DeVista-fying Gateway MT6458: Marvell TOPDOG driver??? 9

[wahnula]

Hello,

I am cross-posting this in the XP 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

 

[mocars2]

Has anyone tried lonebirch idea or his step by step plans?

Tony - how do you do this - 1. The 'Wireless Zero Configuration' Service in the Windows 'Computer Management Console' must be set to 'Automatic' startup type.
thanks

 

[wahnula]

mocars

Go here:

http://www.marvell.com/drivers/search.do

choose "PC Connectivity" and "Yukon" and Windows XP" and use driver 10.22.7.3

Here's how to set up Wireless Zero Configuration:

http://tech.ifelix.net/2007.html

Tony

 

[mocars2]

Tony - you're the best.
Now what about lonebirch - 'NETMW145.sys' any need for this?

 

[mocars2]

Tony - isn't this - choose "PC Connectivity" and "Yukon" and Windows XP" and use driver 10.22.7.3
just for the LAN wired port?

 

[wahnula]

isn't this - choose "PC Connectivity" and "Yukon" and Windows XP" and use driver 10.22.7.3
just for the LAN wired port?

Yes. That's the Yukon, the other, wireless animal is called the TopDog. Truthfully, the laptop has been out of my hands since June, I've since sold the Topdog on eBay, and would advise anyone still fighting with the Topdog to spend the $45 to replace it with the known-to-work plug-and-play Intel.

lonebirch has a gmail address, but you'll have to guess what it is

Do you think this thread can make 100 posts???

Tony

 

[mocars2]

Tony - Yep I know you don't have it anymore and you got the replacement card - but even with that you still have info that has helped and clarified things for me.

I did put in that Netgear driver (sys) and it might work. I don't have any wireless connections around me right now so I won't know until later, but I now have a wireless network connection in the network connection area. He might have got this thing working - time will tell.

 

[mocars2]

Well it just wouldn't find any networks. I then took out the Netgear using the remove software and that also got rid of the wireless connection. I then tried to do the zero configuration and it was already set up as auto.
So now I'm back to the start where xp has found new hardware.
Why when I removed the software did the connection not found anymore - I thought and reread him saying you didn't need it anymore and that it needed xp to run it not a 3rd party?

 

[kjv1611]

When you uninstalled the software, it must've uninstalled the driver with it. If you can find ONLY the driver file, and tell Windows to use that driver, then you'll be able to use XP for configuration, and still have a working driver.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[burtsbees]

I have the drivers...try ftp://70.237.229.142
I just made that and put in a folder called XP drivers, and zipped it as one file as well. The two files you want are yk51x86.inf and yk51x86.sys, in the XP drivers folder.

Burt

 

[burtsbees]

Not working yet...hang on...

Burt

 

[mocars2]

Burt - try mailing them to me at awacky99-at-hotmail.com and I'll see if it workes. Now you have the mt6458 or MT6456 and you are saying it is the topdog card and it works for you?

 

[Blackfox122]

Hey Tony I have been working on a gateway laptop for about three weeks it is a m-series model m-1615 i dont see much of anything out there about downgrading to xp pro it came loaded with the o/s SHISTA i mean vista lol. well a friend of mine bought this laptop for almost 1500.00 at badbuy and the stupid sales man told him that u could not load xp on this laptop that doing so would destroy the hd and damage the RAM when my friend told me that i started to roll no software i ever installed or o/s for that matter has ever done that im typing this useing his laptop. no vista xp only prob with this setup is no sound or video card driver to suport on this laptop

 

[burtsbees]

I have an MT6821, which has a Marvel Yukon 88E8038 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller...

Burt

 

[burtsbees]

I have an ftp server at home that works, but my laptop is at work, and I have to buy a jump-drive to transfer the files. I will, but I can't until Monday...wife in Florida on vacation, stuck here with my 2 and 3 yr old boys...well, stuck only because Missouri is NOT Florida...

Burt

 

[wahnula]

only prob with this setup is no sound or video card driver to suport on this laptop

Look up a few posts where I talk about:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888111

Also list the audio & video devices someone might be able to help.

I am readying to enter this pit agaim as my wife's $800 Win XP Lenovo, from Newegg, was destroyed in shipment. There are no more. I'm getting a refund from Newegg (gasp)and am actually getting a Lenovo w/ Vista Business (great if her company ever migrates, right now her Citrix VPN is 200-XP only) and deVistafying another. FIRST THING I DID WAS GO TO LENOVO SITE, ENTER THE PART NUMBER, AND SEARCH FOR XP DRIVERS.

They are all there, including that Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) High Definition Audio class driver, so hopefully it will be a hobbyist retrofit, with everyting going as planned, and not a frisbee-the-laptop-into-the-backyard experience.

Does anyone but me find it strange that I can get a better CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 vs. 1.50), HDD (160GB vs 80 GB), and added bluetooth for $50 less if I pick the model with Vista???

Marketing. We're used to it by now. Oh well I'll post back when the deed is done, or if I get stuck as before. I paid $20 extra for overnight shipping giving them two less days to trash it.


Tony

"If it can't take it, I don't want it

 

[burtsbees]

Does anyone but me find it strange that I can get a better CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 vs. 1.50), HDD (160GB vs 80 GB), and added bluetooth for $50 less if I pick the model with Vista??? "

Funny how they offer XP anymore...but yes---Shista is cheaper, but only since they have had all the trouble with it...this is more trouble than what Service Pack 2 originally caused!!!

Burt

 

[wahnula]

Believe me, XP is still out there and being offered...at a premium, it is now officially impossible to find in the budget sector. Look at an HP catalog...it's a $99 upgrade, er, downgrade, er service charge.

BTW people still having trouble with Gateways might want to try poking around Acer's site, since Acer bought out Gateway last year I'll bet they're sharing some hardware. Maybe Acer will have better support?

Tony

"If it can't take it, I don't want it

 

[burtsbees]

Good point, Tony.

Burt

 

[wiccedwiccan]

Hi all, just wanted everyone to know that I have a gateway MT6458 with the topdog wireless card and that I did a dual boot with Vista and XP pro and that the answer lonebirch gave does in fact work. I installed the netgear software, went into device manager and chose to update the driver from what was located in the program files\netgear folder and was good to go. Almost nothing I had to do. Windows whined that it wasn't a signed driver but it had no issue. Windows set itself up to manage the driver itself so nothing to uninstall/change. I installed the wireless and video driver and decided to come post here to let people know that it did in fact work and I'm about to proceed to wiping both installs and going with an xp only setup.

One other thought, I just realized how good it feels to be saying goodbye to vista after having it for over a month

Yay!!!!

 

[mocars2]

Burt wrote

I have an MT6821, which has a Marvel Yukon 88E8038 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller...

Isn't that for the CAT 5 WIRED PORT - not the wireless set up that everyone is looking for - or have I lost it?