XP Clean Install for G530, N500 and similar

Windows XP Clean Installation/Downgrade on G530
Supplemental to the [THREAD=188992]Windows XP Clean Install/Downgrade Guide[/THREAD] by Arki
Applicable to G530 (Model Type 4446), N500, and similar 3000 series "Value Line" models

Includes Instructions and Notes, Driver Information, and Open Questions

I have just performed a downgrade/clean install of Windows XP on my new Lenovo G530 (4446-36U). It seems to be working really well, apart from a couple of small quirks that seem to be common with this model. ** It's certainly running more cleanly and much faster than it did with the default Lenovo software and Windows Vista Home Premium configuration it came with.

** (If you're a forum guru who has no need of my instructions and notes, but might be able to help iron out the quirks, please consider skipping forward and taking a glance at the "Open Questions" section at the bottom of this post.)

Since other threads here have been so helpful to me in finding my way through the process, I thought I would share what I've done and some things I've learned. The most essential thread for me was Arki's excellent [THREAD=188992]Windows XP Clean Install/Downgrade Guide[/THREAD]. I hope the details that follow, which are organized here according to where they fall in the five overall steps Arki uses, may be helpful to other non-ThinkPad Lenovo owners trying to work their way through that guide. Since the list of drivers seems much the same for Vista, this post may also be of help to those doing clean installs of other editions of Windows, for instance if they are using stallen's [THREAD=144783]Vista Clean Install Guide[/THREAD].

The more detailed the information below, the more its applicability to your specific situation will depend on how closely your model's configuration matches my 3000-G530-4446-36U. I believe that the specific drivers I list will be correct for any G530 of Model Type 4446, as well as for most if not all N500s; but I do not have the ability to test this on any machine other than my own.

So, with those preliminaries out of the way--onward!

STEP ONE: Backup Data

I backed up my system a couple of different ways before beginning. First, I installed Acronis True Image and saved an image of the hard drive (making sure all three partitions were included) to an external drive. Second, I burned the Recovery Media as provided for in the Lenovo Rescue and Recovery software. That process required the use of one recordable CD followed by two recordable DVDs.

I made detailed notes of the various drivers listed in the Device Manager, so I knew what to expect the completed configuration to look like after clean install. I also noted down everything in the Installed Programs list that I thought I might need or want to have installed again by the time I was done.

I also downloaded and ran the Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder so I could save a copy of registration and product keys before wiping out the drive.

On my initial test run of Windows XP installation, I tried keeping the partition that allowed the G530 to start in a PreBoot mode, with access to Rescue and Recovery and PC Doctor software and even an Opera browser. It did not seem to work, however, after I had replaced the stock Vista setup with a fresh XP install. Perhaps someone who fully understood how it worked could have made it run again; but I just started over, doing a full format of the entire hard drive into one partition the second time. So the little Lenovo Care button next to the power button can now be used as an alternate way to call up the system BIOS during boot on my machine, but that's about it.

STEP TWO: Download Drivers

Most drivers I downloaded directly from the Lenovo pages for my product. Since my model has a 7-character ("commercial") serial number, I accessed the pages via http://www.lenovo.com/support . (If your machine has a 10-character "consumer" serial number, you may need to use http://consumersupport.lenovo.com instead.) The driver list for G530 (4446) and N500 machines using XP can be found at this link. Please note that not all of the drivers listed may apply to your particular model, even if you've searched according to the correct product number.

Note also that at least a couple of drivers are better obtained directly from the component manufacturer rather than from the Lenovo site. As Arki suggested in his guide, I used the drivers for my Mobile Intel® GL40 Express Chipset that are available at the Intel website, in place of the ones posted by Lenovo.

The complete list of drivers I wound up using is below, listed in the order in which they were installed. In parentheses is the file name of the executable appropriate for my model, and also an indication if the file came from Intel rather than Lenovo.

1. Flash BIOS (6get18ww.exe)
2. Intel Chipset Device Software [INF Update Utility] (infinst_autol.exe -- Intel)
3. Intel Matrix Storage Manager (7zim64ww.exe)
4. Power Manager (52pn04ww.exe)
5. Intel chipset Graphics Driver and HDMI Audio Driver (winxp_14383.exe -- Intel)
6. Conexant Audio Driver (52av02ww.exe)
7. Synaptics/ALPS Touchpad Driver (52tp10ww.exe)
8. Broadcom LAN Driver (52lb01ww.exe)
9. Gemtek & Cybertan Wireless LAN Driver [Broadcom WLAN] (52wh02ww.exe)
10. Conexant Modem Driver (52md04ww.exe)
11. Card Reader Driver (52fl08ww.exe)
12. Bison/Chicony Camera Driver (52ca10ww.exe)

For those doing a clean install of Vista, the driver list should be much the same. Just look for specific Vista versions of the above drivers--I believe that you will need different files for numbers 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9.

I recommend saving these drivers to a USB pen drive with their accompanying read-mes, along with archived web pages (such as this one or Arki's) and text files containing instructions and product keys you will need, and the installer for Acronis (or a similar backup solution of your choice).

If you are upgrading your BIOS, you will want to do that before proceeding to the next step. Be aware that doing so requires extreme caution, as the BIOS can be very difficult to fix if something goes wrong. If you're unsure about the procedure in any way, please consider skipping it--it is far better to leave your BIOS un-updated than to run any significant risk of it going wrong. The first time you run the BIOS upgrade utility, you should choose the option to back up the BIOS only, then take the backed up file and copy it to your USB pen drive and/or backup drive, so you can try to revert to the previous version if the new BIOS is bad.

STEP THREE: Install Windows XP

The "Compatibility" setting that Arki mentions here is labeled "IDE" in the G530 BIOS.

You will need to have a valid product key for Windows XP that matches the specific flavor of Windows XP CD that you are installing from. A product key for Windows XP Home OEM 32-bit will not work with: a Windows XP Professional or Media Center (rather than Home) install disc, a Retail or Volume (rather than OEM) install disc, or a 64-bit (rather than 32-bit) install disc.

I installed using an XP Service Pack 2 disc that had been slipstreamed to include Service Pack 3, and it worked very well for me. I'm not sure whether one would need to install additional patches or do anything else differently if starting from unpatched Service Pack 2 (other than spend considerably more time using Microsoft Update, of course).

STEP FOUR: Install Drivers

I installed the drivers in the order in which they are listed above. Note that most of these .EXEs do not actually install the drivers when you run them...they tend to unpack the files to a folder within C:\DRIVERS, and you can run the setup program from there. More details can be found within the .TXT files that accompany the .EXEs.

I believe that will be all the instructions you absolutely need--except for the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver. Pay close attention to the instructions Arki provides for that one.

Also, you may need to follow his additional instructions regarding the integrated webcam and Windows XP Update Module Q909667. I did not know if that Windows update applied in my situation, and in any case did not try to install it before I installed the Bison/Chicony Camera Driver. If I find that I should have done so, I'll come back and mention it.

Finally, as Arki says: RESTART AFTER EVERY DRIVER INSTALLATION EVEN IF IT DOESN'T PROMPT YOU TO.

STEP FIVE: Run Windows Update

Update the updater to the new Microsoft Update, then just keep running it, installing essential updates, rebooting, and running it again until you run out of things to install. Updates listed by Microsoft Update as optional are usually just fine to ignore if you don't think you need them.

As Arki advises, do not download any driver updates under the Hardware category. I've learned from experience to never let Windows/Microsoft Update mess with my drivers. Ever. If you think it may be right about your machine needing an update, go to the Lenovo and/or component manufacturer websites to check and use their files to install.

Open Questions

I.

The main quirk I'm seeing--which I've seen discussed, but not definitively resolved, by others on the Lenovo forums (see this thread for instance)--relates to the monitor resolution. Sometimes when I boot the system, it comes up in native 1200 x 800 automatically, and everything's hunky-dory. Other times, it comes up at 1024 x 768 instead.

The really weird thing is that the entries under Monitors in the Device Manager actually change when this happens. When it boots with 1200 x 800, there are three (three???) entries called "Plug and Play Monitor". When it boots with 1024 x 768, there are instead three (again-- three???) entries called "Digital Flat Panel (1024x768)".

(Under its stock Vista configuration, this model had just one entry under Monitors, "Generic Plug and Play".)

In a possibly related matter, there are also now two entries under Display Adapters labeled "Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family", as opposed to just one of these in the Vista configuration.

Anybody have any idea how and why this could be happening?

II.

I notice a few other differences in the Device Manager from Vista that may or may not have significance. I'm sure some if not most of them are trivial, but I'm not enough of an expert to know which ones. Any input on whether any of these need to be fixed as well--and if so how--would be appreciated.

a) The item under Imaging Devices is now "USB Video Device" rather than "Lenovo EasyCamera", which is what it was called under Vista. Maybe I need to go back and install that Q909667 update, and/or install additional EasyCamera software?

b) There are no longer entries under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers for "ATA Channel 0" and "ATA Channel 1". The ICH9M controller itself is there--though with a slightly different name than before, which is also true of the entries for its drives. System BIOS was successfully switched back to AHCI during installation of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver; and from what I can tell, drives are working fine; but whenever it looks even a little different, I fret.

c) The category for Storage Controllers, and its entry labeled "Microsoft iSCSI Initiator", are no longer present.

d) "JMB38X" controllers are now under PCMCIA and Flash Memory Devices category instead of prior Memory Technology Driver category, but otherwise look the same.

e) There are additional entries under Sound, Video, and Game Controllers for "Audio Codecs", "Legacy Audio Drivers", "Legacy Video Capture Devices", "Media Control Devices", and "Video Codecs". I think these are just a default, inextricable part of XP though, and not real drivers attempting to run real devices...yes?

f) Under System Devices, "HD Audio Controller" is gone...I'm guessing that the new "Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio" item is replacing it.

g) Five entries for "PCI Standard PCI-to-PCI Bridge" have been replaced with five entries for "Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root..." (ending in "...Port 1 - 2940" through "...Port 6 - 294A", skipping Port 5).

h) Three other items are no longer listed under System Devices: two "UMBus Enumerator" and one "UMBus Root Bus Enumerator"

i) A few other new items appear under System Devices: "ISAPNP Read Data Port"; "Microcode Update Device"; two entries for "Motherboard Resources"; and "PMHIer"

III.

Finally--now that I've picked apart the Device Manager screen--anything else I should test or check out or investigate?

 

An update regarding drivers and other Lenovo-provided software:

I didn't find much in the C:\SWTOOLS folder--which I'd backed up at the beginning of this process--that both ran under XP and seemed useful. I'd in fact recommend staying away from the drivers there, as most of them were earlier versions of the ones I downloaded from the Lenovo website; and one which looked newer, the Conexant HD Audio, was unsigned, not necessarily newer, and I didn't like the way it worked. (Also I started to get anxious that I might be making the system a bit less stable if I did too much replacing and uninstalling and reinstalling of device drivers.)

I did install Lenovo System Toolbox and Lenovo EasyCapture from the archived SWTOOLS, as well as Thinkpad Hotkey Features (though the only thing I think that one is doing so far is providing an on-screen display when I adjust volume). I'm tempted to play around with VeriFace...or maybe not, it seems like its gimmicky enough to be troublesome and to get old fast.