Windows XP on DV7T

Thanks Adk920
"I can confirm retail version works"
That's good news.

EDIT: Well I received email back from HP and indicated there wasn't anything different about loading XP and Vista from older PC(dv9410) but is was indicated in the 1st email from them. XP first, then Vista. My PC arrives any second..that was fast.

 

Sound/music people,

Can I get some feedback from any people who use their DV7s for sound applications (hey moocha, once you get your DV7 please let me know).

I find that the power supply of my DV7 is very noisy, you can actually hear weird noises coming from it, CPU activity etc.

Basically it is a pretty serious ground loop issue with the 3 prong HP adaptor.

Basically the best method is to isolate the ground wire, you can "cut" the ground wire pin off (although you don't need to actually cut anything - the effect can be achieved by other means).

Older HP laptops used 2 prong adaptors and had inteference free sound.

Cheers,

Gdawon

 

Hi all.
I'am running WinXP SP2 on my dv4t.
I'am using your solutions.(Batch file with devcon, etc.)
Everything working good.All drivers in Device manager are successfuly installed.
Only one problem.When I'am setting my laptop to Power Saving mode( it's called sleep mode or something) and then turn it back there is no sound! Batch file don't work. Only reboot help!
But I don't want reboot each time...Please help!

 

You can try the drivers I recommended, or you can try running the devcon batch after sleep. It's like...obvious.

 

Hey waz up. No help on "prongs" as I have to get this pc going first. Sent back Hitachi 7200 as pc would not boot with it in second slot(after forcing a partioning and format). On sending pc back to HP , it not booting for anything: Yes, they told me it was a bad hard drive just like happend to the other dude. My TC Electonics gets nothing so far. I may have to wait a year to find someone who has a firewire audio device working with this. I'm kinda tired of working on this. My Pro SP2 was the only one that worked slippstreaMED AND MY SP 3 PRO DID NOT. Sorry no audio feedback(pun insinuated but not intended) yet as I'm crawling out of the hole Me and HP created .

 

As I said batch file don't help after sleep.
It restart Microsoft UAA HD Bus, and then some new sound devices are detected.But each driver I tried to use ( IDT HD Audio Codec or NVIDIA HD Audio) don't want to install.
Only reboot helps...Please give me a link for driver that you recomended.
And one more question : IDT software work on your laptop? or only sound?

 

You'll find the link here if you bother reading. Actually, it was even posted by several people.
After sleep, sound is sometimes OK, sometimes not, but if it's not, devcon trick gets it back every time.

PS. What IDT software ?

 

IDT Control Panel.
I tried your drivers..It doesn't help.....
By the way..Batch file said after sleep :
E:\i386>devcon.exe restart "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&SUBSYS_30F7103C&REV_03"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E&SUBSYS_30F7103C&REV_03\3&B1BFB68&0&D8 : Requires reboot
Not all of 1 device(s) restarted, at least one requires reboot to complete the operation.

 

Well, it works for me, maybe you failed to read the full topic and follow all the steps. I am not sure if the CP installs along with the drivers, but yes, of course I use them otherwise it would be impossible to disable the power saving mode of the IDT, would it be not ?

 

OK, in luie (spelling?) of getting my enclosure I have discovered how to overcome the install of XP stopping on restarting on "press any key to boot from cd-Error loading operatinmg system". I reinstalled. but on reinstall I did the quick format they offered plus on restart I took xp disk out. Could not confirm which worked as I loaded xp on 3rd partiton and found nothing out.Now no probs on this which at first seemed insurmountable.

My 2 WD hard drives were replaced by HP with 2 Toshibas, but as I and anther said, it must have been the bios?

Tra la la...now I have to locate the password on the UAA zip file(dam@)

 

What UAA zip file my friend ?

 

One more question.
I get my FN keys to work.I can adjust brightness, but when I plug-off AC-Adapter my display brightness sets to minimum automaticaly and I can't adjust it.
When I plug-in AC-Adapter brightness sets to maximum, but I can't adjust brightness.Reboot helps.
Any suggestions?

 

Sorry about caps, I'm not going to retype

That was a microsoft one that went to my email...ha ha. I found out you don't need UAA for external firewire and usb audio. Nothing works right which is cool, I'll just go bCK TO DESKTOP AND WAIT TIL YEAR 3000 WHEN SOMEONE HAS A DEVICE THAT WORKS GOOD. iNTERMITTENT AUDIO WITH tc eLECTRONICS kONNEKT 8 AND cORRECT RUNNING AUDIO FROM leXICON lAMBDA USB AUDIO EXCEPT ONE BIG THING: IT USES 3 TIMEs THE CPU IT SHOULD AND a bit erratic. The Konnect only gives intermittent sound when set to 48 khz..other sample rates it doesn't work at all. The Dell i bought 2 years ago did the same and freaked me out... I returned it...it's compatability.
So if anyone gets external audio working...let me know...I'
ve tested in kboth xp and vista...maudio audiophile kfirewire gives bluescreen.
Dell was intel ..this is intel ..the dv9410us was amd and it worked great but would eventually fail from nvidia graphickcard.

 

Alex, how did you manage to get FN+brightness keys to work ?

 

Well latest Lambda drivers put it in respectability on vista but not on xp. Are we for sure running max cpu on xp.
Trying to find realtime cpu speed checker

 

HP Online Support suggested me to update BIOS to F.13, and it helped.

 

If anyone gets usb or firewire external audio interface to work good..please let me know..TIA

 

Native instruments Audio 8 DJ - ASIO Drivers - rock solid.

If you have the separate drivers for any USB Soundcard it shouldn't rely at all on the UAA or UDT, should it?
Before I had any sound working on the DV7, I was using the Audio 8 DJ successfully.

I don't understand why your soundcard isn't working.

 

Great, it really works
Too bad this new BIOS has a lot of other quirks.

 

Yes, I have found the UAA or UDT has nothng to do with external audio. Thanks alot for the NI referal. It looks like it may be a pain to find a satisfacory sound card. As i said Lambda is fair in Vista but no inXP and I have to work in XP. Why not?? I'm going to put up one last post about this here kand that'll be the end. Is is kwhat I sent kto HP as they tried to help and what I posted at TC electronics.

 

Just posting this to see if it rings a bell anywhere.

The Konnekt 8 and the Lambda have the same results in Windows XP SP2 even though one is firewire and the other usb. So this

problem is not atributable to usb or firewire I think. The following is a description of what happens with the firewire TC Konnekt

8 - The Lambda USB results are exactly the same except the newest Lambda driver improved results in Vista but not in XP:

This is description sent to TC Electronics about their Konnekt 8. All is the same with the Lambda USB except the Lambda gives

audio non intermitently and there are no prob with choosing sample rate. But the cpu readisngs are exactly the same.
My post on TC Electronics forum:

In summary(XP SP2 or Vista) intermitant audio at 48 khz. No sound at any other sample rate but the cpu meter shows same activity

as at 48 Khz.

Konnekt 8 with latest drivers and no probs on spike checker. Only 2 drivers installed- chipset and TC's own latest driver(though

I did tests with onboard audio and without and there was no difference). I have an Intel chipset 45 M. DV7T laptop core 2 duo

(T5800) 2.0 Mhz 800mhz bus (CTO 1000).

Fivetowers test for Steinberg's Cubase: This is a small project that is loaded into Cubase 3. You report how much cpu is used

according to Cubase's own cpu meter and post these results plus the specs of you machine so all will know what's the best machines

to have etc. There are alot of machines here and can be found at http://www.moar.net/cubasetest/results.php?order=performance.

OK now my simple results on the DV7T:

The normal response of this machine (2.0 core 2 duo) for this test is around 17% idle and 27% play, holding at these figures

fairly stabilly. This is the figure I got first on onboard audio test. When I loaded the TC drivers, the on board audio and the tc

started a new and changing pattern.

TC tested 41% idle which is almost 3 times what it should be. Now when you play the project: 26%(which is what it should be) then

a spike of 65% back a forth over and over which parallels the timing of the intermitent audio coming out of the speakers. Now

with the TC, levels and sample rate do absolutely nothing except one thing: the only time I can hear audio out of the speakers is

when 48 Khz is chosen in the TC Near control panel. Although I cannot hear audio in other sample settings, the cpu meter

registers as when set to 48 Khz.
So it is hitting 26% at play but goes instantly to 65% and back and forth but can hear no audio at all at 44 Khz sample rate.



Edit- I don't know if we do but do we have Agere firewire chip? The TC uses Dice II technology and I'm told it kposes prob on some chipsets.

 

That sounds horrible - the performance and your experiences with getting audio cards to work, that is.

I wouldn't have a clue to start problem solving this. All I know is that I have never had any issues with my USB audio card, I know of one other user (he posted in this thread early on for help and noone responded to him) who has the exact same setup for DJing as me, DV7 + XP + Audio 8 DJ, in his case I don't think he even bothered with DV7 soundcard drivers - he went straight for the Audio 8.

I'm certainly not advocating the Audio 8 DJ, it's just that it works.
Whatever functionality I'm accessing - laptop mixing, vinyl timecode, effects I don't get abnormal CPU spikes, although my software has only a rudimentary bar for monitoring CPU activity.

Mixing video files is another story..

I think that if you're having issues with the current XP install, then perhaps you could try installing SP3 (I doubt this would solve anything) but maybe a last ditch effort if nothing else.

There is also another user here that used a firewire card....
forum.notebookreview.com/member.php?u=186853

She (?) had a firewire audio card working fine for sound editing, so maybe you're right and it is a hardware incompatibility, the fact that you have the same issues with Vista seems to confirm this.

It's likely that the only fix may be an entirely different brand of laptop, that is assuming that the problem hardware isn't shared by other brands.

Personally, if I had known how difficult it was to install XP I probably would have gone with a Dell XPS 1730, although that is significantly more expensive, backlit keyboard too though! (essential for most gigs) - and again recent models seem to have the same issues with sigmatel audio cards (but not necessarily with external audio).

If I could help you out I would, but I haven't access to any other audio cards.



Apparently though, many new laptops are increasingly moving away from XP support, the new Alienware laptops (from my brief look at their site) don't have an option for XP - which is pretty surprising considering the performance benefits in respect of gaming.

I guess the only option is to buy a laptop that comes with a XP downgrade, or has a proven success both with your audio hardware and XP - not an easy find for current models I would say.

 

Well getting down to the nitty gritty it must be the chipset drivers. So I'm going to continously reghost with raw XP pro sp2 and try every driver possible. The HP tech told me to use the same drivers that are used for Vista(the most recent). He told me to uninstall previo0us drivers but they are not on list for uninstall. It was a clean install anyhow. But Reg Supreme Pro told me that there were 2 intel items that linstalled in xp that didn't in Vista..these were:Ageia Technologies.entry 1:Enable quiet mode and 2..PhyXs.
On vista there was only one intel entry which was:Infinst.
Vista stripped down and the eLambda performs perfectly: Idle 13 play 23 and stable..whoopie. I just want to get to nub of xp thing...it would save me trouble...but if worst comes...then try vista.
try installing SP3 - man i tried all kinds of stuff. But it came down to operating sys and chipset and bad results...i didn't even install video drivers..just in case.

I can still use desktop forou know. There's just somethling in chipset drivers inhibiting this pc...thanks for getting back.tckonnekt is done for thsi pc as its Dice II trip is the end. I'll let you know..thanks for getting back.

 

I need an archive of intel chipset drivers...like the original one up to present?

thanks

 

Hard to look at intel's site, is it ?
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16026/a08/infinst_autol.zip

moocha, sorry to say this my friend, I don't mean it as an insult or anything, but it would seem you are not very knowledgeable when it comes to installing Windows XP, drivers, and so on. I mean, XP SP3(or SP2 for that matter) is a straight install as long as the SATA drivers have been integrated, and I do mean straight, insert CD/DVD, click next until you see the desktop, then install Intel's INF first, then any network drivers(wireless or LAN, depending on which you use), the Windows Update, then whatever remains, like HDMI and video. It can't get any easier than this.

 

Hi. You can't install anything but essentials..chipset and graphic otherwise you get interferrence. So no wireless etc. Good news. Momentarily the Lambda driver showed what it was supposed to..wow. then I made an adjustment to smething in computer properties and back to bad...so it shows its possible. Yeah, you would think it would be a straight install but i think it is a weirdness with its driver klmaybe..the other kone(TC ecect Konnekt) is kprobably definitely a no go because of its Dice Technology. I'll try an earlier driver for Lambda. The other stuff i tried didn't make any diff. Just started out with 2 bad drivers.

 

"Hard to look at intel's site, is it? "
Oh I didn't see this. Yes I'm blinded by the Intel light-. I've never seen archives there but you give me hope.
Laptops are notorius for not workling with external audio. Some go so far as to say 1 out of 10 don't work. Whoever has one on this DV7T machine may hear it but it may be using 2 to 3 times the cpu it should...this is what I'm checking. Nothing is straightforward when it come to laptops and external audio and if it is, you're lucky like I was with my DV9410 with a firewire chipset that should never have worked(ricoh combo).
I'll check the intel site now

OK I see you're giving me a single file. I'll try it. If it works, here's a beer.

 

Hey Moocha,

I'll be the first to say that installing XP is not altogether easy, SATA drivers aside, some have had issues with service packs including myself, and some have issues with excruciatingly slow boot up times and so on.

The fact that this thread is 28 pages long is pretty good evidence that many people find the DV7 a pretty difficult laptop to get XP running properly and fully usable whatever a particular person's exact focus is. It ain't straight forward.

Sounds like it's your shout, where's my beer?

 

Hey buddy lots of beer ha ha. Yeah in music some stay away from service packs altogether but some hotshot on Cubase forum finally installed one for the large hard drives and I went along. Yeah it's just another "incompatability"-ha ha...like me and my sister. I'll tell you one thing...Norton Ghost 2003(whixh i prefer) works much better on this machine that the previous. I think I'll eventually get the right audio box. Oh and Alexandrus-thanks for the driver.
You know,my feeling is some may get sound out of their external audio, but they may be using twice as much cpu as they should be and not know it. I'll find out. Thanks for the encouragement. At least the "sata" prob is behind.

 

moocha, regarding the drivers, I guess maybe I should just say that I always get drivers from the device manufacturer. Like chipset drivers from Intel, graphics drivers from nVIDIA(you will also need a modified INF from laptopvideo2go.com), HDMI driver from nVIDIA, wireless drivers from Intel as well, and so on and so forth. For the modem, LAN and touchpad, I just allow WU to install the drivers, they are bulletproof most of the times, and I don't use modem or touchpad anyway.
Only drivers I had to get from other sources were the button drivers and the IDT drivers, but the IDT now works with the drivers from WU, so it's pretty much solved.

But it's always important to know what hardware you have inside the desktop or notebook in order to get the right drivers. One of these days I will post links to all drivers I use, order in which to install them, etc. It's been covered by ProtonXX, but one more it won't hurt

 

I've got to clairify. For music production only chipset and graphic drivers are used and all extraneous stuff is off. Then the audio drivers to whatever device you use. Thats all. Because the audio box sucked, all that was left to be bad is chipset drivers. They are evidently all the same so its the end.
Weird...but the end..for now.

 

Yes, but with 20+ pages to wade through, even if you've seen it once, trying to find it again is difficult. And if you missed it, even worse. Apparently it's 21 days and not 30, so I'm stuck with this DV7T now.

Maybe your install went perfectly, but not every one of these devilish boxes acts the same (for instance mine has Intel HDMI and Graphics, not nVidia). I've found that for starters, the sound.bat file doesn't run on startup/login, despite being in the Startup folder, so I have a shortcut to it on my desktop. Also, sleeping and waking breaks the sound reliably (I've never seen it come back to life, even after running the sound.bat script). However, hibernating does seem to cause it to re-initialize the sound card again, so you can run sound.bat and get it working again.

Lastly, I don't think anybody's posted any drivers that just "work" (no fiddling around, no devcon trick, no sound.bat) for the DV7T, unlike the DV5T. That's a real pain in the *** for non-technical users (like the one I'm prepping this system for) to mess with when stuff just "doesn't work".

-/\/

 

It's Microsoft, expecting it to "just work" is not realistic

 

Sorry to take up more space on this subject but it is concerned with migrating from Vista to XP.



OK, phase one of the testing is done:

TC Electronics Konnekt 8 Firewire
Maudio Solo Firewire
Maudio AudioPhile Firewire
Edirol UA 25X USB 2.0
Lexicon Lambda USB
Alesis IO 2 USB

I've noticed when people back install XP from Vista on DV7T,5 or 4, if they complain about any driver incompatibility, it's with the audio invariably. Well me let me tell you more about this. I have tried to use these six external audio interfaces and theyall fail because of excessive cpu use in XP (many versions of O/S tested). Every single one of these interfaces exibits the
same fault: Using 2 1/2 times the cpu than if they were used in Vista or in XP on a previous laptop of mine. Only in XP using the 45 m chipset with any version of its drivers does this occur. All variables are eliminated except one: the chipset drivers. They have either been written in error to exclude these devices to function properly or it was done on purpose.My test only loads the Operating System and the chipset driver, eliminating any other variables. I have loaded graphics etc and it makes no difference, the problem is exactly the same. This was tested using Fivetowers cubase 3 test in a standard audio project supplied by them to check cpus conmparably.
The interfaces play the material but at very high cpu use which makes XP useless for music production.To confirm, if you have an external interface, See what the cpu use is in taskmanager for mother Vista and XP. This will tell if it's endemic or just with my machine. The percentages there are very different from my cpu checker but should tell something.

I just sent this off the HP tech.

 

"Lastly, I don't think anybody's posted any drivers that just "work" (no fiddling around, no devcon trick, no sound.bat) for the DV7T, unlike the DV5T." HS Norby, are you telling me the 4 and 5 motherboards are different than the 7. I have so much to check on I haven't had the time to check this out.

 

If the CPU usage is not the same in Vista, it's not the chipset drivers because those are identical for Vista and XP.

 

They are identical but could easily effect one OS different than the other. Si?

Thanks for response

Edit: Sorry, my brain is cramped. I guess the bios could have something to do with this. I don't think the chipset itself could...I think to start with drivers as the first programable point of entry. Perhaps the bios. Like HEL@(L) how am I supposed to know?
I'm just a dumb consumer.

 

Since the Intel chipset drivers are only INFs, they are not drivers per se, so it's most likely not their fault. BIOS, most likely, or maybe the drivers of the devices you are using.

 

Ah ha. Thank you for clearing this up. Here's what I had prewritten and was going to post before I saw your latest post:

"OK, I admit that all six of the manufacturers of these interfaces may have to rewrite their drivers to work with this laptop but at first it seemed strange that ALL failed in the same way and my previous vista HP laptop had zero issues in this reguard."

So it's down to bios or and device drivers. Thanks alot. Being the Lambda works in Vista I'm getting ready for testing the compatability of my many music vstis and programs with Vista. When I get my 2 1/2 inch sata enclosure I can installed 2nd drive and see how stable Vista will really be.

Again, thanks for clarification.

 

Oh yeah on reading this old post...I got cubase and jamstix to work in vista but not poly 850 etc...there is hope..I'll be finished with test in a couple of days. I am pessimistic optomist when it come to this stuff. I don't expect it to work good enough..but a slight ray of hope. Reading this thread over is like reliving a bad dream...ha ha.

 

Hey Moocha,

Hope things are going ok, I've just deleted all the OSes and am getting to begin the whole process anew. I've already installed XP PRO 1st, now halfway through MacOSX and then Finally Vista for full functionality. I'm interested to see how the MacOSX deals with my software and whether it is any more stable or useable as some users have reported.

The only thing that worries me is audio files on HD2 which will potentially be accessed by both an XP and MacOSX software. Not sure if this will cause any problems.

Take it easy and good luck

 

I would like found EXACTLY the same post for my dv7z (amd), drivers for XP + guide !!

Thanks,

 

paco, for the dv7z you do not need any guide, all you need is to get over the "gimme links" complex and download the drivers, presuming you know what is inside your notebook and didn't buy based on looks, install Windows XP, then drivers, and everything should work. In fact, I think that except the button drivers which you will find here, the rest is pretty much straight forward.


moocha, do not get your hopes up if you want to install Vista on an external HDD, might not work. I know for a fact that XP will not boot from any external HDD, I think Vista is pretty much the same. Still, there is a little hope, maybe the eSATA drives are not considered to be external.

 

I'm gonna do what Gdawon is doing (eventually). One XP partition and 2 Vistas. Xp for potential future use when drivers are developed for external audio, Vista one for Pro music, Vista 2 for internet and all the rest. The enclosure is just for taking orig Vista O/S hard drive to my desktop for partitioning and formating.

 

"audio files on HD2 which will potentially be accessed by both an XP and MacOSX "
Yeah that should be interesting

Tested small project (14 vsts and vstis-no 2nd HD), lost one vsti(synapse poly 850-at site says only for XP)
Freaked when cpu pinned and tried some stuff that didn't work and almost put pc in closet when I notice battery was depleted to about 30-40%- power cord was not pushed in enough and wolla-a ok. "Cobra" Vista tweak list that screwed my pc up...any time it has included shutting indexing off chaos has resulted-on this it was bad cpu, time before constant blue screen. The first step was shutting off I think "UPC". It was one or the other...the other ones are ok as I have done them before.
I'm more optomistic now.
Today I'm putting the project through speakers and will sing and plays key layers live and record. This will show alot, but it will not test the accessing of samples on a 2nd hard drive. To me, just getting anything to work right is an accomplishment.

 

Alexandrus, I know what is inside on my laptop, in fact I customized it changing some components.
You said "download the drivers" .. ok, just tell me where can I find them , btw, I dont understand "gimme links".

Thanks for answer my post

another thing, My other hp laptop dv9500z (bought nov-07) needs Windows XP too !!

 

If you bother reading my posts you would know where to get the drivers. Laziness is no excuse.
A lot fo shared drivers between the z and t versions are posted here, the others are as simple as going to the device manufacturer site.
Plus, assuming we would give you everything you need, do you want us to guess your computer configuration ? Last time I checked, I was no psychic.


PS. "Tell me where I can find them" = give me links 'cause I am too lazy to google.

 

rs57.rapidshare.com/files/143676299/driver_dv7_partie_2.rar
rs57.rapidshare.com/files/143676299/driver_dv7_partie_1.rar

If anyone else needs any, let me know. i can do a driver genius on my system and upload the files. THANX

 

WTH mate, 180MB of drivers and that only in part2, since the link to part1 does not work ? What do you have there ?
All the drivers I used on my DV7t are <<100MB put together, if that.

 

I've been installing some vstis i like and all is well...I checked with a friend who knows lots of people doing this and he himself too...he says all should work as long as its 32 bit and not 64,,,encouraging. I'm done and will start some composing before I do any shi% with the laptop for now I think. My enclosure arrives manana. I think we're alright..fingers crossed