EliteBook 8540p XP drivers don't work

[selim]

I installed my licensed XP Pro, which doesn't have SATA support. So I changed the AHCI setting in BIOS to IDE before installing. It seemed ok but nearly all the video, sound and chipset drivers failed to setup. A driver called Management Engine reported dll errors, Nvidia driver installer reported "control panel couldn't be installed" and failed. The computer crashes into BSOD as soon as Windows starts or gets stuck at Windows splash screen and never starts up. I entered safe mode and reinstalled the drivers starting with chipset. Still bad. What did I do wrong?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

At this point, I would reinstall XP all over again using the method you did (change SATA native mode to IDE). While the installation is running, read this manual starting from page 10 which will guide you through installing the SATA drivers after your Windows XP installation is completed.  Make sure you follow the specific instructions for your model notebook.

Once you get your notebook running in ACHI mode again, go ahead and install the rest of your drivers.

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02551975/c02551975.pdf

Here is the XP driver page for your notebook:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=4096169&...

Paul

[selim]

I get "this system doesn't meet the requirements for this software" when I try to install intel matrix storage manager.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:  Did you install the chipset driver first?  If not, that may be your problem.

If you can't get the files from the Matrix Storage Manager, then get them from the Intel site belwo. Extract the files to a folder that you name whatever you want and browse to it by following the instructions in the manual.

I had the do the same thing yesterday when installing XP on my 6930p, using the Intel files below.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=2991&DwnldID=19599&ProductFamily=Chips...

Paul

[selim]

I had to try a friend's Windows CD and so far it seems good. I'm not sure what solved the problem. Something may eventually go wrong again and I'll ask for help later

Thank you very much.

[selim]

And here it goes again. Just a random restart and it blew up. Everything goes BSOD including safe mode, recovery, and boot CDs.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi;

Are you sure you have your BIOS drive configuration SATA Native Mode set to Disabled?

It needs to be until you load the correct SATA driver after you install XP.  See if it boots with SATA Native Mode set to Disabled

If you can get in to windows again, please let me know the same of your SATA ACHI controller.

Paul

[selim]

I reinstalled the firts CD, it seems ok for now. I just have a minor issue. I get a warning dialog box about repeated names in wireless network. This may be irrelevant to the Windows and driver issues anyway.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

It sounds like you have 2 or more PC named the same, and you shouldn't do that.

Paul

[selim]

Just a random start and userinit.exe error. Also taskmgr error. And a nice clean BSOD to top it of. You got any more ideas left? =)

Btw, no, this is my old windows that came with an old HP computer.