I just got a new laptop. Didn't like my old one since it was really too big. 17" screen, heavy, just wasn't what I wanted out of a laptop. I sold it on craigslist for $500. So I went shopping for a smaller version of what I had. I really like HP laptops. The two laptops I've owned have been HP and have had no problems with them. Annette has an HP laptop that works very well for her and Kenzie. So I ended up with a 14" laptop.
Here are the specs:
HP Pavilion dv2700t Special Edition CTO
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T5550 (1.83GHz)
- 14.1" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
- 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
- HP Imprint Finish (Verve) + Webcam + Microphone
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network w/Bluetooth
- FREE Upgrade to 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive from 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive!!
- FREE Upgrade to LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
- High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Yeah really nice laptop. It's got the stylish keyboard and artsy fartsy "Verve" pattern artwork on it. I like that it's not that boring silver/black combination that is so common with laptops.
I decided I would try out Windows Vista. I have a copy of the Ultimate version and right away installed it over the preinstalled Premium version. I've heard it performs better so why not. Now let me say up front, I am a power user, I write software for a living and will squeeze, tweak and abuse every last bit of bits out of my computer. So I'm not a normal email/web browsing/MS Word user. I've heard a lot of whining about Vista and had low expectations going in. I downloaded the Vista drivers from HP's web site and away I went. Installed a copy of MS Office, Firefox, Outlook and things were ok in the beginning. Little bugs here and there but nothing I couldn't live with. Beautiful UI, very pleasing to the eye. I didn't like that Vista moved important settings around, changed the File Explorer app significantly and did a lot of cpu intensive tasks like massive file indexing. They added a layer of security that reminded me of linux in that you are not a "root" user with admin privilege but a simple user that requires constant popup dialog boxes asking "do you really want to do this? this is possibly unsafe". I immediately switched that off and made myself root. Like I did when I worked with linux. So far so good, learning how to turn off the indexing, removed unnecessary services, tweaked this and that. I started to install some simple applications like Weather Bug, Outpost firewall, NOD32 antivirus. Then the real bugs started coming out in force. The video driver started flaking out, leaving artifacts on the screen from previous menus that I had clicked on. Things would just lock up on me, taskbar suddenly was not responsive, the touchpad would go into constant tapping whenever I tried to use the start menu, wireless would shut down. I really didn't have much installed or had played too long with it. I finally threw in the towel. I figured if after 2 days I'm getting these kinds of issues, what will be like when I started pounding on this sucker after 2 months! So back to XP I decided to go.
After much searching online on how to do this and pissing Annette off for spending most of Memorial Day on that "damn computer" I figured out how it's done. So this is how I did it. Of course YMMV for anyone taking hints from this blog post.
First off here are two urls that helped me out a lot:
http://tinyurl.com/4bqonx
http://tinyurl.com/48uub5
The steps that I took to "downgrade" my laptop to XP were as follows:
1. Download a copy of nLite.
This is a wonderful tool to build your own Windows XP installation CD.
This is needed to "slipstream" the SATA hard drive controller driver
that is required before Windows XP can read the hard drive. This is not
as hard as it sounds. I used a copy of Windows XP with service pack 3.
Once you get nLite installed, download the driver for the SATA hard drive controller. This web page has excellent instructions on how to slipstream the SATA drivers in using nLite. The driver I selected from the list was Intel 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI. The best way to see what you should choose is by opening up Device Manager in Vista and looking under the IDE/ATA controllers.
2. From Windows Vista, install bios version F.13 (download)
3. Put your Windows XP CD in your laptop and reboot and get Windows XP installed on your hard drive.
4. Once Windows XP is installed and you are logged in for the first time, install the Intel chipset driver (ver: 8.3.1.1009). (download).
5. Install the Intel Matrix Storage driver (sp38088).
6. Install the NVidia video driver (v156.66).
7. Download the ConexantHDAudio audio driver v2.21. Sometimes that site doesn't work, so here is an alternative download.
8. Installing the audio driver is not so straight forward.
Install from Device Manager.
1. Go to device manager and select Unknown audio device.
2. Choose Update Driver...
3. Select No not as this time
4. Select Install from a list at a specific location
5. Select Don't search. I will choose the driver to install.
6. Select Show All Devices
7. Select Have Disk...
8. Choose the \ConexantHDAudio 221_XP\XP32\WiSVHe5.inf file
9. Select Yes when Windows barks at you.
9. Install the Alps touchpad v5.7.401.1 driver.
10. Turn off your wireles connection by sliding the wireless slide switch on the front of your laptop to off, so that the wireless blue light turns orange.
11. Install the Intel PRO wireless driver (sp38439). After install turn wireless switch back on.
12. Install bluetooth driver (sp32883).
13. If you use a cellphone with bluetooth you may want to go ahead and install Microsoft ActiveSync at this time. I'd add a link here but Microsoft constantly changes their urls so just google it.
14. Download the modem driver (sp37817). Just like the audio driver you need to install this through the device manager as follows:
1. Go to device manager and select Unknown modem.
2. Choose Update Driver...
3. Select No not as this time
4. Select Install from a list at a specific location
5. Select Don't search. I will choose the driver to install.
6. Select Show All Devices
7. Select Have Disk...
8. Choose the \sp37817\V32\HPQHERzm.inf file
9. Select Yes when Windows barks at you.
15. Install the Ricoh 5 in 1 card reader (sp33604).
16. Install the web cam driver (sp33544).
17. Install the HP QuickLaunch driver (sp34796).
18. Install the Yukon Mavell 88E8039 ethernet driver (sp37854).
19. Since the F.13 bios can't control the cpu fan (it just keeps it running on high constantly) we can now upgrade back to bios F.2A. Download it from here and install it. I'm sure you're asking me why did I downgraded the bios in the first place? Don't ask me, my googling kept coming across comments that the install will blue screen unless you downgrade it during the XP install. Also when you upgrade the bios for some reason Windows loses the audio and modem driver and those need to be reinstalled. This time just answer "Yes, search for a driver". Windows will find it on it's own.
20. The bios upgrade kind of hosed up the HP QuickLaunch driver. Just install using this version (sp38171).
That should do it. People have complained that the microphone doesn't work. I got it working by right clicking on the volume icon in the taskbar and selecting "Adjust audio properties". Click Voice tab and press the Volume.. button under Voice recording. Select Options from the menu and select Advanced controls. An Advanced button should appear, select it. In the dialog box just select Mic Boost On. Also there should be a Smart Audio app in the Control Panel with some adjustments for the microphone. The best sound I got was setting it to Speakerphone / Omnidirectional. However if you are a Skype or VOIP user you're probably going to have you own microphone and not dick around with this builtin pos.
Take care and good luck with your laptop!!
Craig