XP drivers for Compaq C791TU

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pimpom

Can anyone please help me locate Win XP drivers for a Compaq
C7194TU laptop?

I know Compaq dropped support for XP some time ago and I've been
searching for third-party solutions. I found several apparently
suitable ones, but none of them has worked for me. So far, I've
managed to install only the Intel 965 gfx driver, MS UAA driver
and RTL8139 wired LAN which, of course, are not really
model-specific.

One site gave several links for specific device drivers and I
downloaded them all, but none of them works. They were
sp3xxxx.exe files from hp's ftp site. When I tried to visit the
referrer's site again today, it had been suspended for
non-payment.

More than one site pointed to sp36090.exe for sound, but it
always says that the media sevice cannot be found. This happens
both when I use the setup.exe and when I try to install from
Device Manager.

I drivers I need most are for audio, modem and wifi. The hardware
for these are id'ed by Everest as Conexant CX20561 @ 82801HBM
ICH8M and Atheros AR5006X.
 
pimpom said:
Can anyone please help me locate Win XP drivers for a Compaq
C7194TU laptop?
Click to expand...
Sorry, that should be C791TU, as in the subject line. I don't
know what made me type 7194.
 
pimpom said:
Sorry, that should be C791TU, as in the subject line. I don't
know what made me type 7194.
Click to expand...
I finally found an audio driver that works. That leaves the modem
and wireless adapter.
 
pimpom said:
Can anyone please help me locate Win XP drivers for a Compaq
C7194TU laptop?

I know Compaq dropped support for XP some time ago and I've been
searching for third-party solutions. I found several apparently
suitable ones, but none of them has worked for me. So far, I've
managed to install only the Intel 965 gfx driver, MS UAA driver
and RTL8139 wired LAN which, of course, are not really
model-specific.

One site gave several links for specific device drivers and I
downloaded them all, but none of them works. They were
sp3xxxx.exe files from hp's ftp site. When I tried to visit the
referrer's site again today, it had been suspended for
non-payment.

More than one site pointed to sp36090.exe for sound, but it
always says that the media sevice cannot be found. This happens
both when I use the setup.exe and when I try to install from
Device Manager.

I drivers I need most are for audio, modem and wifi. The hardware
for these are id'ed by Everest as Conexant CX20561 @ 82801HBM
ICH8M and Atheros AR5006X.
Click to expand...

I took a stab at the audio driver. I'm rather disappointed in
what I see. It would appear that for each instance of Hermosa5051
driver, Conexant invented custom file names, files have different
sizes and so on. And the INF files have trivial differences between them,
and the INF is pretty large, which means it would take some period
of time, to hack up a good driver.

For example, use the Vista driver for C791TU as your reference.
The INF file is "LEOHERza.inf".

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp40501-41000/sp40762.exe

The nearest file I could find for WinXP, is this one.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp37501-38000/sp37816.exe

The INF in there is "WiSVHez.inf"

With the naming convention, you'd swear they hired virus writers :-(

The device number supported in the Vista driver (LEOHERza.inf), is this.
The SUBSYS field allows each computer design, to have a separate identity.
That allows jack customization, but typically in sound subsystem design,
there are only a couple variations, so there really isn't a lot of
customization. Some manufacturers have fairly generic files that
make driver swapping easy.

HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_5051&SUBSYS_103C30D9

The device numbers supported in the WinXP driver (WiSVHez.inf), are these.
That means this driver is for a different set of two laptops.

HdAudModel,HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_5051&SUBSYS_103C30CD
HdAudModel,HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_5051&SUBSYS_103C30D6

So, to begin with, the driver will not install because the identity does not
match. You'd have to add the 103C30D9 line from the Vista file,
to the WinXP file.

To get it to install, you'll have to compare the LEOHERza.inf file
to the WiSVHez.inf file. And add whatever makes sense. The file
is pretty big, so this will take a while.

I would say this was done on purpose by Conexant, but exactly why is
unclear. The only people being upset by such an approach, is end users.
In my next purchase decision, I'll be keeping this in mind - that
Conexant made an extra effort to make my life miserable.

Paul
 
Paul said:
pimpom said:
Can anyone please help me locate Win XP drivers for a Compaq
C7194TU laptop?
.............[snip]..............

I drivers I need most are for audio, modem and wifi. The
hardware for these are id'ed by Everest as Conexant CX20561 @
82801HBM ICH8M and Atheros AR5006X.
Click to expand...

I took a stab at the audio driver. I'm rather disappointed in
what I see. It would appear that for each instance of
Hermosa5051
driver, Conexant invented custom file names, files have
different
sizes and so on. And the INF files have trivial differences
between them,
and the INF is pretty large, which means it would take some
period
of time, to hack up a good driver.

For example, use the Vista driver for C791TU as your reference.
The INF file is "LEOHERza.inf".

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp40501-41000/sp40762.exe

The nearest file I could find for WinXP, is this one.

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp37501-38000/sp37816.exe

The INF in there is "WiSVHez.inf"

With the naming convention, you'd swear they hired virus
writers :-(

The device number supported in the Vista driver (LEOHERza.inf),
is this.
The SUBSYS field allows each computer design, to have a
separate identity.
That allows jack customization, but typically in sound
subsystem design,
there are only a couple variations, so there really isn't a lot
of
customization. Some manufacturers have fairly generic files
that
make driver swapping easy.

HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_5051&SUBSYS_103C30D9

The device numbers supported in the WinXP driver (WiSVHez.inf),
are these.
That means this driver is for a different set of two laptops.

HdAudModel,HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_5051&SUBSYS_103C30CD
HdAudModel,HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_5051&SUBSYS_103C30D6

So, to begin with, the driver will not install because the
identity does not
match. You'd have to add the 103C30D9 line from the Vista file,
to the WinXP file.

To get it to install, you'll have to compare the LEOHERza.inf
file
to the WiSVHez.inf file. And add whatever makes sense. The file
is pretty big, so this will take a while.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Paul. I've saved your post as a text file for future
reference.

I've been working on this for two days without much success. Then
things started going smoothly after I posted my request here in
a.c.h. Out of the 20 drivers I downloaded, I installed the nine
most suitable ones. I used these for sound and WLAN:

Sound - sp35682.exe
Windows objects to this driver, but I force-fed it and it works.

Wireless adapter - Asus WLAN_NE785.zip
htt://www.atheros.cz gives a list of driver versions and a chip
compatibility chart. It looks like a download page but I couldn't
find a download link, so I searched for the latest XP driver file
by version number and downloaded the Asus package via
softpedia.com. I even latched on to someone's unsecured wireless
internet account - just long enough to make sure it was working.
I would say this was done on purpose by Conexant, but exactly
why is
unclear. The only people being upset by such an approach, is
end users.
In my next purchase decision, I'll be keeping this in mind -
that
Conexant made an extra effort to make my life miserable.
Click to expand...
My sentiments exactly. And it applies to some others too. Like
Atheros. And I wonder what kind of tie-up HP-Compaq made with MS
to try to force their customers to use an unpopular OS like
Vista. It's not as if their hardware can't work properly with XP.
If someone with no systematic training in computers, like me, can
lash up a set of drivers that apparently works without any
issues, it's obviously not a hardware limitation.
 
pimpom said:
Thanks, Paul. I've saved your post as a text file for future
reference.

I've been working on this for two days without much success. Then
things started going smoothly after I posted my request here in
a.c.h. Out of the 20 drivers I downloaded, I installed the nine
most suitable ones. I used these for sound and WLAN:

Sound - sp35682.exe
Windows objects to this driver, but I force-fed it and it works.

Wireless adapter - Asus WLAN_NE785.zip
htt://www.atheros.cz gives a list of driver versions and a chip
compatibility chart. It looks like a download page but I couldn't
find a download link, so I searched for the latest XP driver file
by version number and downloaded the Asus package via
softpedia.com. I even latched on to someone's unsecured wireless
internet account - just long enough to make sure it was working.

My sentiments exactly. And it applies to some others too. Like
Atheros. And I wonder what kind of tie-up HP-Compaq made with MS
to try to force their customers to use an unpopular OS like
Vista. It's not as if their hardware can't work properly with XP.
If someone with no systematic training in computers, like me, can
lash up a set of drivers that apparently works without any
issues, it's obviously not a hardware limitation.
Click to expand...

On the atheros.cz page, try holding your mouse over each "tick" mark.
The tick mark has a link underneath.

For example, the AR5006X has this as one of the links.

http://www.atheros.cz/download.php?atheros=AR5006X&system=1

http://download2.dvd-driver.cz/atheros/drivers/ar5xxx/xp3264-7.7.0.259-whql.zip

The virustotal.com report for the file is clean.

http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/...9c351a1f23b7c50d2e73f884436e8eaa0e-1248465575

Paul
 
Paul said:
On the atheros.cz page, try holding your mouse over each "tick"
mark.
The tick mark has a link underneath.
Click to expand...
Strange. I *think* that was the first thing I did. I may or may
not have looked at the message bar, but I find it hard to believe
that I didn't notice the cursor change to a hand (I use IE7).
Maybe, with my head swimming after two days of working on this
thing, I did fail to notice it. Thanks again for your support.
 
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