HALP :( New acer no OS!!!

Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:38 am

OK I Just bought a new computer with some decent specs figgering it would be a decent PC running windows XP.

Acer Aspire
AM1640-B1580A
E2180 Intel Dual core (2.0Ghz X2)
2gig DDR2 ram
320 Gig SATA drive

Now heres the thing the computer was fairly cheap for the specs it has and running XP i think it would be a fine PC right? But it came with vista preinstalled.

So I unpacked it and first thing i did was pull out my xp home CD and attempted to install then hit the first BSOD. Would start to load up then BSOD because it could'nt find the HDD. No floppy drive on the PC so I cant load up drivers that way

After a little Google-fu I find out it needs drivers injected into the windows install CD.
Alright grab nLite, look for drivers, Inject, and get them on a burned CD. Success!!
Or... not

Hmm k loads up the install fine past the BSOD asking where to install etc, so I formatted the drive and repartitioned so i could install windows into D (10GB) and all well n good as it goes through the install process right? Well yes it successfully installed windows XP but after the install finished the computer reboots and attempted to load the installed XP but again im getting the same BSOD i had in the first place. Why? Its like it did'nt install the drivers but only used them during the install?

Anyways the computer im using now needs to be emptied, flat lined, and sent back so I need to get this new acer running asap and because i formatted the drive vista was sent to hell and with XP unable to load I have no OS LOL As far as im concerned Vista can stay in hell, No backup CD's came with the PC n i didnt make any. I dont care for vista in the least, but i do need to get XP running so what can I do to work around this little conspiracy M$ and acer have going? Any help ASAP would be awsome cuz I really do have to get rid of my old PC ASAP and theres lots of stuff on my old pc i would like move to the new pc before its gotta go

Oh my BSOD Stop 0x0000007B
Im desperate LOL If your willing to take this PC and install XP for me squirrel that would be awsome

Otherwise i need a ton of help asap ><

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 7:37 pm

Hmm if XP wont handle it, maybe Ubuntu would work out nice. But I'd be willing to take a look at it and try XP again.

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Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:36 pm

Would installing an IDE drive as the master to put XP on work to get around it?

I dont want to void the warranty unless im sure it would work. But everything that turns up on Google says this issue is due to the SATA drive and can be worked around using drivers but i dont know why it only worked for the install process but not after for booting the installed windows.

Like i said injecting the SATA drivers on the install CD got rid of the bsod during installation but it didn't install the drivers for booting windows normally.

So im thinking since the SATA drive seems to be the cause of the bsod why not just use an IDE drive for my windows installation only and keep the SATA for my files. Problem is i dont know if this will work at all and Google has no info if this is a possible solution??

Once windows fully boots the drivers for the SATA would be loaded so the drive would be accessible after the boot but not during the boot right? Ihave and 80gig IDE drive and a 40gig I could use ether or since i wouldn't be keeping anything thing on them other then windows

Unless its something in the bios i need to change also i donno what els to try.

Anyways some ideas for a work around and maybe some info would be helpful lol
Like maybe im just overlooking something simple.

Ubuntu eh? I dont think im ready for a jump like that yet

But hey for less then 530 cash it may be worth buying one for yourself too

That is if i can get something running on the thing other then fista

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onykage · Post by **onykage** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:26 pm

k,

the problem is the virtual SLI thats onboard that ASUS mobo. You cant install xp on that mobo, ive tried. The new compaq thats a good budge machine has the same problem.

so you have 3 options.

1. you can put i686x64 kalaway OSX Leo 10.5.2 on it with a USB dvd drive.
2. you can put your favorite flavor of linux on it.
I personally would tell you to stay away from ubuntu. It looks great, works ok off the DVD but dont even think about tring to update it. Will crash the load every time. They are bad about releasing non stable updates. Fedora is a good easy to use linux, but then again so it gentoo if you can figure out how to compile your own kernel.
3. I can link you a dvd iso of vista home premium sp1 which is what is on that machine. The COA anyway. You can go into the settings and turn Vista into xp with little effort.

If you play games at all, windows is your only hope, as is OSX and Linux are near impossible to get games to run, even remotely stable.

As far as XP, the new sp3 release may possibly load on it because it may have the same driver set vista has, but im not sure.

If i can be of any assistance, pm me or drop me a line on skype/gtalk if im online.

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Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 11:16 pm

Umm apparently it is possible using this method quoted below that i found on another forum >< Also My Mobo apears to support XP ^^

Got a usb floppy drive Squirrel? Maybe injecting them onto the install CD got me to the first reboot since XP is now on the drive its not using CD anymore but still needs the drivers from the floppy to complete the install but since the pc has no floppy drive i can't use this method

And yes games is my main priority and also my reason for avoiding vista as it hogs resources & problems installing older games. Would have to upgrade the thing to get some games running if i use fista

Oh and well im at it i did pirate a copy of XP pro with sp3 and still no luck

Managed to get xp on this machine ok, heres how I did it:

Intially boot with a disk management program, partition manager or similar, and delete all partitions including the original acer recovery partition.....bye bye vista Re format disk as primary, active, NTFS or at least one partition as this if you want to create more than one partition.

Re boot with your copy of xp and press F6 to load SATA drivers when prompted, the required drivers (floppy version, you might need to install a floppy or a usb floppy) can be found here:

SATA Drivers

If the link is dead (will be one day), the board in the M1640 is an MSI P6NGM-FIH or similar, and the SATA drivers for this will do the job if you can find them elsewhere (filename nvidia_mcp73_sataraid_floppy_xp32_mb.zip) they are nvidia mcp73 drivers, there is also an xp 64bit version.

Stick the floppy in when xp requests it and load both the drivers on the floppy disk, leave the disk in until the first re boot during install, it seems to access the drivers 2 or 3 times.

Thats it!

I did get a BSOD during the install first time round but put that down to the recovery partition still being there, once that had been deleted it all went smoothly.

The rest of the xp drivers can be found at the MSI site (link above) and the original vista drivers are here:

Acer Support Site

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 11:30 pm

Nope don't have a USB floppy drive.

Another thing is there is a setting in the bios, I forget what it's called, but it makes the sata emulate as IDE. IT will bust an existing OS install but if it's already busted then it does not really matter.

For kicks maybe try windows 2000 then upgrade to XP. Though I doubt it would work, or even be stable.

Or Linux then windows in a VM.

would probably make games slower though even though the latest vmware supports directX and graphics acceleration.

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Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 11:48 pm

Hmm ive gone through the bois several times and havnt seen anything related to sata to emulate IDE.

Edit: Alright squirrel got it running XP for me

Thanks a bunch

Will start moving files off this pc tomorrow

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 2:30 pm

NP glad I could help.

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onykage · Post by **onykage** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 10:24 am

the board in the M1640 is an MSI P6NGM-FIH

appears i was wrong. oh well, glad you got it working

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Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 4:52 pm

Ya hes good at this stuff ^^

Anyways as far as moving files and installing games/programs well im running into issues here again

I cant get my C&C3 running for whatever reason and some racing games ive got i cant install at all because theres no japanese under the language options for unicode programs. I would also have to install the language if it was there so that would leave me with a non genuine problem >< Kinda puts a damper on my pirate actions as far as games go lol Also the screen is a little laggy when scrolling or moveing a window?

Anyways where do i get updates and stuff like my language unicode etc?

I did manage to get my videos of all types working alright tho. mpeg, avi, mp4, ogm, etc

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:06 pm

For the laggy screen check if hardware acceleration is turned on (right click desktop, properties, settings, advanced, troubleshoot)

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Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 9:11 pm

Red Squirrel wrote: For the laggy screen check if hardware acceleration is turned on (right click desktop, properties, settings, advanced, troubleshoot)

Slider bar is at full? And a check mark on "Enable write combining"

Was already set full but still laggy. When set to all off the lag for windows goes away but my C&C3 needs it on tho C&C isnt working anyway

Othere then the few minor issues listed the computer is good but i really do want my games running >< cant get anything going.

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Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:59 pm

Ok everythings working nicely now the only thing left to get on the pc is my windows live messenger but it wont install because of a windows update it needs so uhh how do i get updates for this non genuine xp?

Normally i would just get a replacement for windows live that i could use as my msn but I would still need to know how to get updates just incase i need somthing in the future

It may not be genuine but im sure M$ got payed for the vista i deleted so its fair

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onykage · Post by **onykage** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:57 pm

trip, why not just buy windows? To my knowledge there really isnt a way to pirate the updates other then directx. If you do some digging you can get a legit copy of xp from england for something like 40 bux. And altho im skeptical, ive heard of people getting english copies from china for 10bux orso.

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Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 12:55 pm

Onykage wrote: trip, why not just buy windows? To my knowledge there really isnt a way to pirate the updates other then directx. If you do some digging you can get a legit copy of xp from england for something like 40 bux. And altho im skeptical, ive heard of people getting english copies from china for 10bux orso.

I think it is 100% plausible to get a copy from anywhere world wide because the only difference if any would be the default language settings. All can be converted to any other language just by installing the proper language packs that are already on the disc that are just not installed by default. Unlike dvd players and consoles, PC's them selfs are region free so any windows would install and windows can change regions and languages if needed to install other programs from over seas. China tho are bad for pirating so it may be a fake for 10$

But why buy? Ive got like 3 copys here that are payed for just cant be used or are unwanted like vista. M$ has bin payed many times over for the same stuff on a new computer and its not like i gave my windows or windows keys away

The only time i update is if its a specific update like stated to get a program running. Old pc has updates and firewall turned right off just has very few minor ones that some programs require to run.

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Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:53 pm

Ok the update my windows live messenger needed was free from windows "BEFORE" it checks if its genuine

Set automatic updates to download but not install and it had one single update that got my MSN working but after that a new list of updates showed up as downloaded but not installed ^^ Think i will stop with just the one freebie so bill doesn't kill my windows

Tho alot of them look like security updates like activex? but also one genuine notification? Not willing to take them lol

So ya anyone that needs that Agent 5.8.02469 update its the first update that windows requires to install updates in fact i don't see why MSN needed it at all??

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Red Squirrel · Post by **Red Squirrel** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 4:10 pm

I don't trust windows updates tbh. I disable that.

Stay behind a NAT router, don't use IE. That's like 95% of your security right there. The other 5% is having an AV and possibly firewall so you can keep track of what goes out, so you can stop apps from calling home.

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Triple6_wild · Post by **Triple6_wild** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 12:43 am

I don't trust M$ updates ether and have always had them turned off also but it seems that one update windows live messenger needed to complete the install.

Since it installs that ONE and only update before checking if its a genuine windows I did get it ^^

As for AV and firewall well I think I still have a cracked copy of nod32 for AV but my sygate version is wayyy out of date so I'm thinking a replacement would be a good idea but whats a decent light weight one?

Router well I haven't been in it since I set it up when I bought it and the only port forwarding I set on my router is utorrent. Don't remember what i did with the rest of the setup.
My sygate firewall used to go off daily for several incoming's though it has never gone off since I got the router unless I denied access myself when prompted for an outgoing request and it's always something I started like a game etc.

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