Can't find WinXP Compaq C555EU drivers - I'm stumped

alt · Joined: May 28, 2008 Posts: 5

Hi guys,
A friend of mine has a Compaq Presario c500 (c555eu) laptop with Vista. I thought i'd do him a favour by installing WinXP but now that i've that done I can't find a load of drivers.

I can't find Audio / WLan / Modem drivers

I downloaded the ones from the Compaq site but still no joy - they don't work Sad

Any other Googling returns the same results.

Anyone got any ideas? Is there a trick to this that i'm missing?

Any help much appreciated

alt · Joined: May 28, 2008 Posts: 5

OK so the WLAN device decided to install itself - Broadcom

Still stuck with the rest though Sad

There's an "SM Bus Controller" too - but cant seem to get any drivers to work for it

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 1242

If the ACTUAL devise isn't Compaq's, get the driver from the manufacture of the device. If all else fails you can try windows update, manually.

You may have to use the "sneaker net"* if you don't have direct internet access on that machine, though...

*skeaker net:
data carried from one computer to another on media (such as a floppy) by hand

goretsky

Hello,

From looking at the hardware specifications for the Compaq Presario C555EU notebook, it has an Intel Celeron processor and Intel GMA950 integrated video chip, then it stands to reason the computer also has an Intel chipset as well. A "chipset" is the core logic "glue" that lets all the different hardware components inside the computer (CPU, RAM, hard disk drive, video, network interface and so forth) communicate with each other. Then, specialized software called "device drivers" allows the operating system to communicate with each piece of hardware.

You can find the Intel Chipset Installation Software available for download here on Intel's web site, and the GMA950 device driver software is available here. The chipset software should provide a device driver for the System Management Bus (SMBus), so after installing that you should be closer to having a fully-operational system.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

This topic has been cussed and discussed here and other internet forums, extensively.
Rule #1 for downgrading to XP from Vista, is to secure all the hardware drivers and burn them to a CD, before you ever start the downgrade.

Having a full HD backup of your original OS, on a DVD, is a good hedge against something just going horribly wrong in the Downgrade process.

As time goes on, there will be more and more computers on the market for which there are NO XP drivers, anywhere.
Why would any company write XP drivers for hardware that is only going to be used on Vista PC's. Question

I've been very successful at making Vista look and act like XP.
So far I've not had to Downgrade a single PC to XP.
Vista also has SATA drivers, unlike XP. So Vista will install on PC's that XP will not.

I don't really LIKE Vista, but hey, it's here and we need to learn how to deal with it. I seem to remember feeling like that when XP first came out. Wink

Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?
The Doctor Cool

alt · Joined: May 28, 2008 Posts: 5

Hi again guys,
Thanks for the info. The only driver which I need at the moment are the soundcard drivers.

Googling specs of the laptop it seems that the soundcard could be an Altec Lansing, but I don't have a clue what model no. hence no idea where to search.

And yes, I should have backed up my Vista drivers beforehand - silly mistake Sad

alt · Joined: May 28, 2008 Posts: 5

OK so it's actually the speakers that are Altec Lansing. Manuf. says that the sound card is Conexant Audio, but the drivers from the HP/Compaq site don't work, eventhough they're the XP drivers for the sound card on my laptop... i'm stumpted!

alt · Joined: May 28, 2008 Posts: 5

Got it!

Got all info from here incase anyone else is in the same position: http://www.zdnet.com.au/ads/interstitial/interstitial.htm?redirect=/re...ws/hard

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 1242

I know you have it & congrats on that but I have a question of curiosity that I just have to ask.

Do you still have the Vista CD (or was it a non-CD install) & did it have a driver disk? I was thinking, if nothing else, you could have put Vista back in & got what you needed.

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zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2747

Baby Tux, the problem is that Vista drivers don't necessarily work on XP.

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 1242

I didn't mean to use the drivers for Vista with XP, just to get the info from the install to get the proper XP drivers.

Armed with this info, the chances of not finding the appropriate drivers are pretty slim but there again, I haven't had to mess with VISDUH, ....yet...

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 2240 Location: Central FL, USA

For most of this year, I've been installing a new PC with Vizduh about once a week, on an average.

Many have asked me if they can't run XP on their new PC.
But, by the time I get done tweaking and tuning, they don't even realize that they're not running XP.
It usually takes between two and three hours to completely set up a new Vizduh PC. (the way I do it)
And install my entire "Package" of security software.

And, I've not even gotten into shutting down Services on Vizduh yet, like I have on XP.

Making it run much better and look and act like XP is completely DO'able.

As time goes on, there will be more and more PC's for which there are NO XP drivers being written. We just have to learn to live with it.

Cheers mates,
The Doctor Cool

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 1242

Here's an FYI for anyone interested:

How to downgrade from VISTA to XP

BTW: I got curious on the subject & did some looking. I don't know if this is the BEST info out there but seemed to answer a lot of questions I'd see people asking.

Anyway, it's a start...
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