Installing Win XP on Acer 5750Z laptop

Status
Not open for further replies.

jeff009

Honorable
May 14, 2012
10
0
10,510
I have an Acer 5750Z laptop and I'm attempting to install Windows XP Pro onto it (I have some older programs which aren't compatible w/Win7, and updates for them don't exist). When I install, I get a blue screen. I've tried a number of things, but generally, here's what I'm doing:

1) I went onto Acer's web site and I downloaded the SATA drivers for my laptop.
2) I have a USB floppy drive so I copied the x86 drivers onto a floppy disk.
3) I rebooted and changed the SATA Mode from ACHI to IDE.
4) Set the boot startup to choose the DVD drive first.
5) Continued on and started the Win XP Pro install.
6) At the beginning of the install, I pressed F6 to specify additional drivers
7) When prompted, I then selected the "Intel Mobile Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller" driver
8) I then continued on with the installation

The installer goes through the copying files stage (so all output is still in the DOS character mode, not the GUI/GDI mode/phase), and then blue screens.

The only info about the crash on the blue screen says,

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D663C, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I've searched this subject a bit, but the answers I've been reading all state to set the SATA mode to IDE, and to add the SATA controller drivers to the installer, both of which I'm doing, yet I'm still getting a blue screen, so I'm looking for other suggestions as to how to overcome this.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
Solution
Jeff009,

You can try two things: If BIOS allows for, set SATA controller to "IDE Emulation" or something like that, instead of "Native / AHCA". Also, making installation from SP3-integrated version of Windows really helps.

jeff009

Honorable
May 14, 2012
10
0
10,510
Thanks, that was a good suggestion, but I just ran Memtest and it successfully ran two full passes and didn't report any errors. Any other ideas on where to check or what to do? I've tried Acer's "support" and they were worthless. If the answer doesn't lie on a script which they can read off of, they don't know what to do.

Any other suggestions? It seems like what I'm doing should work, yet I'm still getting a blue screen.

Thanks,

Jeff
 

jeff009

Honorable
May 14, 2012
10
0
10,510
OK, I'm making progress.

Brett928S2, I think your suggestion of reformatting the disk was half the issue - I connected the drive to another machine and reformatted it to NTFS again (using a full format, not a quick format).

Alabalcho, I already had the SATA controller set to IDE mode, but your tip on making an SP3 integrated install is helping as well. I've created a XP Pro + SP3 installer using Slipstream.

Good news: I'm now able to get past the 'starting windows phase' and I'm not experiencing a blue screen.

Bad news: When I get to the point to type in my XP product code, the installer says it's not valid. It's my own copy and I KNOW it's valid... I did some digging and I think the issue is that I applied the wrong SP3 to the installer... I applied the "Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers" version.

I'm now in the process of downloading a different SP3, but it's getting late, and I'll report back tomorrow night what I'm able to come up with and what the (hopefully) final solution is.

Until then,

Thanks,

Jeff
 

liviu81x

Distinguished
Apr 20, 2009
74
0
18,640
You should full format the drive when installing windows, not on another computer as windows recods bad sectors internally so it won't use them. Good thing you got passed that though. Good luck.
 

TerraHertz

Honorable
May 16, 2012
3
0
10,510
So, any success?
I too want to evict Win7, and replace with XP prof SP3, or one of the 'performance' versions around.
But I'm not as capable. Don't know what slipstream is for instance. Looks like I have some reading to do.

Which drivers did you use from Acer's sets for the 5750Z? They are all listed as for the various versions of Win7. Do they work with XP anyway?
 

jeff009

Honorable
May 14, 2012
10
0
10,510
Well I made some progress. It looks like when I created the XP installer using Slipsteam, that caused the XP installer to think it was installing a different version and was requiring a different format key. Slipstream has a feature where one can include the product key with the installation, so after burning trough a few DVDs, I finally made one where I'm able to install.

So now I'm at the point where the OS has installed and things are looking up. I'm not completely out of the woods yet though - I haven't been able to install driver for the WLAN card yet, so I haven't activated it yet, but things are looking up.

Thanks everyone!

Jeff
 

jeff009

Honorable
May 14, 2012
10
0
10,510


This piece was not so simple. I suggest doing this:
1) Go to Microsoft's site and download the full .NET 3.0 runtime. One of the installers required it to be installed first.

2) Go onto Acer's web site, select the 5750Z, then set the OS to one of the 32-bit version of Win7, then downloaded all of the 32-bit drivers.

3) This mostly worked, with the exception of the Intel video drivers and the Broadcom WLAN drivers. More about this later....

4) OK, try installing as many of the drivers as you can. Some install fine (just run Setup.exe). Some don't and you have to go into the Device manager, select one of the items which doesn't have a driver installed, then point it to install from a specific location and specify one of the folders of the drivers you have.

5) Intel video drivers. For the most part, most of the 32-bit win7 drivers I was able to install on XP. One exception was the Intel video drivers. I went onto Intel's site, looked up the model, and downloaded the drivers from Intel's site.

6) This now leaves me with the WLAN drivers. I was able to install the Broadcom LAN drivers without any problems, but not the Broadcom WLAN drivers. I'm still working on this.

Jeff

 
Status
Not open for further replies.