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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Compaq Presario SR5350AP with WinXP x64 Drivers Solved!

I still remember the very early & hard moment I looked around & waited the driver programmers to write & compile a workable 64-bit chipset drivers for my 740-pin AMD Athlon 64 (the first & cheap x64 CPU) + nForce mobo years ago.

After finished setting up my first dual core box, I took several days roaming within the unfamiliar MS Vista Starter installed. Finally I decided to install 64-bit Windows XP for the second time, without knowing that disaster's awaiting.

First, non-immediate relief from official support.

Rather fast response from HP support (replied the next day):
I have verified the specifications of Compaq Presario SR5350AP Desktop PC. This PC is preinstalled with Windows Vista Starter (32-bit) Operating System. This is the reason the PC is not bundled with XP drivers. As the PC is preinstalled with the Vista Operating System, Recovery discs also available for Vista Operating System only which includes drivers for Vista. Also, I wish to inform you that Pavilion PC's that ship with Windows Vista do not include a set of recovery CDs (Operating System, drivers and preinstalled softwares). Instead, they use a hidden space (partition) on the hard drive to store the recovery information......if you wish to install the XP Operating System in your PC, then you need to contact the device manufacturer for drivers for XP 64bit Operating System.

You can refer the below HP Document for more detailed description about this scenario:
Changing the Operating System from Windows Vista to Windows XP

Luckily I've created the only Recovery DVD before I put the pre-installed 80GB HDD into rest.

Before proceeding, here's the spec. listed on HP Customer Care web pages:
Product Spec.
Mobo. Spec.

Search & rescue task for ECS 945GCT-HM (Livermore 8)

Unfortunately this OEM product is not listed in the ECS official website.
See their reply.

Fine, another search & rescue task.
Initially I made google searches which all turn out to be unsolved 64-bit driver requests.

Lastly, I went to Intel for 945 Express Chipset & GMA;
Realtek for RTL8201E network & ALC888 HD audio.

All in x64, viola!


But the on board RTL8201E is recognised as cheap RTL8139.


Oh wait! How about my legacy 3Com NIC?



Guess what, totally no official x64 driver found in the Internet!

So, I use a cheap RTL8139D NIC instead, as I would like to set up a dual-NIC box to share my network with my backup kludge.

Up to here, the 64-bit WinXP is up and functionally running.

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