I recently attempted to upgrade a Compaq Presario 1800XL1 portable computer
to Windows XP from Windows 98, started with a blank, reformated hard drive.
The software installation appeared to go normally. However, once Windows XP
was installed, several problems appeared with the video display. Symptoms
varied with each startup of the machine, included 1) BIOS error beep code of
one long and two short beeps followed by a totally blank screen, 2) screen
turne solid white, 3) image was corrupted in various ways.

Compaq sent me to a privately run driver download site with the suggestion
to load a particular video display driver. This did not work. Windows
indicated that the default driver was the most current and refused to load
the driver even though the driver on the web site was numbered Version 6 and
the default Windows driver was numbered Version 5.

Efforts to use the troubleshooting guide on both the HP/Compaq and Microsoft
web sites failed to provide any useful direction in solving the problem.

After two weeks of frustration, I stumbled upon the solution. Go to
Settings, Control Panel, Display. Select the Settings Tab, select Advanced,
select the Troubleshooting tab across the top of the window, remove the check
mark from the field titled "Enable Write Combining", which is below the
"Hardware Acceleration" slider.

Everything then works fine. Note that there was no reference to this issue
on either the HP/Compaq or Microsoft web sites. Also note that the problem
is in the settings for the display and not for the video card/display driver.

Just for your information, once I could actually make out the screen for a
reasonable length of time, there is an incompatibility between Windows XP
Service Pack 2 and Vcom SystemSuite 5 that will cause fatal crashes where the
system stops responding. Apparently the new Windows Firewall is incompatible
with the SystemSuite firewall, even when the Windows Firewall is turned off.

With the above two corrections, Windows XP performs flawlessly on the Compaq
Presario 1800-XL1.

I am having the same problem. How did you get past the bipping?



TCC3 Wrote:
> I recently attempted to upgrade a Compaq Presario 1800XL1 portable
> computer
> to Windows XP from Windows 98, started with a blank, reformated hard
> drive.
> The software installation appeared to go normally. However, once
> Windows XP
> was installed, several problems appeared with the video display.
> Symptoms
> varied with each startup of the machine, included 1) BIOS error beep
> code of
> one long and two short beeps followed by a totally blank screen, 2)
> screen
> turne solid white, 3) image was corrupted in various ways.
>
> Compaq sent me to a privately run driver download site with the
> suggestion
> to load a particular video display driver. This did not work.
> Windows
> indicated that the default driver was the most current and refused to
> load
> the driver even though the driver on the web site was numbered Version
> 6 and
> the default Windows driver was numbered Version 5.
>
> Efforts to use the troubleshooting guide on both the HP/Compaq and
> Microsoft
> web sites failed to provide any useful direction in solving the
> problem.
>
> After two weeks of frustration, I stumbled upon the solution. Go to
> Settings, Control Panel, Display. Select the Settings Tab, select
> Advanced,
> select the Troubleshooting tab across the top of the window, remove the
> check
> mark from the field titled "Enable Write Combining", which is below
> the
> "Hardware Acceleration" slider.
>
> Everything then works fine. Note that there was no reference to this
> issue
> on either the HP/Compaq or Microsoft web sites. Also note that the
> problem
> is in the settings for the display and not for the video card/display
> driver.
>
> Just for your information, once I could actually make out the screen
> for a
> reasonable length of time, there is an incompatibility between Windows
> XP
> Service Pack 2 and Vcom SystemSuite 5 that will cause fatal crashes
> where the
> system stops responding. Apparently the new Windows Firewall is
> incompatible
> with the SystemSuite firewall, even when the Windows Firewall is turned
> off.
>
> With the above two corrections, Windows XP performs flawlessly on the
> Compaq
> Presario 1800-XL1.


--
kvb