Half installed Windows XP but no GPU or MOBO drivers

[macabdul]

Hi. Just a quick bit of advice really (hopefully). I was helping a friend instal XP on his lap-top and made the rookie mistake of forgetting that as it isn't a self-build but a lap-top purchased from a shop that he doesn't actually have the GPU or MOBO driver disks. He phoned me up during the installation and thats when it hit me as I was at my own computer and on my desk was my disks.  It appeared that he hadn't gone through the installation very far and seemed he could cancel out of it but he had in fact gone further than I thought.

We can complete the XP installation but wasn't able to boot back into his old system, Vista.

I'd intended to see which drivers etc he had so I could download then for the XP installation.

Any help/ideas on how to find which drivers he needs to instal would be greatly appreciated and please, I know ................ lol

[Salmon Trout]

Any help/ideas on how to find which drivers he needs to instal

The brand and model number of the laptop would be a good place to start...

as it isn't a self-build but a lap-top purchased from a shop that he doesn't actually have the GPU or MOBO driver disks

It didn't come with any disks? What kind of "shop" was this?

[macabdul]

aye, he's bringing into work monday and I'm bringing it home to do it all for him but thought I might get a head-start on where to look for resources etc to help me..

[Salmon Trout]

aye, he's bringing into work monday and I'm bringing it home to do it all for him but thought I might get a head-start on where to look for resources etc to help me..

Well, you could do a Google search for drivers using the maker and model for example if it was an Acer Aspire 4520 you might try typing: Acer Aspire 4520 XP drivers (That's just an example, becaue you have not said what the make and model actually are). That way you might find a download page with driver download links, or you might find web forums and pages where other people have discussed this model and whether there are any XP drivers available or not.

[macabdul]

Once of those where all the software, including the OS is pre-installed and for cheapness you don't get any disks.

I was hoping to use IObits Toolbox to backup all his drivers and then re-install them but whether the drivers installed under Vista can be installed under XP is, or would have been, and entirely other question but a moot point now . .

 . . . and I can't believe I didn't realize till he'd started, still kicking myself now.

[macabdul]

I've just noticed there actually is a DRIVER section in Computer Hope which gives all the answers, lol again...

[Salmon Trout]

Trouble is, a lot of newer laptops never had XP drivers written for them. Has it not got a recovery partition?

[macabdul]

Unfortunately not. He'd gone past the format bit it turned out. Not asked him yet the make or modle, will just wait till monday but it is about 3 years old

[macabdul]

Hi all. This is what I really should have posted right at the beginning.


I'm in the process of downgrading from Vista to XP and have a number of missing drivers.

Product Compaq Presario F500
Product Number -  GH835EA
Product name - F560EM

I've managed easily enough to get XP loaded but under device manager there is 7 other devices with yellow question marks. They are -

Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus
Coprocessor
Modem Device on High Definition Audio Bus
Other PCI Bridge Device
SM Bus Controller
Unknown Device*
Video Controller (VGA Compatible)

    *The Unknown Device I uninstalled by accident. Once I have the other devices sorted I'm going to do a fresh re-install of XP so will come back to that one.

I have tried HP's site for drivers and they do give me some to download but none of them run when I double click them and when I point Device Manager to them it just can't see them and give me the OK button when I browse for them.

The only one that I've ever managed to run is sp32646.exe which is version 1.00 Rev. A of Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for HD Audio. It runs, the installer comes up and then asks at the end if I want to restart my computer. I do, so but the Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus in devices still has the yellow question mark against it.

I've tried getting the drivers for the f500 and the f560em in case they were different but no joy.

I've also Googled for them and can find many, many articles with drivers, some of them the same but none seem to run at all.

I can't connect the machine directly to the internet as yet as I presume the driver is the one mentioned as Modem Device on High Definition Audio Bus.

And please don't suggest that I don't install XP as I've already done it and though the Recovery Drive for Vista is actually still intact as a separate partition I do not have recovery disks.

Any help will be more than greatly appreciated

[patio]

Doesn't appear to me this is doable....there are for example no MBoard chipset drivers listed for XP....which the machine will not work without.

[Salmon Trout]

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&safe=off&q=Compaq+Presario+F500+xp+drivers&aq=f&aqi=g1g-v1g-m1g-b1&aql=&oq=

http://laptop-driver.blogspot.com/2009/05/compaq-presario-f500-windows-xp-driver.html

http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447627+1302973098113+28353475&threadId=1115132

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/ProductList.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3316438&taskId=135

[patio]

I'm just going by what i saw at the HP site...by all means he can give those a try.

[Salmon Trout]

And please don't suggest that I don't install XP as I've already done it and though the Recovery Drive for Vista is actually still intact as a separate partition I do not have recovery disks.

Have you tried tapping  F11 at switch on to trigger the Recovery Manager? If this doesn't work, you can get a set of recovery disks from HP

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=115&prodSeriesId=3316438&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=3316438&objectID=c00810334

This may be your only option to get a running machine. Apart from Linux.

[Computer_Commando]

It seems like Presario F500 has no chipset, LAN, audio or graphics drivers listed under WinXP, even though WinXP is a valid selection for the OS.  There are no product specs listed, either.  Withough knowing the hardware, you are SOL.  Put Vista back on it.

[Salmon Trout]

Compaq Presario F500 Windows Xp drivers (support most F500 models)

CHIPSET (install and reboot)
nVIDIA nForce 430 Chipset Driver
Download

http://laptop-driver.blogspot.com/2009/05/compaq-presario-f500-windows-xp-driver.html

[soybean]

the Recovery Drive for Vista is actually still intact as a separate partition I do not have recovery disks.

I'd be very careful not to wipe out that recovery partition.   You should be able to restore the system to its original configuration by hitting F11 during startup, which should start the recovery partition. 

Indeed, I think I'd reinstall Vista from the recovery partition if only to create a restore disc on DVD from the recovery partition.  That's really what computer buyers are supposed to do; that way, they have a recovery disc, on DVD, in case the hard drive must be replaced or that recovery partition gets deleted or erased. 

Once that's done, i.e. creating the DVD recovery disc, then the Win XP installation could be done again.

[Computer_Commando]

I'd be very careful not to wipe out that recovery partition.   You should be able to restore the system to its original configuration by hitting F11 during startup, which should start the recovery partition...

I agree.  Recover Vista from the Recovery Partition, that's what it's for.