How to Downgrade CQ40-340TU from Vista to XP - Part 2 - Drivers for XP

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Here's Part 2 on how I successfully downgraded my new Presario CQ40-340TU laptop from Vista to XP. Like what I mentioned in Part 1, it's okay to downgrade to XP. The only thing that's hard about this is finding the drivers that should work for your device.

So, I compiled all the drivers I used to install all the devices on this laptop and I hope they'll work for yours, too. I believe it should work for all CQ40 models, except if you have nVidia or other devices installed. If you have other devices on your laptop, try to go to the manufacturer's site. It should be there somewhere.

Check out my laptop's specs, we might have the same devices.

Disclaimer: These drivers worked for MY computer. I am not giving you a 100% assurance that it would work with YOUR laptop. It's up to you if you want to take the risk or not. It's worth a try.

I want to thank CherylG of HP forums for pointing me to the right direction and to Rakhmad for posting where to download the drivers.

Here goes. Make sure you install them in the following order:

1. After you've completely installed Windows XP with the SATA drivers (tutorial here), you have to install the Intel chipset first before installing anything else.
Download Intel chipset here. (Link updated on 04/26/2010)

Restart your PC after installation.

2. Install MS-UAA. You can download it here.

3. Install the Mobile Intel Series Express Chipset Family Graphics driver.
Download here.

4. Now, for the audio. This is the HARDEST part since Windows XP won't recognize the audio devices on your laptop. So, I tried 2 things but only 1 worked. I'm going to show you how but word of warning, though. It might slow down your taskbar loading during startup. For me, that's tolerable as long as I have sound. So, again, do this on your own risk.

a. Download the patch here. Extract it anywhere you like.
If you can't download from RapidShare, try this link. There were people who informed me that they can't download the patch from RapidShare so I uploaded it somewhere else.

b. Copy the devcon.bat to C:\Windows\System32\ folder.

c. Copy devcon.exe to C:\Windows\

d. Install the IDT Sound Driver. Download that here or try this other driver that was reported to also work for Windows XP here. (Updated 04/10/2009 with the new working links for drivers you can try. The old one was taken out.)

e. Install Audio Agere modem for Vista which is also working for XP. Download here. If that doesn't work for you, try this.

f. Run AudioPatch.exe from the patch folder from step 4.a.

g. Restart your PC. Then, test if you already have sound.

h. If you still have an Unknown Audio device on Device Manager, try installing drivers from here. Then, restart. If it still won't work, try installing the driver manually.

Note: You might hear a clicking noise during bootup. Just ignore it.

Important Update (5/30/2009):
If you're still not getting any sound, please check the bottom of this post for steps that you can take to fix it.

5. Install other devices:

Realtek RTL8102E Family PCI-E Fast Ethernet NIC - driver
Broadcom Wireless adapter - driver
JMB38X card reader - driver
Bluetooth - driver
ENE CIR - driver
ALPS Touchpad driver - driver

6. Now, if you still have 7 unknown devices on Device Manager, download this. If that link doesn't work, you can download it also here.
You have to do manual installation.

a. Extract the 7 unknown devices.rar into a new folder.
b. Go to Device Manager. Right-click on each Unknown Device and select Update Driver.
c. Point to the location of machine.inf from the folder in 6.a.
d. Repeat 6.b and 6.c until all the Unknown Devices are gone.

7. With my laptop, I still have one missing driver - for the webcam. I don't know where to get the drivers for it because I've tried all the drivers I found that should be suitable for this webcam but they didn't work.
I'll keep on looking and will post an update here once I found it. Check updates below.

4/22/09 Update: I got my webcam working but it's too dark. I wasn't able to test it on Vista before I downgraded to XP so I'm not sure if the downgrade caused it. But maybe the right driver can get it to properly work. I'll update this once I got it completely cleared.

How did I get my webcam working? First of all, you have to make sure you update your Windows Service Pack to SP2 or SP3 (mine's on SP3). It should be automatically detected by Windows XP and it will install it as a USB Video device. Download Microsoft Windows XP SP3 here. I know it's not the official driver but 'til I find the right drivers, Windows drivers should do for now.

After it's been installed by Windows automatically, you can test if it's already working. I did it through Yahoo!'s webcam test page. Click here. Use INTERNET EXPLORER for this test. Other browsers won't load the page properly. If your webcam is working, you'll see your webcam's feed on the bottom of that test page.

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Still having problems with audio? Still no sound?
Here's something that you can try.

1. First of all, make sure you already have MS-UAA installed. To check, go to Device Manager -> System Devices and you should see something like this:

2. Let's say your main drive or where you installed Windows is at drive C:
Make sure you have devcon.exe on your C:\Windows folder.
If you don't have it yet, you can download it from Microsoft here.
Again, make sure it's placed inside your Windows folder.

3. Go to:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.
Right-click on the window and select New -> Text document.
Rename New Text Document.txt to start_audio.bat.
When you get the prompt below, just click on Yes.

4. Open start_audio.bat in Notepad and enter the following and then save it.
devcon.exe restart "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_293E"

5. Now, if you installed the patch.exe from step 4.a on the first part of this tutorial, we need to disable it from running during startup.
Go to Start -> Run -> type msconfig and press Enter.
Go to the Startup tab and uncheck the entry for audio just like this:
C:\Program Files\JMPEL\audio.exe

Click on OK and then Restart your computer.

You should have audio already. There'll be a DOS window when your Windows boots up but that's better than not having any sound at all, right?

Please leave me a comment if this worked for you.

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I hope this post will be helpful to anyone who's trying to downgrade their CQ40 laptop to XP. For any questions, feel free to leave a comment. I'll get to you as soon as I can.

Enjoy!

And, if you're feeling generous... give me a tip. :)