XP Drivers for a Gateway w/Vista? 11

[Allen455]

Hi,
I have a Gateway MT3705 laptop, purchased yesterday at Best Buy, which came with Vista preloaded. I played around with it a lot yesterday, but I came to the conclusion that Vista just isn't solid enough for my needs yet (though the eye candy is definitely cool!).

So I want to go back to XP Pro, but I can't find the right XP drivers for many of the devices, as Gateway seems to only support Vista for their new models. Argh.

The video issue is easy enough, and I got ATI Catalyst drivers for the xpress 200m inside.

But beyond that, this is proving to be a real headache. I still need drivers for my modem, sound card, ethernet, and wifi controllers. There's an integrated media card reader that would be nice to get working, too...

Does anybody have ideas on how I could track these down, given the lack of drivers on the Gateway website?

This page has a list of the components and part numbers and stuff, but it's all integrated chips and stuff, so I can't download the drivers from the manufacturers' own sites.

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2007/Apache/1014142Rcl6.shtml

Any ideas would be really welcomed!

Oh, one idea I had is that if there are similar models that were released like last month, but with XP instead of Vista, their support pages should have the proper drivers... anyone know such model numbers?

Thanks a ton!
Allen

 

[jdesants]

Hey guys:

First time here on this group. Anyway, I have found all the drivers for the gateway mt6456 laptop except for the wireless card. I have the drivers burnt to a disc, so if anyone needs a specific one, let me know. I did however get around the Wireless N Marvell Topdog card. I ebayed an intel 3945ABG mini PCI-E card. Plopped it in and loaded drivers, works like a champ. It just cost an extra $20 on top of the cost of the laptop, but oh well, life goes on. Let me know if you are in need of any of the drivers other than the factory WLAN card.

 

[joehahn]

I am installing WinXP Pro to a Gateway MT6451, and Gateway offers no driver support except the ATI video card. I used Kloud's info for the sound and wired NIC, but this had a Broadcom wireless NIC with the BCM4311 chip, Google search on that chip found a driver and that driver worked. For the MASS STORAGE driver, I used the media card reader driver for Vista from the Gateway Website for the MT6451. It all works and no warnings in the Device manager. But what a pain, this was about 6 hrs of work to step back in time to WinXP. I installed a fresh hard drive first and will put the original drive back in when Vista comes of age in the business world. Thanks to all for the posts.

 

[xflatlinex]

Jdesants,
Can you please let me know where and how I can get those drivers.
Thank you sooooooooooooo much

 

[jdesants]

xflatlinex,

I will zip up all the drivers, (- the wlan card) and post them online, I will post an address to download them in a little bit.

Jon

 

[jdesants]

xflatlinex,

Go to this link, and you can download each driver, I have zipped them up to make them smaller.

http://public.box.net/jdesants33267

Have fun.

Jon

 

[lnphoenix]

Thanks jdesants for the files. I have everything works for my son Gateway MT6451 except I could not find any driver for the wireless. I got the Radeon Express 1150 video driver from ATI/AMD website.

Joehahn, since mine and yours are the same model, can you send me the driver of the Broadcom BCM4311? I used Google and couldn't find any.

Thanks

 

[lnphoenix]

joehahn, never mind. I found at Gateway support site the driver link below that did the job. Basically my Gateway wireless is Broadcom 1390 (chipset is BCM4311) so that driver should work and it does. Finally my son's Gateway MT6451 is working in WinXP Pro. He doesn't have to go to the toilet while waiting for Vista to boot up and being nagged constantly by Vista virus and bugs. To summarize what I did to convert Vista to XP on Gateway laptop model Mt6451, here are the steps:

1) Buy a new 120GB laptop hard drive so I don't mess with Vista on the original drive (Optional)
2) Download jdesants files at the link above
3) Go to ATI/AMD site and download the Video driver Radeon Express 1150 and dual core optimizer. If you use WinXP hot fix for dual core, you don't need AMD dual core optimizer.
4) Go to the link to Gateway support below and download the wireless driver and utility.
5) Put every thing from step 2 to 4 to a flash drive
6) Set up your XP laptop.
7) Hasta la Vista.

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?st=pn&param=6003073R

 

[granvillegayle]

Has anyone found the XP Drivers for the WLAN (TopDog Draft 802.11n) for the Gateway MT6456?

I got everything else to work thanks to this thread.

 

[deepdivndoc]

I have two gateway MX8734's bought at Best Buy, they came pre-loaded with Vista, but I didn't want Vista on them, not compatable with company applications. So I have rolled them back to Win XP Pro with SP2. At first the drivers were an issue, but I also had a fairly new MX6959 that had alot of the same hardware, I found this out by comparing vista drivers for the 6959 and the 8734's at gateways site and when the vista drivers matched, I downloaded the XP drivers for the 6959 and applied them to the 8734's also did a lot of searching on intels site for the correct drivers and also at realtek. The 6959 audio drivers, modem drivers and video drivers, as well as SATA controller drivers and media card drivers worked on the 8734's. If anyone needs help with these, just let me know and I will be glad to send them to you to try.

Steve

 

[lnphoenix]

If you have problem with ATI Catalyst driver 7.4 on Radeon Xpress 1150 Gateway's laptop (the problem source is ati2dvag.dll), complete uninstalling the Catalyst driver and roll back to 7.3 using graphic driver only without Catalyst. I fixed my GT6451 this way.

 

[mocars2]

Windows XP drivers:

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?param=MX3702+&st=kw

these from thrillir are the right ones for the MT6456 right?
ANd do I need more than the 5 files that jdesants gave (thankss) like controllers or anything.
Also being new here I see things said like I'll send you this file,,, but I don't see how to communicate with other folks here since you can't PM them or anything - how can I write someone?
thanks
Chuck

 

[jdesants]

mocars2:

These are all the drivers necessary except for the wlan card in the 6456. I have been working on trying to get an xp driver for the topdog n card for months now to no avail. I called and complained to gateway, they dont care, I called marvell, they dont work with the end user. Dont get me wrong, we love the laptop, strong machine, just cant use the internal wireless. Have fun, enjoy.

 

[granvillegayle]

Thanks jdesants.

I had downloaded these from you before (after reading through the thread). Tried Marvell as well and they gave me the same story....talk to Gateway!!

What a bummer...I really like the machine myself, but Vista is the downfall!! Resource requirements are ridiculous!

Anyway, I will keep trying.

 

[mocars2]

granvillegayle - did you get xp going on your item? What model do you have - the MT6456?

 

[granvillegayle]

mocars2 - I got everything except the wireless card working. I re-installed Vista so I would need to re-test with the new driver for the wireless.

 

[mocars2]

granvillegayle - What NEW driver for wless? Are you giving up on XP or did you put Vista back just to check this driver?

 

[granvillegayle]

I can't operate without the wireless so I put Vista back on in the interim, until I sorted this out.

I found a Marvell wireless driver on their website (but gave me some problems re: yellow exclamation sign on device).

I also found another one @ the link for the 3702 in your previous post...but not sure if this will work for XP either.

 

[mocars2]

I can understand your need for wireless. I have one of those usb wireless adapters that should work before I get a replacement card.

 

[mocars2]

granvillegayle - after re-reading this thread, there are so many models listed I just want to make sure of things before i start. You have a mt6456 right and you used the 5 files from jdesants at

http://public.box.net/jdesants33267.

Is that it. Just format the drive- install xp pro - let it find everything - put those 5 files on a disk - and that's it (except for the wless card) or am I missing a step or 2?

I see the mt3702; 3705; 5405; 6451 so the 3702 do work for the 6456? I'm starting to lose it here.

 

[granvillegayle]

mocars2 - Just use the files from

http://public.box.net/jdesants33267

. That's what I did and they all worked fine...I think I downloaded the video driver directly from ATI (now AMD).

Of course with the exception of the Wireless driver.

What I am doing is trying some other Marvell wireless drivers that work on the models mentioned to see if they will work on the MT6456. If I have anu sucess I will post.