptop and turned it into a $700 to $1,200 one. I saved a bundle!
Also, if anyone is wondering about the integrity of the system after the downgrade I have put this computer to most little tests I can think of because I'd rather it fail now than unexpectily later and have found that it seems to be better built for Xp to start with! I had little glithes and freezes with Vista during the two days of use prior to downgrade. Now I have none. We have to remember that that just because a handfull of drivers doesn't work doesn't mean XP won't work or might work with issues. Quite simply the wrong driver or improper install.
Everyone involved in making these PC's know that XP works perfectly on them but they are no longer in the XP business! They could give everything you need but rather you just stick with Vista. If a suport technician throws you a crumb it's only because either they don't want you screwing up your computer, or the information is not given to them and/or not experienced.

I hate to make you folks read all this but I just wanted you to know that there's no way it will work on mine and not yours. If it gets aggrevating just give it a break and come back to it. If a driver doesn't work after install try to "update driver" in Device Manager. If this fails, uninstall what may be installed and try to install again. I think only one or two of my drivers successfully installed on the first try. After it's installed, It's in there!!

 

hey wayne glad everything worked out, im thinkin of just getting that disc as well. Only thing is i dont think a volume copy of windows xp might work... (backup copy)

 

I used a used a volume copy with a VLA Keycode. It was a full version CD. Works great.

 

I got the CQ60-216DX from BestBuy for $399 packaged with a leaser mouse and a 4GB Flash drive to use for my small business. I had Windows XP installed with no problems. The only thing not working was the Wi-Fi LED turning blue when it was on until I stumbled on this thread. Now it's working.
Thank you all.

BTW not a bad laptop for the price. What do you think?

 

I'm considering the CQ60-211DX at bestbuy for $350. This thread was exactly what I was looking for, thx!!!

 

I HAVE LIFTOFF!!! Let me elaborate after I disable the godawful synaptic touchpad. After experiencing several problems burning an install CD/DVD and then crashing my laptop trying to get the dual-boot to work, I finally have a fully-functioning XP partition. I'm not fully satisfied with the dual OS partitions but prepared to live with its limitations for now. For other parties interested in installing XP on the CQ60-214DX, let me describe my growing pains in the hopes you may avoid them. First was the installation CD/DVD. I followed the instructions for using nLite to slipstream the SATA HD controller and with all the different installation disks I burned, that enabled me to get past the blue screen I had been experiencing with a standard installation disk. I first used winrar 3.5 to extract the files from an XP volume copy, slipstreamed SP3 along with the SATA controller, and burnt the nLite iso using portable Nero 8.1.1.1 on a CD using a new LG dvd rewriter at 16X. The CD was recognized and (after a period of blank screen as described by Big Mike in one of the early post in this thread) the startup files were loaded except for a few .ttf files that apparently weren't read, BUT THEN I received a message that the setup log could not be read or something like that and the installation aborted. For my 2d try, I repeated the disk creation steps of my first try, but did not slipsteam SP3. Same aborted installation resulted. Next I used portable PowerISO to extract the files from an iso of XP MCE edition. Again i slipstreamed SP3 as well as the SATA controller. I decided to burn it to a DVD instead of a CD and used an older HP DVD rewriter at 4X speed with portable Nero 8.1.1.1. When i booted into it, all the startup files were read and loaded and XP was successfully installed. However, for some reason MS UAA HD bus driver would not install (possibly it doesn't work with SP3?) so i couldn't install any audio drivers. Finally, I decided to use portable PowerISP to extract the files from an XP Home Edition SP1, slipstreamed it with SP2 and the SATA controller, and again burned the nLite iso to a DVD instead of a CD and used the older HP DVD rewriter at 4X speed with portable Nero 8.1.1.1. BTW, all the CDs & DVDs used were Sonys. This installation DVD was read and installed perfectly. Then I proceeded with Big Mike's order of installation augmented by Wayne99's record of instructions from the HP tech guy. All was good. I did note that the wireless adapter listed in the Vista partition is the Atheros AR5007 and the driver listed by Big Mike installed the Atheros AR5006 in the XP partition. However i'm using the XP driver to connect to the internet and write this post, so i'm not sure if there is any significant difference between the Vista and XP driver for Atheros.

So to summarize my lessons learned in creating an installation disk:
1. Use the most recent edition of Winrar or PowerISO to extract file from an XP iso.
2. Burn the installation media at a low speed. 4X seemed to work best for me even though the DVD media was rated at 16X. I also think the DVD rewriter in the 214DX may be of questionable quality. It's listed in Device Manager as a "Slimtype" so it's probably just a generic manufacturer. So use the best media you can at low speeds to avoid read errors when you're trying to install XP.
3. Use nLite to slipstream SP2 if your XP copy doesn't include it. I guess you don't really need to do this if you have a standalone SP2 installation file, but slipstreaming it did not seem to cause a problem.

Okay, more later. This place is closing and i'm losing my wireless connection. The second and more major set of problems I experienced had to do with the dual boot. Anyone who just wants to wipe their Vista partition and install XP won't have to worry about this. Ciao.

 

This right here is what held me back. I kept trying to install AR5007, because thats what the title of the adapter was on Vista.

Here's the "must have" driver list if anyone needs it.

And this is the one you want when you use nLite to slipstream the ICH9 sata driver on your Windows XP SP 2 folder.



Full guide on slipstreaming with nLite here

http://maxeasyguide.blogspot.com/2008/04/preparations-for-winxp-installation-cd.html

 

I assume that Sean P was successful installing all the drivers using his order of installation. Goes to show there is more than one way to install. I waited to run the setup file in WIN2K_XP1437.zip (Intel Video Driver) until after I had installed the Intel High Definition Audio HDMI service (which is a subfolder within the WIN2K_XP1437.zip) through Device Manager. I also note that installing MS UAA Bus Driver for HD Audio spawned 2 "found new hardware" windows for me-one was installed using the Conexant Smart 221 driver and the other installed using the Intel High Definition Audio HDMI service.

Regarding the slipstream of the SATA controller, I selected all the drivers, but just selecting the one specified above by Sean P should also work.

Regarding the blue light above the keyboard to show the Atheros wireless adapter is turned on (or orange/yellow to show it is turned off), follow the instructions in the url posted by Big Mike at the beginning of this thread, but be sure to read the comments to the instructions for restoring the blue light-one of the comments gives you specific information on what info to include in the newly-created registry key.

 

Okay, now on to the topic of 2 OSs on the same laptop. I had and have all sorts of problems with this. I tried using Paragon Hard Disk Manager to set up the dual-boot, including hiding the Vista partition prior to installing XP and then the Paragon boot manager once I got into XP, but all that happened was an inability to access Vista. Then I used a Vista Live CD to unhide the Vista partition and was able to boot into Vista, but upon running VistaBootPro and later EasyBCD, I was unable to discover the XP partition. After messing with hiding and unhiding partition and making them active or inactive, my laptop finally crashed. Fortunately Paragon's Boot CD worked and i restored a backup of the Vista partition.

On my 2d go-round, I did not hide the Vista partition (as suggested by Paragon) before installing XP. However the negative aspect to that seems to be that Windows Explorer in XP shows XP to be installed on the F partition (after c-vista, d-recovery partition, and e-dvd drive), and I can't use Disk Management in Admin Tools in XP to delete the drive letters from Vista and the Recovery partition because it says c-vista is a system drive. Programs (such as comodo firewall and avast AV) have been installing without problem but to the F drive. When I set up a dual boot on my ACer laptop last summer, i was able to conceal the vista and xp partitions from each other and when in either OS, the root drive for the OS was the c drive. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

 

I finally resolved the dual-boot issues I had. I like being able to switch between Vista & XP so I didn't want to wipe the Vista partition before installing XP. I'm still willing to experiment with Vista and it does seem a tad faster at downloading video streams, such as full TV episodes, than XP. In case anyone else wants to dual-boot, here are the instructions that worked for me:

The following method has been working for me to add an XP boot to an existing Vista. It has the advantages of not needing to repair the Vista boot AND of having the XP system drive installed as C:

1. Create available space using any program that can modify current hard disk space.

2. Using Disk Manager from Vista, create a new partition in that unallocated space -- don't use the XP install to do that.

3. Still in Disk Manager, set that new partition as Active. WARNING: That means that the machine will now be trying to boot from the empty partition. That's OK because the next thing you're going to do is install XP from a bootable CD. If you restart and then change your mind, you'll have to have some bootable utility to change the active partition again.

4. Boot from the XP installation CD and start the install. When you get to the step where you select the XP partition, you'll notice that your new target partition is C! That's because the active partition is always assigned that letter at this point. So your new partition will show as C and the existing Vista will show up as some other letter. So XP WILL be installed as C. (Vista will remain C, too, when you boot into it). Finish the install.

5. Once XP is running, copy NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.ini from the XP partition to the Vista partition. This is required because the Vista partition will soon be the boot partition again .

6. Still from XP, use Disk Manager to change the Active partition back to the original Vista partition. The Vista partition's letter will show up as something other than C, doesn't matter, it will be C when booting Vista. Since the XP install never touched the Vista partition, NO repair is needed -- reboot and Vista will startup again.

7. Use EasyBCD as described below to add the XP boot.

Windows has the concept of the "system partition" where the actual OS is, and the "boot partition" where boot sector and loader are located. While the system partition can be on any partition on any drive, the boot partition has to be the active partition on drive 0.

Why my method works without modifying Vista is because by changing the active partition, the Vista boot partition isn't mucked with. The article's method requires the repair because XP, not knowing about Vista, wipes the Vista boot information with its own. In either case, the last step is teaching the Vista partition to also act as the XP boot partition.

This is a suggested method for using EasyBCD to hide the Vista partition so that its files cannot be accessed while within the XP partition:

Method 2: NeoGrub

If you are still determined to use NeoGrub to do this, despite the advantages of HnS, and you are prepared to live with the fact that your dual-boot will have two (or three) menus, here's how to do it.

If you don't already have it, download and install EasyBCD.
Run EasyBCD and go to the “Add/Remove Entries” screen.
Delete any and all “Windows XP” entries in the list you see. Simply select them, and press the delete button.
Click the “NeoGrub” tab, and select “Install NeoGrub” from the screen.
Once NeoGrub is installed, hit the “Configure NeoGrub” button.Notepad will open, and you'll be presented with the NeoGrub configuration file, called “menu.lst”. NeoGrub provides a bunch of very nifty options that will help us hide the Vista drive from Windows XP, in a very safe, simple, and straight-forward manner. Copy and paste this code over the existing menu.lst file. Replace everything:

BEGIN COPY BELOW AT "# NeoSmart"...etc:

# NeoSmart NeoGrub Bootloader Configuration File
#
# This is the NeoGrub menu.lst file, and should be located at C:\\menu.lst
# Please see the EasyBCD Documentation for information on how to create/modify entries
# http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD

default 0
timeout 15

title Boot XP - Hide Vista
hide (hd0,1) # SET THIS TO THE VISTA DRIVE
# Optionally repeat the above entry for all the Vista drives
chainloader (hd0,0)/ntldr # SET THIS TO THE BOOT PARTITION
boot

# Optional section
# If you include this section, you will see a second bootloader menu!
title Boot XP - Unhide Vista
unhide (hd0,1) # SET THIS TO THE VISTA DRIVE
# Optionally repeat the above entry for all the Vista drives
chainloader (hd0,0)/ntldr # SET THIS TO THE BOOT PARTITION
boot

END COPY AT "boot" above.

NB: If you have multiple Vista partitions, you will need to duplicate the “hide” and “unhide” lines to point to the other Vista partitions as well in order to hide them too.

Read “Drive Letters and Numbers” to figure out which (hdx,y) sequence you need to use. Hard drive and partition counts start at 0. You can see a full list of drives and partitions by going to the “Linux/BSD” tab of the “Add/Remove Entries” section in EasyBCD.

[Comment: In version 1.7.2 of EasyBCD, in the “Add/Remove Entries” section, there is only a “Linux” tab. Click on this tab and select "FreeBSD" in the "Type" dropdown list. Then click on the "Drive" dropdown list and you will see the drives and partitions with their numeric designation. The drive/partition list does not show the partition labels so you need to know the size of the partitions for Vista and XP to select the appropriate ones. In my case, with a preinstalled Vista partition on my laptop, the drive/partition designation is hd0,0, there is a preinstalled recovery partition which was a lettered drive at hd0,1 and my XP partition (installed according to the above instructions after its partition was set to active from within the Vista partition) was installed on hd0,2]]

Save it, and exit notepad.

Optional: Go to the “Configure Boot” screen and rename the entry from “NeoGrub Bootloader” to “XP” or another name of your choice.

[Comment: In version 1.7.2 of EasyBCD, I don't see a “Configure Boot” screen. There is a "Change Settings" box and if you click on it, you will see "Entry-Based Settings" on the right-side. Click on the "Choose as OS to change the associated settings" dropdown list and select "NeoGrub Bootloader". Change the name in the "Name" box to Windows XP, be sure that the drive selected is "c:\" and click on the "Save Settings" box at the bottom of the screen. The NeoGrub bootloader is installed on the Vista partition, so if c:\ is not selected, it will not be found when you select Windows XP from the boot menu.]

Exit EasyBCD & reboot to test.

Now when you reboot your PC, the Vista BCD menu will give you two options: Windows Vista and Windows XP (or NeoGrub if you didn't rename it). Selecting Windows Vista or allowing the boot to default will boot you right into Windows Vista, while choosing Windows XP will transfer control of the bootloader process to NeoGrub.

NeoGrub will display another boot menu with two options: Hide Vista - boot XP and Unhide Vista - Then boot it.

Selecting the first option will hide Vista's drive and then call up NTLDR which will read the boot.ini menu.

Now here's the tricky part. You've just been using XP, You've finished with XP. You want to go back to Vista. You boot the PC.

You cannot select Vista from the first menu. Vista is still hidden. You must select XP again from the first menu, but this time, you do not allow the second menu to take the default, you select the “Unhide Vista - then boot it” option. [Comment: If the timeout in the menu.1st is not something other than zero, the “Unhide Vista - then boot it” option will not display long enough for you to select it and you won't be able to unhide the Vista partition using NeoGrub. This happened to me when I used the original timeout value of zero and I had to use Paragon Hard Disk Manager to unhide the Vista partition. For this reason I changed the timeout from zero (as specified in the original code set from the internet) to 15.) The system will now reboot into XP, but NeoGrub will unhide the Vista partition(s) first. Now when you restart from XP, you can select Vista from the first menu.

This technique works perfectly, but as you can see, is extremely clumsy in use, especially with two or more XPs. That was why HnS was developed. Why not do yourself a favour and use it instead. [Comment: Unless you plan on switching between Vista & XP several times an hour, this technique is a very minor annoyance. Also, as of 2/24/09, I could not find Vista Hide 'n Seek (HnS) on the neosmart technologies website.]

After completing this technique, the Vista partition will have no drive letter assigned within the XP partition and so will not show up when using windows explorer. You can, however, view the Vista partition from within Disk Management. Now, going back into the Vista partition, you can remove the XP partition from Vista's windows explorer by going into Disk Management, right-clicking on the XP partition, selecting "change drive letter and paths", and clicking on "remove" to clear any drive letter from the XP partition. I'm not sure if any of this will provide greater protection from malware on the other partition, but I hope so.

 

how did that happen? automaticly or did you use software for it or edit reg? this option is the only thing that's not working (yet)

using CQ60-204ED

 

how did you got it working?
tnx for reply

 

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=160430015&blogID=359788250

Read that

 

Hey Wade,

Would you be so kind and share with us with this cd?? Unfortunately i'm to poor to buy this cd and i would be very grateful if you could share with this cd. Thank you anyway.

 

Hey..
I can't find find any links for Presario CQ60-214DX XP drivers... can any one help pleaaaaaaase...?

 

From my understanding all the Compaq Presario CQ60 Notebook PC's use the same drivers. I have the CQ60-214DX as well and they worked.

 

Go here to get a download of the complete file that includes all drivers including detailed instructions. GO HERE to download.

 

Hi Big Mike.

You are my last hope.....

I have the SAME laptop you have and am going through the same issues installing XP on it. I got all that done. wireless works, network port works. ONLY problem I am having is AUDIO.

Can you help a fellow GATEWAY FX warrior out?


Thanks in advance.

Fuetaso.