Installing Windows XP on the Intel based dvx500t Series

mujjuman! I'm sure you don't remember me, but you helped me big time with getting rid of Vista and putting on XP SP2 on my dv9500t laptop back in December of 2007 (those posts seem to be gone now), with your excellent drivers pack and informational posts and PMs. Thanks so much again!

I'm glad to see you're still here, as I have another question. Even with MS support for XP SP2 now ending, I was originally going to skip updating from SP2 to SP3 and just not use my laptop for internet stuff, but now I'm thinking I may want to update to SP3 anyways.

Any chance you can help with information regarding the best way to do that? I thought I read that you're supposed to update all your drivers before updating to SP3, but I'm assuming that's not the best option for me since there's no guarantee the drivers will work (since we're already "faking it" a bit with the driver pack you provided, right?). What's your thoughts on that? And is that really necessary?

What are the necessary steps?

Any chance you could provide a "guide" as to the best way to update to SP3 from XP SP2 on a dv9500t that originally had Vista on it and was made an XP machine by using your guide and drivers, etc.?

Has anyone here done this already?

My concerns: That I'll have to uninstall certain programs first (firewall, a/v, etc.); that the older versions of these programs will not work with SP3 (firewall, a/v, old versions of Photoshop, Roxio, etc.). Will I run into any problems with that? (Or that it's necessary to update drivers, and then the updated drivers won't work with the laptop, etc.)

My computer stats:
XP SP2
Firefox 3.6.6
IE 6 (used only for Windows critical updates)
Outlook Express 6
ZoneAlarm Free 6.1.744.001
AVG Free 8.5.441 (No linkscanner, no security toolbar, no plugin for Microsoft Office, but with "Personal Email Scanner" (not the plugin for Microsoft Outlook))
SuperAntiSpyware 4.40.1002

Do you need any more information?

Thanks so much!

 

Hey!! Haha yes I remember you very well, thanks for the kind words!

I dont remember if I ever put SP3 on my laptop... I think I did. Unfortunately I cannot check because my laptop is now dead
From what I remember, everything should work fine... I would install SP3 first and then proceed to install the remaining drivers. You'll find that SP3 is much faster than SP2. I think it even has the SATA drivers built-in so you shouldnt need to slipstream it either.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

[edit]
oh I guess you're not doing a clean install...
your programs should still work fine. i used to use zonealarm and i liked it alot but i found that it interfered with a few of my programs so i ended up uninstalling it.

 

Hiya mujjuman!

I'm back again with something you might find interesting to your tutorial.

It's about the Atheros wireless switch light, that seems to be orange all the time - even if the device is installed and working. My Pavillion is a DV2500 series and has an Intel WiFi card. But I came across a DV6000 series from a client and it had the Atheros card. This tweak worked like a charm for that one. It SHOULD work to all Atheros models.

I found a hack to get it working with the correct lights. I don't know if you want to add this info to your first post (to make it more visible to everyone) or if you just wanna leave it here.

All you need to do is a registry tweak. Very easy and almost risk free (unless one tries to mess with other keys):

First, open regedit (Start > Run and type regedit on the box and click OK)

Then, navigate to the following folder:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318},

Inside this folder, there are many folders named "0000", "0001" and etc. One of them is the folder that holds the Atheros registry. You'll need to find out which one is the correct one. It's quite easy to find out. Click every one of them and read the "DriverDesc" key - It will say Atheros. Also, you will find all these keys inside that folder:

"Characteristics"=dword:00000084
"BusType"="5"
"ComponentId"="pci\\ven_168c&dev_001c"
"ccx5FeatureEnable"="0"
"MapRegisters"="256"
"radioEnable"="1"
"scanTimeValid"="60"
"shortPreamble"="1"
"sleepMode"="2"
"uapsdEnabledBE"="0"
"uapsdEnabledBK"="0"
"uapsdEnabledVI"="0"
"uapsdEnabledVO"="0"
"NetBand"="1823"
"InfPath"="oem0.inf"
"InfSection"="ATHER_DEV_001B.ndi"
"InfSectionExt"=".NT"
"ProviderName"="Atheros"
"DriverDateData"=hex:00,80,d6,a5,8b,9e,c8,01
"DriverDate"="4-15-2008"
"DriverVersion"="7.4.2.111"
"MatchingDeviceId"="pci\\ven_168c&dev_001c"
"DriverDesc"="Atheros AR5006X Wireless Network Adapter"
"NetCfgInstanceId"="{0BE3B2ED-F334-437E-897F-1D71CB7A7CC6}"

Now you will have to add the following string values. To create string values, right click on the RIGHT panel and select "New > String Value".

Then, rename the newly created String as

gpioFunc0ActHi

Then, double click this String and change the value to 0 (this is a ZERO - not the letter "O").

The first one is done. Now you need to create a new String Value - just do the same thing as you just did and rename the new String as

gpioPinFunc0

Then, double click this string and change the value to 3 (number three).

If any of these Strings already exist, you will get a message from Windows. In this case, just change the values accodingly.

Now, reboot your machine and you will see that as soon as Windows boots up, your wireless light will no longer be orange - it will be blue as it should. When you turn the switch off, it will turn orange.

Piece of cake, huh?

Hope this helps.

NOTE: if you are unsure how to do it, DO NOT do it. Messing up your Windows' registry may result in a beautiful BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) and it can render your system unusable. This forum is here to help. If you have questions, ask us and someone will answer you ASAP. It probably won't be me as I don't visit the forum very often but mujjuman is the wizard here and he may be watching his forum more regularly and may be able to give you a hand (I hope I didn't bother with this, mujjuman - hahaha)

Good luck to y'all.

 

haha thanks man! I updated the OP with your post.

I miss this laptop so much lol... wish I still had it

 

mujjuman!

I'm back again with another question. My laptop's video card overheated (I guess this is a major known problem with these laptops) and flexed and crapped out. I opted to try to get it repaired (even though financially it would make more sense to get a new laptop) because I really wanted to keep this laptop as I like how I've got it set up bare-bones with XP SP2 (and didn't want to learn how to do the same thing with Windows 7!), and I really don't connect to the internet with it. After a few weeks, they managed to get a new chip seated at the very last attempt (as I wasn't going to opt for a new motherboard) and are bench testing it now. They are going to update the BIOS (which they need to do if I want the 90 day warranty on the work), and if that takes okay, it should help with the fans running better to help keep things cooler.

However, I'm wondering if there is a newer video driver now than the one originally in the driver pack that I should have them try/install? (The issue happened when I was running WMP and then VLC (testing that program out for the first time). I'm considering just not using VLC, but you'd think I should be able to. I posted on their forum about what happened and they said the program couldn't have caused the problem, but mentioned that they thought HP laptops were crap and maybe it was the wrong or old driver.)

What do you think? Is there one? And, if so, would trying it out cause any problems? Or can you easily just roll it back to the current one?

Thanks, man! I'm supposed to get it back today or tomorrow, so hopefully you'll see this message and be able to reply back soon (so I can tell them about it before I pick it up).

System Info:
HP Pavilion dv9500t laptop (removed Vista and installed XP SP2 when I got it, per this awesome thread!)
Windows XP SP2 (no MS updates since SP2 support ended)
Video: NVIDIA GeoForce 8400MGS
Audio: Realtek High Definition Audio

 

Hey!!! It's nice to hear from you again.

My laptop died in the same way. My video card or chip or w/e it was overheated (three times) and also damaged the motherboard (when it overheated for the third and final time). They were charging me an outrageous amount to replace the mobo. I ended up buying another laptop which also ended up being crap, hahah.

If I remember correctly, I had the same spec laptop as you. I really do miss the laptop. It would have still been pretty fast even for today's standards. It was the best laptop I have ever owned.

I'm sure there is a new, updated driver for the video card. There would be no harm in trying an updated version out. You can certainly uninstall everything related to the video card driver (from control panel, go to add/remove programs), reboot, so that you can install an older version of the driver. I have done that many times when testing out different video drivers and trying to find the one that works the best (a few years back when I originally wrote and maintained this guide).

 

Thanks for posting back!

I'm not sure if I can successfully do this. If you look at the HP site, all the drivers they list are for Vista:
Search results

...which is because that's what came on the laptop, of course.

And the NVIDIA site lists this as their newest driver for my graphics card for XP:
NVIDIA DRIVERS 266.58 WHQL

...but who knows what kind of issues that would cause (and I don't know if it works for SP2 or not). I don't want to screw up my system, you know? (It even talks about needing to back up your system first and also suggests using the drivers provided by the laptop maker, etc.)

The driver I have (6.14.11.134) was the driver that you put in the driver pack.

Out of curiosity, do you know what happens when using an old driver (like mine) with VLC? Does that cause over-heating? Or is it just other issues? (I'm also trying to find out from the makers of that.)

Please note: I never got any BSOD when running VLC for the few minutes I did. It seemed to work fine. The computer overheated and that messed up the chip. The repair place seemed to think it was just a coincidence that I was running VLC at the time -- and that it was just due to happen. But I don't know... Should I just not use that program then?

Let me know what you think -- thanks again!

 

Yeah, I think the computer repair people are correct. It was just a coincidence that VLC was running at the time. I dont believe an older driver would cause the graphics chip to overheat.

 

mujjuman Thank you SO MUCH for this guide!!

I have been trying for 2 days to install XP on a dv6500 and could not get it to work until now. This is a FANTASTIC and easy to follow guide.

A MAJOR thanks to Hackez for the SATA drivers!! Without these it would not have worked.

Keep up the GREAT work. Thank you Again

 

Now The megaupload is been shut down I am not able to get this driver. Would it be possilbe to reupload it or better provide a torrent as my internet speed is quite slow and file sharing website terminates the connection after fixed time