De-Vista-fying Gateway MT6458: Marvell TOPDOG 802.11n driver??? 1

[wahnula]

Hello,

I am cross-posting this in the PC Hardware forum, I know we are not supposed to do this but I am desperate. This Gateway MT6458 (Turion TL50, ATI RS485M) notebook was purchased by a co-worker upon recommendation from a slimeball Best Buy salesman, who was told how it would be used, it was for his hospital-bound disabled wife. Asking a 100% competent person tho learn a new OS is hard enough; in her condition it would be a paperweight. Its "Vista Experience" was 2.1, I think. Woof.

I asked him to return it for an XP model, but he did not want to pay the 15% restocking fee, plus the salesman told him it would be fine by the end of the year...but he did not tell him his printer and scanner would not work with it nor that he could not join the company Domain with Vista Home...GRRRR

Anyway, I have done all the standard steps:

Index hardware
Clone Vista drive
Load XP
Hunt-and-peck for drivers

I have done this several times with Gateway and others with excellent results, but I have found a nut I cannot crack: The built-in wireless NIC, a Marvell TOPDOG PCI-Express 802.11n Wireless Adapter [EC85]

I thought I had hit paydirt at the Marvell site that had an XP driver for the TOPDOG, but all it did within XP was identify the device, and Windows noted it would not work properly. "Wireless Network Connection" does not appear in Network Connections. Device Manager reports it as "Marvell TOPDOG PCI-Express 802.11abgn Wireless" but it still has the yellow !. The other PCI-E device, the Marvel Yukon NIC, is working fine, so I doubt it is a bus issue. There are no other !s in Device Manager and I must say it is a peppy PC w/ XP, with Vista it was a DOG, and not a topdog!

I have also tried every wireless adapter driver on Gateway's site, Realtek, Broadcom, as well as tried to run the Vista driver. No joy.

Thanks folks.

Tony

 

[linney]

Some near misses, clues, and other suggestions in here, might be worth a read if you haven't already checked it out.


XP Drivers for a Gateway w/Vista?
thread779-1329243:

 

[wahnula]

linney,

Yes, that was the #3 page in my first Google search! I had high hopes for the Realtek driver listed there by Kloud, visited all the links. If I could find out the TopDog chip vendor (I believe there's only a handful of wireless radio chipmakers) I could have a shot at that, I have a call and email into Marvell for that info.

At this point I appreciate any lead! Changing the PCI-E card is always a possibility too...

Tony

 

[wahnula]

There comes a time to cut your losses...Marvell did not return my calls or emails, the very first panel I opened on the bottom of the laptop contained the mini-PCIe wireless card...looked amazingly similar to this:

http://www.directron.com/4965agn.html

so I gave the Intel drivers a try. Nope. Anyway one is on the way, these are available NOWHERE except Directron. My time is valuable and so is wireless connectivity...with any luck I'll recoup something for the TopDog on eBay.

Thanks linney for giving it the old college try!

Tony

 

[ekernelfire]

For those who are still on the ardous search of the topdog drivers for xp try that website should be somewhere close to the bottom of the page =D

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/marvell.htm

 

[qwerty90]

Those drivers unfortunately don't seem to work, ekernelfire.

 

[wahnula]

Agreed, they are the equivalent of the Marvell-supplied drivers. For anyone finding this post and looking for help with this issue please visit the cross-post at:

thread602-1376645

It keeps popping up, there's information on the general Vista-to-XP conversion but I doubt we'll see a working TopDog driver anytime soon.

Tony

 

[SirBlack]

This is not a PC solution but my first recommendation would be to return to Best Buy & put up a big stink, preferably while many customers are within earshot. Insist on talking to a supervisor if you get nowhere with the clerk. If problem still not resolved satisfactoraly, demand to speak to the store manager. Write letters to Best Buy Customer Services, Gateway, even to Computer mags like PC World complaining about your problem. As my Grandfather said, "The squeaky wheel get's the grease" (I know, he wasn't the only one to say that ).You might be able to convince them to to install XP on that laptop or even give you an even swap for another with XP.
I've been warning family, friends etc., not to be too quick in upgrading to Vista until MS gets al the glitches out.
Cheers!
Bob

 

[wahnula]

Bob,

Good advice, but the fact is that retail outlets are under tremendous pressure to get Vista out in the marketplace. Plus, my co-worker was assured that by the end of the year it would all be fine. Most people don't know enough technically to hold their own in an argument with a tech salesperson. And XP installation is not an option for this laptop.

I agree he should have made more of a stink, but the options they offered were all unacceptable (15% restocking fee, more expensive machine etc.),and none of them included an XP machine. Many people don't have it in them to be aggressive (believe me I would have been) and the corollary to your proverb is "The squeaky wheel gets replaced"

Unfortunately there is no good news from major retailers, but Dell is re-offering XP on custom machines due to customer demand, so at least that's something.

All in all, it turned out to be better for my friend, as I had a spare XP license and the new card was about the same after shipping as his 15% restocking fee, plus he got a MUCH better PC without all the shovelware + XPpro runs like a banshee compared to Vista.

And yes, getting the word out about Vista to friends and relatives is critical...BEFORE they walk in a store.

Tony

 

[SirBlack]

Glad to hear all worked out to some degree! People are amazed at Vista, basically it's nothing but 'eye candy'. The real amazement comes when they get it home & try running it in a real environment (my son being one of them). I've been busy helping a lot of dissatisfied Vista upgraders who wished they listened to my or anyone else's advice over some sales clerk. Oh well! It's money in my pocket. I've been running XP Pro for 4 years now & see no big need to change (wife is still running Win98SE, had to build her a new system as she refused to learn XP). If I need to replace 1 of our systems, I'll shop around for a new computer with XP (even though MS plans on supporting it only for a few more years). If I can't find one that suits my needs, I'll build one from scratch & install XP.
Cheers,
Bob