I am currently running XP Pro sp3 build 2600; 3GB RAM.
When I attempt to install drivers for my audio and video cards, the installs fail because the installer can't find compatible hardware. It is always the same, whichever drivers I try and that includes the ones from the original driver install disk.
Audio:
I have Realtek audio of some sort, but at the moment I am having trouble locating exact info.
Whenever I reboot, new hardware wizard attempts to help me install software for "Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus", but all paths lead to failure.
(the original disks simply provides install driver failure message, as does V-R1.70 and recent driver for XP, R274 gives error: 0x0000227)
Video:
I have Nvidia 8600m GT 512 MXM2
However all attempts to upgrade driver end in error or failure.
The OEM driver says it can't locate any drivers compatible with my hardware. Whichever, Drivers I attempt to install, (old and older) will fail with this same message.
If I open sys info:
components\sound device - says "unimodem 1/2 duplex audio device" with some additional info
components\display - this section is completely blank. However, there is a listing in problem devices - "Video Controller (VGA Compatible)"
If I upgrade to Windows 7, then all audio problems are solved and a proper entry will be listed in "sysinfo". I don't recall of hand, but it shows that it has realtek and audio works.
Unfortunately, the video after driver upgrade is unstable and crashes the machine.
There are old posts about incompatibilities with this video card and win7 (error10), that had me running vbs scripts, ect. but nothing helped.
In the end win7 ran so slow with my 3 big gb of RAM that I decided to give XP a try.
The notable difference is that with Win7 after install I have entries in sys info and am able to upgrade drivers, but with XP this is not the case.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.