Acer Gemstone and Windows XP
I bought a laptop a while ago to prepare for my exchange to Japan - the Acer Aspire 5920 “Gemstone”.
She’s a nice laptop, with all the Santa Rosa bells and whistles, if a bit on the heavy side (3.0kg), and pretty fast too, considering the 3.2~3.4k 3dmark06 score (my desktop PC scores a piddly 1.4k). However, Vista, which came bundled with the laptop itself, wasn’t exactly as snappy as I liked it even after I removed all the cruft that Acer put in, and I found using Vista itself to be pretty unwieldy.
So I thought I’d put XP on her too, and jot down over here what it took to get everything going, although hopefully I won’t have to do this again (crosses fingers). Eh, who am I kidding…
1. XP’s installation CD won’t detect the laptop’s HDD, because it’s on SATA. Since the Gemstone doesn’t come with a floppy drive I had to slipstream the SATA drivers onto the CD.
To get the drivers, I had to download the Intel Storage Matrix drivers for the Mobile Intel® PM965 Express Chipset and install them in Vista. This extracts the archive into C:\Programs\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager, and in there there should be a Driver directory with the required drivers. I tried extracting the driver archive with uniextractor and winrar, but this was the only way I could access the stuff in the archive.
1.1 When slipstreaming the SATA driver there’re a few to choose from. The Gemstone uses the ICH8R SATA controller. I also slipstreamed the INF update that was available on the Intel website as well.
2. Install XP as usual on the second partition D:. After installation completes, I can only boot in XP.
3. Restore the Vista bootloader by using VistaBootPRO. Under the System Bootloader tab, select Windows Vista Bootloader (Uninstall Legacy Bootloader) and All Drives. Then, after it’s done, run the diagnostics. If there’s a red entry for “Previous Windows Version”, set the boot drive to the drive that NTLDR is on (C:\). This let me dual-boot Vista and XP.
4. Install drivers for the rest of the hardware.
Video drivers: I used the 162.18 drivers on laptopvideo2go for XP. (Edit: Added the link. Make sure to read the guides on how to install them.)
Sound drivers: Realtek High Definition Audio Codec Drivers.
Network Drivers: Intel Wireless 3945ABG. Wasn’t this supposed to have 4965AGN!?
Webcam Drivers: The “Suyin” directory in C:\Drv contained XP drivers.
Synaptic Touchpad: Again, C:\Drv contained XP drivers for the touchpad, although the directory name slips my mind. This lets the touch media keys work in XP.
Bluetooth Drivers: The “BTW” directory in C:\Drv contained only Vista drivers. However, turning on the Bluetooth and then manually pointing XP to the folder containing the 32-bit drivers installed them succesfully. Preliminary bluetooth communication with my mobile seems ok.
CIR Drivers: The “CIR” directory in C:\Drv contained only Vista drivers. The device in the control panel is the last one that reads “Unknown Device”. Manually updating the driver by pointing XP to the folder installed the succesfully - however, I have the device disabled atm.
Ricoh 5 in 1 Card Reader: Unfortunately I couldn’t find any provided drivers in the Drv directory. However, working drivers can be found on the HP driver website - SP33604.exe.
Modem: I couldn’t be bothered with this and disabled it. This probably uses the Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture Bus Driver.
Maybe someone else’ll find this useful too, heh.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:03 am
Wow, sounds liek lots of work with dualboot. D:
July 28th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
i’m having the same problem on a sony vaio with the same chipset, vista is not an option for an audio workstation. a shame that the xp setup doesnt see the cardreaders in the laptop. gonna try that slipstream thingy and see if that worx. thanx for posting this, so yeah someone found it usefull ;)
July 28th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
found a shorter way, an external usb floppy drive and a tool from intel to make a driverdisk
July 29th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
Glad to see someone found it useful :)
I don’t have a USB floppy, so this was all I could do.
August 7th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Hi. thanks for this publication. But its secure to use non-official drivers?. The hardware can be broken? I can’t lost the Acer’s warranty?.
And, this realtek drivers runs correctly in XP? Some people tested that sound not runs in xp nwith this ACER 5920g :(.
Xcuse my playschool english :P.
Lot of thanks for your attention.
August 7th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
If you’re talking about the card reader, those drivers are the official Ricoh drivers, so they’re safe. However, I believe that somoene posted on notebookreview that Acer won’t support using XP on the notebook, so if XP breaks they won’t help you. I’m not sure if this means they’ll not help you with Vista also (they should!).
I can confirm that the realtek drivers work.
August 15th, 2007 at 3:27 am
The other option of course is to install a tiny linux partition, and use grub for dual booting goodness
August 15th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Yars, but I think you need to install Linux last - Vista’s installation switches the drive letters around and installs the new vista bootloader, which overwrites the MBR, so if you don’t do GRUB’s installation last you’ll have a lot of fiddling around to do.
August 18th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Can you do a direct link to the video drivers you used, I’m not seeing any that work :(
August 19th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Ok, linked.
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:27 pm
thanks men all of this works fine for me
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:27 pm
the touchpad buttons how it works?
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Can you upload your C:\drv folder onto megaupload or something, and post the link here, I deleted that folder yesterday (was going for a completely blank install), and can’t get it back
August 24th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
which sound card drivers did u use? because i cannot install any!! tried 6 different versions already.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
heeeeeeeeeeeeeelp
August 25th, 2007 at 11:34 am
ok no problems.
sound fixed
just a clean reinstall of windows xp and all works.
ps if you reply to found new hardware wizards during install the sound will be permamently locked as a critical system device u cant remove and cant update the drivers for….
August 26th, 2007 at 4:30 am
vladmiir can you upload the drivers you used for the touchpad please?
August 26th, 2007 at 7:35 am
HI, after install XP SP2 in this 5920g i can’t power down the laptop (it stays on the windows is powering down screen). Someone can help me please?? what version of XP did you used that runs correctly?
August 26th, 2007 at 11:54 am
i just used the default drivers from the acer site
they work with xp, just make sure u dont have the touchpad disabled via the hardware switch (fn and f7)
ps i used windows xp professional service pack 2
August 26th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
I’m not providing drivers or support, just a log of what I did to get XP working - I’m sorry, but I simply don’t have the time to troubleshoot what issues you have with your 5920g. I’d advise you to restore your PC using a recovery disk to get C:\drv back, or perhaps consult Acer.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Nah, its on the acer website, don’t worry. This seemed to be the only place on the intarweb where somebody has actually got an acer 5920 working with xp :(
Don’t want to bother you too much :/
August 27th, 2007 at 10:00 am
and it works beautifully too
September 9th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
There’s no need for extra drivers. Just go to bios and change SATA mode from AHCI to IDE ;-)
September 10th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
vladimir, how did you manage to run the sound in xp on your acer?
I’ve been struggling with this issue a lot recently, but no use installing subsequent Realtek drivers.
The configuration is blocked pernamently as you have written.
September 10th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Bergi:
Yes, you can do that after flashing your bios, but I bought my Gemstone early and that wasn’t an option when I wrote this post.
September 11th, 2007 at 5:25 am
Hi All,
Has anyone there can help me install audio drivers for Aspire 5920g under XP+SP2.
Sound doesn’t work even though I tried different Realtek drivers - the last one was WDM_R176.
I also installed Intel Chipset drivers before proceeding with audio drivers.
I think I do something wrong every time I install new drivers.
The audio tab is grayed out permanently.
THanks in advance.
September 11th, 2007 at 9:07 am
About extracting the files from the setup. all you have to do is navigate to the folder where you have setup.exe and run this “setup.exe /a, then you have to accept the term in the installer popup window and the drivers will be installed to th c:\program files\intel
but this way, nothing is added to the registry etc..
handy when trying to get the driver on a machine that has NO intel hw, like mine:P
as for slipstreaming the sata driver, well, the ICH8R didnt work for me, so i just added them all exept the workstation and desktop files.. and it work.
now i have to install xp and see how it all works, and i REALLY would like to update that bios,,shame acer only has winflash utils….
September 12th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
If you download latest nvidea drivers from laptop2go and powerdvd, you can use the purevideo function of nvidea on windows xp.
:)
September 13th, 2007 at 12:19 am
does ANYONE know how to turn the fan speed down under XP ? I’m idling and the fans are still humming. thanks a bunch for any help you can dish out.
September 21st, 2007 at 9:06 am
I was really upset I couldn’t find a laptop with XP. I guess I’ll go get this one after all, and put xp into it. Great news !
October 4th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
My issue is with the Bluetooth. I had to wipe Vista home for Vista Business. Everything else seems to have loaded fine but my bluetooth is not working. If I try loading drivers for it, it gets to a certain point then tells me it can’t detect the device.
October 12th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Hi all,
forst of all ty all for hint !
Now i’ve wiped out my Vista Ultimate and reinstalled Xp !
But i can only run it as IDE (bios has been ugrded !).
But now i CANNOT change in WinXP (and then in BIOS - HD mode IDE/AHCI) the drivers from WinXP…
Anyone did resolve that issue ?
Anyway, is a SATA mode extremely faster than IDE mode ?!?!?
If the difference is minimal, i can leave my HDD in IDE mode…
Thansk in advance !
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:12 am
OK, so I am a bit confused… Did everything said to include SATA drivers (”This extracts the archive into C:\Programs\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager, and in there there should be a Driver directory with the required drivers”), and there was some indeed. But, when I slipstreamed them into XP SP2 installation, NOTHING happened, i.e. the installation stopped again with “no storage device found blah-blah”…
A little bit of what I-ve missed, please? Thanx.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:54 am
Sorry, my bad… Read carefully, guys, so you wont miss anything…
Thank you, Fjodor (”as for slipstreaming the sata driver, well, the ICH8R didnt work for me, so i just added them all exept the workstation and desktop files.. and it work.”).
October 27th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I couldn’t setup audio until i I fixed the PCI bus (windows found the driver automaticaly). After i fixed PCI bus windows detect several devices among with the sound.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
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December 3rd, 2007 at 6:01 am
Hey guys…i was interested to read all of the above. I recently removed vista from my 5920G and replaced it with XP. If you are having problems installing or with sound try -Black XP 4.1- worked a treat straight up as a clean install. Remaining drivers can be obtained from acer website. She flies now….
December 15th, 2007 at 9:47 am
with digital cameras we get nice shots , what will we do without them ! .
December 15th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
December 16th, 2007 at 4:38 am
please helm me,i have acer aspire 5920 but operating system i have vista and this one is a rally shit,i want to install xp but i dont have drivers and if anybody knows from where can i download everything write me pls
this is my mail:bibo_levani@yahoo.com
December 21st, 2007 at 5:50 am
Hey, I finally got XP running on my 5920 with sound. The slipstream method works great for installing the SATA drivers. XP easily installed then, but I was plagued with no sound. This is what I did. After clean install of XP install the drivers you download for the 5920 from Intel, Acer, etc. After you have installed the drivers, most everything will be there, except sound. Be sure you have installed the Realtek HD Audio drivers. DO NOT do any Windows updates yet. Now boot to your XP install CD again (with SATA drivers) Select to install XP, accept the aggreement, and when you get to the next menu the installation sees the previous installation. You press “R” here to do a REPAIR INSTALL. When the repair install finishes your sound will be working and the realtek console will come up. Hope this is helpful to everyone!!
December 23rd, 2007 at 4:31 am
The final thing I am trying to get working in xp is the media buttons on the right side that are touch sensitive. I tried updating drivers from C:DRVtouchpad/ but didn’t do anything different. The left buttons work (except the bluetooth which is not present on my machine). Any help is greatly appreciated.
December 26th, 2007 at 7:25 am
setup network with windows vista…
Yes indeed….
December 31st, 2007 at 9:52 am
I got problems. I slipstreamed and successfully installed xp. However i cannot boot into vista. When i install vistabootpro in xp and did the settings as given, now i can only boot onto vista. Can you give me a more detailed explaination on
“3. Restore the Vista bootloader by using VistaBootPRO. Under the System Bootloader tab, select Windows Vista Bootloader (Uninstall Legacy Bootloader) and All Drives. Then, after it’s done, run the diagnostics. If there’s a red entry for “Previous Windows Version”, set the boot drive to the drive that NTLDR is on (C:\). This let me dual-boot Vista and XP.”?
Where can i run the diagnostics? And how can i set the boot drive to the drive that NTLDR is on?
Thanks alot for you help.
December 31st, 2007 at 1:12 pm
ok i’ve solved the problems. Now another 1. Haha really troublesome right? Ok here’s my question. How can i install those buttons on my 5920G so that they’ll function in xp? The play, stop, forward etc buttons. Please help me, Any genius out there……….. Please……… Thank you.
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 am
Hello everyone,
the media buttons on the right side of the keyboard are tied in with the touchpad - you need to install the “synaptics pointing device drivers” for them to work (i found the driver on acer australia support page)
January 4th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
# charis Says:
October 27th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I couldn’t setup audio until i I fixed the PCI bus (windows found the driver automaticaly). After i fixed PCI bus windows detect several devices among with the sound.
Sory, what exactly did you do? I am still having trouble with my Audio, tried tons of different drivers. The only thing I havent tried is what MattD suggested. The XP cd Ive got(SP3) will not let me do a recovery, but I am working that out now.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I just finished setting up XP on the damn thing… Now installing the Acer eXXX Managements. Works with the ones for Aspire 5770 for XP (with v2 framework), only thing not working is the eNet management, because my laptop has the 4965AGN wireless thingie. It also works with the 3945ABG driver, but the program just won’t start, just says it’s only compatible up to version 3945ABG.
New version of the software with framework 2.5 will install but won’t start if not on Vista.
Any idea? Any Aspire laptop with 4965AGN and WinXP around?
Thanks for advice…
January 20th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
^^ Thats 5570… numbers…
January 29th, 2008 at 11:12 am
windows vista…
Yes, indeed….
January 29th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
uninstall windows vista dual boot…
…
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April 4th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Cool post, had exactly the same issues with Vista on a 5920 (i.e. good laptop + crap OS = bottlenecked laptop).
I am now considering starting again and installing XP after suffering through for a couple of months. One question… do you know if all the Dual Core/Santa Rosa features will work on XP? And how is it going now? Still glad you made the switch/do you regret the move?
April 5th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
HELP HELP!
Acer 5920
Installed XP SP2
NO SOUND - Tried installing various versions of Realtek HD Audio Drivers but to no avail.
Everything else works gr8.
Please help me…I am dying to listen dolby sounds from my new lappy!!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
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June 16th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
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