Upgrading hp Compaq NW8240 to Windows 7

Windows 8 is almost coming out. But we still can make use of our hp Compaq NW8240 that has Windows XP Professional installed. So I decided to try to upgrade this machine from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Just before I tried this upgrade to Windows 7, I clean installed Windows 8 to NW8240 machine. Everything went well except for the graphics and what ever I did, it just doesn’t get the graphics driver installed so I gave up. But will there be graphics drivers for Windows 7 for this machine which has ATI FireGL V5000?

First of all, let’s go to the hp website to find out if there’re any Windows 7 drivers for this machine.

HP Compaq nw8240 Mobile Workstation Drivers page

Nothings at all. It seems that hp only supplies drivers up to Windows Vista only.

I forgot to get the screenshot of this exclamation marks in the Device Driver screen but they’re as below:

• Infineon Trusted Platform Module
  • Its identified as “Unknown Hardware” so you can’t figure out what it is by looking at it like the Multimedia drivers or the Netowrk drivers, but if you look inside, you can find that the “Hardware ID” is “ACPI/IFX0101” so I googled it and found one that works.
  • Go to this page and download “Infineon Trusted Platform Module_2.01.0001.00“
  • You maybe able to use other TPM drivers but I didin’t check them out. When you open the pdriver package, and read the readme.txt file, it says that its for Windows XP, but currently there aren’t any problems.
  • Because you can use the Windows XP compatible drivers for this TPM module, I think you can also use the TPM drivers from HP that they provide, but I haven’t tested this. If you read this and have tested it, please post it below.
• Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection
  • The Device Driver page lists this as one with the exclamation marks, but you can easily figure it out as the wireless network is not working.
  • Go to DriversPacks.net and download the following driver package,
    “Mar 17, 2012 Windows Vista/7 x86 WLAN 12.03“.After the download, extract all the packages into a place and let Windows 7 search the network drivers in them by pointing it out from the driver update.
• SMSC Fast Infrared Driver
  • Registered in the Device Driver page as “Unknown Devices” and I could not figure out which device it was for until I got to install this driver.
  • Anyways, like the Intel wireless adapter above, go to DriversPacks.net and download the following,
    “Feb 6, 2012 Windows Vista/7 x86 Miscellaneous 12.02“. Again, extract and let Windows 7 find the best drivers for you.
• Vinyl AC’97 Codec Combo Driver (WDM)
  • It was registered as an unknown multimedia device.
  • Go to DriversPacks.net and download the following,
    “Nov 6, 2011 Windows Vista/7 x86 Audio 11.11“. Again, extract and let Windows 7 find the best drivers for you.
  • One thing. On my machine, it installed some VIA drivers instead of the ADI multimedia driver. On HP’s NW8240’s page, it lists the audio device as ADI but it installed the above Vinyl drivers instead.
  • Please see the “Updating other drivers” section below.
• Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
  • Registered as an unknown “Mass Storage Controller“
  • Go to DriversPacks.net and download the following.
    “Apr 20, 2011 Windows Vista/7 x86 Cardreaders 11.04.1“. Extract, and let Windows 7 install the best suitable device for you.

ATI Mobility FireGL V5000

Usually, I try to get the graphics drivers installed when ever I install a new OS so that at least my viewing experience and the usuable screen is bigger, but even if I search and search and search for it I could not find one for Windows 7. I downloaded several drivers package for Windows 7 from AMD’s website but all failed.

Finally, I downloaded the Windows Vista Business Edition x32’s graphics driver for NW8240 and tried to install from the setup but failed. However, I manually let the driver update prompts to the following:

/swsetup/SP34716/Packages/Drivers/Display/LH_INF/

As lucky as I got, the driver installed successfully and I can now change my resolutions as the screen let’s me do.

Unfortunately‚ if you don’t install the graphics driver, the Windows Index will list the Graphics and 3D Game performance as 1.0

Later when you install Vista’s graphics drivers the Windows Index for Graphics and 3D Game Performance went up to 4.1. Also, after the assessment, the AERO enabled by itself.

Updating other drivers

Usually for the other drivers, which doesn’t complain by letting us see the exclamation mark in the device drivers page, we do not have to do anything about it if we don’t want to but I have downloaded all the packages from DriversPacks.net so, I let Windows 7 search for the device’s drivers one by one. (yes, boredom is the way to go for these challanges!)

• Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
  • Use the drivers from the following path.
    

    /x86/L/Broadcom/3/

• Vinyl AC’97 Codec Combo Driver (WDM) → SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
  • The “Vinyl AC’97 Codec Combo Driver (WDM)” driver was installed as above but I really wanted to install the ADI drivers as it lists from the HP NW8240’s website. Why ADI’s audio drivers? Its because its listed in the HP’s website for Compaq NW8240 and somehow, when I use the USB sticks, it makes some loud sound which lasts for a second so I wanted get relieved from it.
  • From the DriversPacks’ I located the ADI’s audio drivers and tried to install them one by one but all failed.
  • Next, I tried to find it by the Hardware ID and one of the Realtek driver got found, which I tried to install, but failed and still left me with the Vinyl drivers.
  • I later wen to Windows Update and updated the system and the audio driver updated as follows but when I tried to update via the Windows Update before I got the Vinyl audio drivers, Windows update did not find any.
    

    SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio

• Intel(R) 82801 PCI Bridge – 2448
  • Use the drivers from the following path.
    

    /x86/All/C/Intel/1/

• Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller – 2658, Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller – 2659, Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller – 265A, Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM USB Universal Host Controller – 265C
  • Use the drivers from the following path.
    

    /x86/All/C/Intel/1/

Its not related to the current topic, but I haven’t used this machine for years and it often got very hot where the system just shuts it self off, so I decided to take it apart and found out that there was a huge load of carpet thick dust stuck between the fan and the heatsink. I guess the heat sink was too narrow that the dusts could not get through. After I removed the thick dusts, the system’s hotness decreased.

As taking it apart delicately but boldly like a heart surgery, you can see the right heatsink and the manhole like metal vent. In between those two‚ a rug like dust was covering the heatsink.
But I do not remember using this machine that much and also not in a dusty environment so I can’t believe the dust that accumulated like a rug.