Has anyone installed the latest nVidia unified driver set on the nVidia web
site for the a530n with XP Pro SP2? It concerns me that nVidia does not even
list the nForce 150 chipset as supported on the page.

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

In addition, HP has not updated it chipset driver page since the original
driver set.

Thanks for any driver advice. I'm about to reinstall everything on this
machine. I've had bad problem with this machine since installing SP2.

Do not expect HP to update the drivers for its machines. It rarely does. Now
Compaq DID do a good job of posting updated drivers, but the HP mindset toward
treating customers seems to have won out.

You're better off downloading updated drivers from the chipset manufacturers'
web sites. Chipsets do not change any more from model to model of computer. No
company in the industry can afford to fool around with modified chipsets and the
higher all-round costs associated therewith... Ben Myers

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:46:30 -0500, "Sid Joyner" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Has anyone installed the latest nVidia unified driver set on the nVidia web
>site for the a530n with XP Pro SP2? It concerns me that nVidia does not even
>list the nForce 150 chipset as supported on the page.
>
>http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
>
>In addition, HP has not updated it chipset driver page since the original
>driver set.
>
>Thanks for any driver advice. I'm about to reinstall everything on this
>machine. I've had bad problem with this machine since installing SP2.
>
>
>
>

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:46:30 -0500, Sid Joyner <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Has anyone installed the latest nVidia unified driver set on the nVidia web
> site for the a530n with XP Pro SP2? It concerns me that nVidia does not even
> list the nForce 150 chipset as supported on the page.
>
> http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
>
> In addition, HP has not updated it chipset driver page since the original
> driver set.

What sort of problems do you have that you think would be resolved by a
chipset driver update. The MoBo is a special Asus board made for HP with
AMI BIOS. The chipset update mostly seems to address RAID issues.

The only problems I had with mine is that I installed SP2 long before
being aware that HP needed numerous updates for its software _before_
installing SP2, and no clue what to do after SP2 was installed. I had no
problems until months later, possibly due to a Windows update (SP2
installed Aug 15, spontanious reboots and other problems started late
Oct). Error code for reboots was unknown to Microsoft, so I enabled
full error logging and uploaded a complete memory dump when it happened
again. The reboot problem seems to have gone away.

I uninstalled other malfunctioning HP or HP installed software like HP
Image Zone and GameZone(?). HP Help & Support is still broken and cannot
update itself (downloaded manual update also fails without giving a
reason). Any other software runs fine on my a530n with XP Home, 64-bit XP
Pro Beta (w/64-bit video from nVidia and AC'97 sound driver from Realtek),
and 64-bit SuSE 9.1 Linux. Only HP related software seemed to be acting
up.

I did have to install a bigger power supply when I upgraded my video card,
because the stock unit cannot even handle half of its 250w rating.

> Thanks for any driver advice. I'm about to reinstall everything on this
> machine. I've had bad problem with this machine since installing SP2.

Before reinstalling or trying any other OS (even 64-bit XP), make sure
that you have made the recovery tools CD and recovery DVD or CDs and back
up anything you do not want to lose to some media other than the hard
drive.

If reinstalling Win XP from scratch, make sure you download the HP
software updates first and save on a CD (or flash RAM), so you can install
them before installing SP2. I get nVidia video drivers right from nVidia.
And I am using a better AC'97 sound driver right from www.realtek.com.tw
(32-bit for XP Home and 64-bit for XP 64).