Problems finding correct XP drivers for new laptop (getting rid ofVista)

[mcbill20]

One of my co-workers bought a new laptop with Vista on it but he wants
to run XP due to performance issues and all the problems with Vista.
He is only marginally computer-literate so he asked me to do the
conversion for him. I got the machine home and immediately made a
mistake-- rather than booting Vista and going into device manager to
see the device descriptions, I just booted from an XP CD and wiped out
the partitions. Next I installed XP. My assumption was that I would be
able to go to the manufacturer website and download the correct
drivers for this laptop.

I went to the website and selected the specific computer and then
downloaded all the drivers listed. One thing that concerned me was
that in several cases there were two or three different drivers and I
don't know which specific hardware is installed in this laptop. The
first and only one I was able to get working so far was the wired
network port. The wireless lan, audio, modem and two VGA devices are
still showing as invalid drivers in device manager.

I guess I sould provide some specifics at this point. The comptuer is
an Acer Aspire 5315 laptop.

When I first tried to install XP, the installation program said there
was no hard drive installed in the computer. I fixed this by going
into the firmware and changing the hard drive from AHCI to IDE mode.
After that XP had no problem with it.

In order to install the other unknown devices I did the following.
First I looked for a "setup.exe" in the folder for the specific
driver. If there was one, I ran it. If there was no setup.exe or it
didn't find the device I went into device manager and right-clicked
each problem device and selected "update driver". I tried the "find on
internet" option and as usual with Microsoft, it found nothing. I then
tried browsing to the different directories that had the downloaded
drivers for that device but except for the wired network driver, it
said that there was no driver found.

I called Acer tech support. Honestly, I didn't expect much because of
the sad state of consumer tech support in general (outsourcing, etc.)
and the fact that this laptop was a $300 end user product. I was
pleasantly surprised. I was only on hold for about 7 minutes and then
a live person that spoke English, was in the U.S. and was knowledgable
answered the phone. It turns out she was in Oklahoma. She was very
friendly. Unfortunately, she explained that this type of support was
outside the scope of what she could provide. I understand and have no
problem with that. She is sending me a Vista CD since it didn't come
with one. Overall I was very impressed with the Acer support. I have
been doing I.T. work since 1984 and I always kind of considered Acer
at the bottom of the barrel-- kind of like the Yugo of computers.
However, with the crappy foreign tech support that I've gotten from
Dell and HP these past couple of years I was sure pleased with the
Acer support.

I guess I am looking for recommendations on what to do here. I don't
mind spending more time on this but I would prefer not to if it will
be many hours and then I end up having to revert to Vista because some
of the drivers just aren't available. Has anyone in this forum done
this successfully? Should I be looking elswhere for drivers? Do you
think I will end up having to re-install Vista first in order to get a
correct hardware list?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Shenan Stanley]

One of my co-workers bought a new laptop with Vista on it but he
wants to run XP due to performance issues and all the problems with
Vista. He is only marginally computer-literate so he asked me to do
the conversion for him. I got the machine home and immediately made
a mistake-- rather than booting Vista and going into device manager
to see the device descriptions, I just booted from an XP CD and
wiped out the partitions. Next I installed XP. My assumption was
that I would be able to go to the manufacturer website and download
the correct drivers for this laptop.

I went to the website and selected the specific computer and then
downloaded all the drivers listed. One thing that concerned me was
that in several cases there were two or three different drivers and
I don't know which specific hardware is installed in this laptop.
The first and only one I was able to get working so far was the
wired network port. The wireless lan, audio, modem and two VGA
devices are still showing as invalid drivers in device manager.

I guess I sould provide some specifics at this point. The comptuer
is an Acer Aspire 5315 laptop.

When I first tried to install XP, the installation program said
there was no hard drive installed in the computer. I fixed this by
going into the firmware and changing the hard drive from AHCI to
IDE mode. After that XP had no problem with it.

In order to install the other unknown devices I did the following.
First I looked for a "setup.exe" in the folder for the specific
driver. If there was one, I ran it. If there was no setup.exe or it
didn't find the device I went into device manager and right-clicked
each problem device and selected "update driver". I tried the "find
on internet" option and as usual with Microsoft, it found nothing.
I then tried browsing to the different directories that had the
downloaded drivers for that device but except for the wired network
driver, it said that there was no driver found.

I called Acer tech support. Honestly, I didn't expect much because
of the sad state of consumer tech support in general (outsourcing,
etc.) and the fact that this laptop was a $300 end user product. I
was pleasantly surprised. I was only on hold for about 7 minutes
and then a live person that spoke English, was in the U.S. and was
knowledgable answered the phone. It turns out she was in Oklahoma.
She was very friendly. Unfortunately, she explained that this type
of support was outside the scope of what she could provide. I
understand and have no problem with that. She is sending me a Vista
CD since it didn't come with one. Overall I was very impressed with
the Acer support. I have been doing I.T. work since 1984 and I
always kind of considered Acer at the bottom of the barrel-- kind
of like the Yugo of computers. However, with the crappy foreign
tech support that I've gotten from Dell and HP these past couple of
years I was sure pleased with the Acer support.

I guess I am looking for recommendations on what to do here. I don't
mind spending more time on this but I would prefer not to if it will
be many hours and then I end up having to revert to Vista because
some of the drivers just aren't available. Has anyone in this forum
done this successfully? Should I be looking elswhere for drivers?
Do you think I will end up having to re-install Vista first in
order to get a correct hardware list?

Any input would be appreciated.

If the drivers they have available for download (I assume you tried all the
ones they had) do not work - it may very well be that the manufacturer of
said components only make it for Windows Vista - period. It is the call of
the manufacturer and if you cannot find the manufacturer (in the case of
something like a Dell/HP/IBM/Acer - the actual manufacturer of an individual
component may not (is likely not) Acer. You may have to do some detective
work to find the drivers - if they exist at all) or the manufacturer does
not produce a driver for the OS you are attempting to install - you are SoL.

 

[WaIIy]

I guess I sould provide some specifics at this point. The comptuer is
an Acer Aspire 5315 laptop.

When I first tried to install XP, the installation program said there
was no hard drive installed in the computer. I fixed this by going
into the firmware and changing the hard drive from AHCI to IDE mode.
After that XP had no problem with it.

Try this site

Installing Windows XP Professional SP2 on Acer Aspire 5315-2153 Laptop


http://soulpass.com/2007/11/10/inst...essional-sp2-on-acer-aspire-5315-2153-laptop/

 

[xxx_]

Are you sure Acer is a good company when you say that you are impressed with
their support? I heard that Acer tend to cut cost on the power supply unit
and use very cheap RAM on its desktop and does not recommend self-upgrade. I
don't know much about their laptops.