Installing Windows XP (Home or Pro Edition) onto HP Mini 110-4100

[AroundTheBend]

Firstly, happy new year!

Secondly...

I have a HP Mini 110-4100 Netbook which I brought earlier this year. It came pre-installed with Windows 7 Starter, which is constantly freezing under even the smallest amount of strain. You barely surf the net without it freezing, and it has been like this since I bought it. It has 1GB of RAM-320GB HDD and an Intel Atom 1.60GHz Processor. Product Number is: 'A7R27EA#ABU'.

I would like to wipe the hard drive completely and install Windows XP (Home Edition or Professional Edition) to see if it just the specs being too poor for Windows 7 that is causing the problems with freezing.

I have an external USB hard drive with a capacity of 500GB which I have re-formatted and used to burn/extract an '.iso' image (of a Windows XP installation CD) onto.

I then edit the BIOS to boot from USB Hard Disk first, and re-boot the computer with the External Drive attached.

Unfortunately this hasn't worked, and the drive is either not recognised or it boots from the external drive and then gives out errors messages such as ''ntldr is missing, please hit ctrl, alt & del to restart' or 'bootmngr is missing, please hit ctrl. alt & del to restart'. It also sometimes just flashes a white cursor on a black background forever.

The versions I have tried to install have been Windows XP Prof Ed SP3 and Windows XP Home Ed SP3. Both come up with similar error messages, despite the fact I have used these files to install the OS on other PCs with no problems whatsoever. I understand that the HP Mini 110 has a HDD that is not supported by SP2, hence using SP3.

I have followed all the instructions for installing Windows XP from a USB flash drive, even thought I have done it before, but still no luck.  The only thing I cannot do is use PeToUSB as it doesnt not recognise my external USB HDD. I have however used Power2ISO, Undisker and ISOtoUSB to ensure the files on the external USB HDD are actually bootable versions of the Windows installation disk

I am now running out of ideas and feel like throwing the **bleep** thing through the window.

Can anybody help!!?? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Happy New Year!

I would upgrade the memory to 2 GB.  You have to remove the 1 GB chip and install a 2 GB chip.

1 GB isn't enough to for any PC nowadays, XP, Vista or W7...

Now, before you use the thing as a frisbee, you cannot install XP on the notebook unless and until you install the NM10 chipset SATA AHCI driver.

However before you can do that, you will need to get XP to be able to boot.

I recommend you scrap the fancy stuff and get your hands on an external USB DVD drive and install from the CD.

I have attached the AHCI driver below for the NM10 chipset once you are able to boot from the installation CD.

Read this guide below on how to slipstream this driver.  Read the Intel section.

Or if you have a USB FDD, put the driver on a FDD and at the F6 installation prompt, hit the F6 key instead of slipstreaming.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-Systems-e-g-Windows-8-and-Software/SATA-drivers-for-...

[AroundTheBend]

Hello

Thank you for the reply.

I was under the impression that the driver you mention was only needed with XP SP2 and earlier but clearly I'm mistaken.

I agree regarding 1GB RAM. Absolutely ridiculous that they still ship new netbooks with this amount. I have upgraded RAM on a normal laptop before, which was as simple as pushing the new RAM into an empty expansion port. I have all the mini screwdrivers required to get the back off, but it would be great if you could confirm difficulty level and cost of new 2GB chip?

I think you're right about getting an external USB DVD drive. I will try to borrow a friends in the coming week and see if I have anymore luck.

Thanks again.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Yes, you will definitely need to use the slipstreaming method, or F6 prompt to install the NM10 chipset driver which came out after XP XP3.

Below is the link to the service manual.  Please refer to chapter 4, page 57 to install the memory chip.

At least a 2 GB PC3-10600 memory module is cheap.

Doesn't look too hard to me.

A whole lot easier than a memory module I once helped a friend install in an Acer Aspire.  You pretty much had to take that whole darn thing apart!

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03163704.pdf

Please post back and let us know how everything turns out.

[AroundTheBend]

Right...a little bit of an update!

I brought an external USB DVD drive and slipstreamed the intel drivers onto an Windows XP Professional SP3 installation disc. 

Then I managed to boot from disc, format the hard disk drive, and install Windows XP Pro SP3...there were only 2 slight hitches during this. When you accept the Microsoft EULA, you need to hit 'FN' and 'F8' otherwise it will not recognise that you're accepting it. Also, during the installation phase, it comes up with a pop up that it cannot find certain installation files. Deleting the pre-entered location and inserting 'E:\I386' instead, pointed the installation back towards the external USB DVD drive. I copied and pasted this location as it pops up around 25-30 times during the installation...all of which are sorted by copying and pasting the same location into and hitting 'ok'.

I have installed the majority of the drivers from the HP website for my netbook mode. Despite being designed for Windows 7, most have installed fine on Windows XP. I've only had 3 issues.

1) The drivers for the ethernet port come up with an error message saying 'only valid for Windows Vista'. I searched the name of the LAN connection device and it took me to the manufacturers website where I found drivers which worked with Windows XP, sorted!

2) The display is appearing fine, and the graphics card driver also installed fine, but on Device Manager there is an Exclaimation Mark next to the graphics card, reporting an error message to do with the drivers. I can not seem to fix this, but with the graphics themselves appearing fine so far, I have not been too bothered!

3) The biggest problem so far is the graphics for the sound card. The drivers from the HP website do not work, and come up with an error message. The alternative 'XP friendly' drivers that I've found elsewhere on the internet do not work either, they install fine but then when the computer is re-started it comes up with an error message 10, 'unable to load device'. I therefore have no sound on the netbook, very frustrating!

Any help getting the sound drivers to work would be appreciated as it is actually running very well on XP Pro SP3 and I don't fancy going back to Windows 7 Starter!

FWIW I have also updated the Microsoft version of High Definition Audio Driver Package, as recommended on the HP website, but this update, despite installing fine, is not showing up in Add/Remove programs, which still shows the outdated version.

Surely somebody out there had managed to get XP running fine on a recent model of the HP Mini 110, including sound :)?

Any help appreciated as ever!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

If you installed the audio driver before installing the MS UAA driver then that is probably why you don't have audio.

I would install XP all over again and make sure you install the drivers in this order:

1. Chipset (install and reboot)

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=20019&keyword=chipset+installation+ut...

2. Graphics (install and reboot).  BTW, I cannot find an XP driver for the video anywhere.

3. MS UAA driver (the link below is the latest one).

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=32...

Audio:

See if this driver works.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=32...

[AroundTheBend]

All done.

When I go to install the last item (IDT Audio Driver), it comes up with an error message "The hardware detected is not supported by this IDT software package. The install will be aborted".

Still no sound!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Sorry that didn't work.

I will be unable to help you any further regarding the audio. 

It is very hard, and in some cases impossible, to get the audio to work in XP

You will have to read the instructions listed under 3. Difficult Models at the link below regarding installing the IDT audio.  Several alternative IDT driver files are posted that you can try.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-Systems-e-g-Windows-8-and-Software/General-XP-Downgr...

Good luck and please post back and let us know if you got the audio to work using the above guide.