Win XP on a Dell Win 7 PC

fwor

I'm trying to help a blind PC user out with a new PC, and starting to think I'm between a rock and a hard place...

Problem is that the user has some old, expensive hardware - such as an Index Braille machine - that has no drivers for Win 7, and also knows all the shortcut keystrokes for Outlook Express and so really doesn't want to have to learn a new email client.

It's a Dell Inspiron 560MT desktop PC which came with Win 7 Home Premium pre-loaded, so what I'm trying to do is a dual-boot install of Win XP Home using the licence key from their old PC (the logic being that they can easily move to Win 7 when support ceases for XP or the old peripherals stop working).

I've got as far as shrinking the Win 7 partition, creating a new one and installing XP on it, but that's where I hit trouble - if I go to Dell's website, they have NO XP DEVICE DRIVERS for the motherboard devices. Only Vista and Win 7. Am I completely stuffed here? I thought about trying the Vista drivers, but I can't believe that's going to work with XP.

Any suggestions (other than give up)?

KillerWatt

http://driverpacks.net/ always works for me, however you will need to integrate them in to your Windows XP CD.

fwor

KillerWatt wrote: »

http://driverpacks.net/ always works for me, however you will need to integrate them in to your Windows XP CD.

Why do you need to integrate them into the CD? My XP install is complete and I can get it to run (finally) without blue screening - it's just that 6 of the system devices show as no driver installed.

debitcardmayhem

Hmmm, how about installing as a virtual M/C using Virtualbox or VMWare. Failing that I have an old M/C I would gladly donate, or perhaps the RNIB may help

fwor

Thanks for the kind offer, but I think that the friend who bought a new PC for this particular user would not be happy if I don't get it working in some way!

A VM would be fine for me, but an absolute no for this user. Just getting them to understand the concept would be too difficult.

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

or perhaps the RNIB may help

That's who I work for (on a voluntary basis). They rely on the local authorities helping, but there's no money there now.

fwor

KillerWatt wrote: »

http://driverpacks.net/ always works for me, however you will need to integrate them in to your Windows XP CD.

Looks like this may be the way to go - can you say for sure that it's safe and virus-free? I don't mind taking risks with my own PCs, but for someone in their position I can't afford to take any chance that they will end up owned by a botnet...

debitcardmayhem

fwor wrote: »

Thanks for the kind offer, but I think that the friend who bought a new PC for this particular user would not be happy if I don't get it working in some way!

A VM would be fine for me, but an absolute no for this user. Just getting them to understand the concept would be too difficult.



That's who I work for (on a voluntary basis). They rely on the local authorities helping, but there's no money there now.

How about XP compatibility mode ? (rather than XP Mode on Win 7) does the braille machine come with a driver disk/utilities ? Silly questions I know cos you aren't a PC novice

KillerWatt

fwor wrote: »

Why do you need to integrate them into the CD?

Because they get installed as part of Windows, the blurb on the intro page tells you that.

fwor wrote: »

My XP install is complete and I can get it to run (finally) without blue screening - it's just that 6 of the system devices show as no driver installed.

If it was blue screening on a clean install, there is something wrong.

As far as drivers go, if you don't like the idea of stripping a Windows disc down and rebuilding it then the only other thing you can do is visit the manufacturers website of whatever hardware you have and see if they are still providing XP drivers.

For example, if the mobo has an Intel chipset then go to the Intel site and get the chipset drivers - that will get motherboard devices such as that SM Bus Controller sorted.

Same for video, sound, etc.

GunJack

I've used driver max in situations such as these with pretty good results....I know some folks remember it from the bad old days, but it's a reasonable prog now

KillerWatt

fwor wrote: »

Looks like this may be the way to go - can you say for sure that it's safe and virus-free? I don't mind taking risks with my own PCs, but for someone in their position I can't afford to take any chance that they will end up owned by a botnet...

The driverpacks are 100% virus free, they aim themselves at corporate IT bods so they ain't gonna shoot themselves with such a lame attempt at hacking via a driverpack.

If you happen to catch something while downloading it via a torrent though, that's your lookout

I've created quite a few Windows install discs in my time (including some seriously modded ones), so if you get stuck then feel free to holler.

fwor

KillerWatt wrote: »

If it was blue screening on a clean install, there is something wrong.

That bit's Ok - it was blue screening during the install because the mobo has a SATA chipset that is too new to be built into XP. I got over that by hitting F6 and installing a SATA driver from the Dell driver CD that came with it.

KillerWatt wrote: »

As far as drivers go, if you don't like the idea of stripping a Windows disc down and rebuilding it then the only other thing you can do is visit the manufacturers website of whatever hardware you have and see if they are still providing XP drivers.

For example, if the mobo has an Intel chipset then go to the Intel site and get the chipset drivers - that will get motherboard devices such as that SM Bus Controller sorted.

Same for video, sound, etc.

You're probably right there. I don't think the stripping down process will work - I only have one XP Home install CD and it's badly damaged (someone has gouged right through the top surface on the outer third of it, so I don't think I can copy it). Past experience with Intel has been good, but I doubt I'll be so lucky with Realtek and the rest.

Still, a few options for me to go at tomorrow - thanks again for the help.