hi im deciding over a laptop right now but feel uneasy with so many complaints about vista, ive started a VISTA vs XP thread, could you guys take a look as to how things stand right now? what are the pros and cons? im really ocnfused, posts like this just make it worst, thanks

I was wondering if anyone could post a screenshot of their device manager with windows xp install on this laptop, i was successful in installing xp but I have a problem in the device manager, an PCI device shows up with no drivers installed and I can't figure out what it is, I used all the drivers listed in this post for the install, any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I think it may be the modem, but I have tried pointing it to the modem drivers and it says it can't find any drivers for the device. I also noticed that my sound isn't working, any one else have this problem and get it working?

My screenshot

I followed all the instructions to install XP on my crappy new Gateway Laptop with Vista. All is fine - I am working on drivers now. I have the original Vista on C and the XP on F drive. Problem - when I boot up - goes straight to XP - where is my choice to boot to Vista - Thanks

Gateway Laptop - Dual Boot - XP on a system with Vista installed first - works great, but no audio. Have tried just about every driver SigmaTel ever made - still no luck. Gateway seems to have configured the hardware to ONLY work on the original system setup that Gateway did. Any other ideas from anyone (other than not to buy Gateway again). Thanks

Just a brief update from me since I posted above late last month:

My laptop continues to work flawlessly without exception, however there remains indication I have an improper driver for the MSC (mass storage controller).

I have tried everything I can think of to beat this problem back; nothing has worked so far.

As I wrote above, I did the XP install obtaining the SATA driver from a USB-connected floppy. Has anyone else had success with this approach, or did you all slipstream with n-Lite?

If nobody else has been 100% successful using the floppy approach, I may have to go back to square one, start from scratch, and slipstream.

macdave said:The MSC could be a card reader or some other controller on the board.

Thank you!

That never even occurred to me, yet obviously you are correct. I was just fixated on the SATA HDD, equating it to this MSC issue.

I have never used or messed with my card reader, so I would not know if it was working or not. I'll bet it's NOT!

Thanks again.

EDIT

Later:

Special thanks to you, macdave, you put me on a path to success. Thanks entirely to your tip, my XP installation is now 100% complete and clean, with an absolutely pristine device manager.

For anyone else with MSC installation woes:

The key is to download file D20003-003-001 at the Gateway website. This file will install itself into your C:\cabs file. D20003-003-001 is what you need in order correctly to install the MSC.

My problem was that, for reasons which remain unknown, I never had installed D20003-003-001 into my computer. And of course I WAS thinking the dilemma was with my HDD controller. This was 100% wrong.

Success after such a long effort, and after so many tries and flaming failures, sure is sweet!!

Okay, for anyone who is still having trouble with the sound here is how I got it working (this assumes you've already downloaded the audio driver "D00758-001-001" and XP tells you there isn't hardware present on the system for that driver or something like that):

1) Install all the other drivers so there are no visible question marks in the device manager list

2) expand the "System devices" entry, and locate "Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio" and double click it. It was easy for me to find because it was the only entry in that list that had an exclamation point. I didn't notice it before because I always had the list minimized.

3) Choose "reinstall driver" (or something that lets you choose a driver)

4) point the driver to the folder "C:\cabs\D00758-001-001\WDM" and click "OK" or "next" or whatever button means "go on" (don't remember exactly)

5) This should install and suddenly you'll have 2 more question marks "show up" in the main device list: The audio and the modem.

6) Install the driver under C:\cabs\D00758-001-001\ by clicking "Setup" and it should install with no reboot! (the reboot seems to happen when it isn't working correctly)

And that should be it! You'll probably want to install the modem as well, but I saw so many issues with the audio I decided to post this. Hope this helps somebody.