I usually wait at least one minute, usually more because most times I also reboot the cable modem also. It is just like when you have to reboot your TV cable box, if you have one, you have to make it forget, then find itself again. I just had that issue yesterday when my laptop could not access the router. I figured why reboot it when the desktop had no problems and was online. It worked. Why it went off I don't know, but I think the cat walked on the wrong key on the laptop, my bad for leaving it open.

Jenny, I tried the "admin", "password" and I got to the Netgear router manager. I'll send you the rest of this info by PM.

Anyway, I again tried to connect (on the Win 7 Acer) but I got a message saying "this computer has limited connectivity to Netgear." What gives?

EDIT - Jenny/Inland - see your PM's.

Just checked back on the Acer - it tells me that the wireless adapter cannot connect/doesn't connect, even tho it's turned on - did I ruin it when I tried to set the Acer up as a dual boot with Win 7/XP (I hope not)?

Check your PM -

Ok, that hard drive that Jenny found for me at Newegg came the other day, I put it into the M1530, used nLite to create a bootable XP install CD, tried to integrate the drivers into this, and just now tried to use this bootable CD to install XP onto the M1530. But windows goes as far as the setup screen, then when I press <enter> to install XP, I get a message that says: "setup did not find any hard drive disks installed on your computer. Make sure your hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer supplied diagnostic or setup program. Setup cannot continue. To quit setup, press F3."

What do I do now? It sounds like setup isn't detecting the new hard drive.

My desktop did that when the SATA cable wasn't connected good, maybe check the connections. Can you test the hard drive in your other laptop?

Yup, what Hawka said - and... make sure the BIOS sees the drive. Enter the setup routine and verify the device is identified.

This is on the M1530 laptop, Hawka. I don't see how I can check the connections to the HDD in this particular model. But I googled for how to change the HDD, found a video that indicated that I left out one thing - the bracket that I was supposed to remove from the old HDD and put on the new HDD. I thought this would fix the problem of the XP setup not detecting the new HDD, but I still had the same problem - windows goes as far as the setup screen, then when I press <enter> to install XP, I get a message that says: "setup did not find any hard drive disks installed on your computer. Make sure your hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer supplied diagnostic or setup program. Setup cannot continue. To quit setup, press F3."



Last time I checked my BIOS, (couple of days ago, before installing HDD bracket) the BIOS did see the HDD, but how do I verify (I didn't do this) that the new drive is identified?

Does it make a difference whether I verify the HDD is ID'd or not? If so, why?

Press F2 during the boot up process - if the hardware is seen, you will see the drive type in the BIOS.

Set the device type to SATA (assuming it's seen).

Edit -

Yes, it makes a difference - Windows can only see what the BIOS is aware of.

Have you tried Google (you really should) I did try with this "setup did not detect any hard disk drives" and got numerous hits. I read a couple of them and they seem informative. Maybe check and see if any of these hits pertain to your situation.

Oh, wait - this is XP isn't it... If the hardware doesn't support SATA natively, you should have included the drivers in your slipstream disc. Is that what you're using?

Yes, it's XP. Yes, I did try using nLite to slipstream the drivers into the disc, but apparently I kept trying it in vain - nothing I do works. At this rate, it might take me 20 (or more) years to become a computer tech, right?

So you unpacked the SATA drivers and inserted them when you created the slipstream disc?

Check your steps using the guide below -

Slipstream with nLite

I didn't do exactly as these steps you linked me to say to do, but what I did was go into the BIOS > onboard devices > SATA operations and changed the factory default (AHCI) to ATA - but before I did this, I had to disable the flash cache module which, by default, was set to "enabled/on".

Then the XP disc that I created installed XP ran normally, it detected the 320 GB HDD, copied all files, XP got installed, and it looks like I have all the important drivers installed, but in Other Devices (Device Manager) I have a bunch of yellow question marks.

I'll post a screenshot of this later.

The errors in Device Manager indicate that the device drivers aren't installed - no worries, you can install them after the OS is up and running.

That's the other way of doing it. But the SATA/AHCI drivers you slipstreamed into the Windows disc should have worked without changing SATA (AHCI) to ATA. I'm not sure why they didn't unless the SATA/AHCI drivers you found weren't compatible with XP on your M1530. As long as the other drivers you slipstreamed into the laptop work OK, I wouldn't worry too much about the AHCI driver. You can look for a different AHCI driver later if you decide you want to practice installing on the laptop again.

With XP, disabling SATA/AHCI may not matter so much, but if you ever want to set up a dual boot for someone, they'll probably want the SATA/AHCI drivers being used. Vista and Windows 7 can take advantage of AHCI. There's an article about the advantages of AHCI ***here***. Using it usually makes your computer more responsive.


That's to be expected. You remember that you didn't install every driver that was available for your M1530 -- only the most important ones. If you want any of those things you didn't install drivers for, you can install the drivers for them after installing Windows.

No, I recall that I didn't.

Ok, Jenny, Inland, here are the Hardware ID's for these "other devices" in Device Manager -

--base system device # 1:
PC\VEN_1180&DEV_0592&SUBSYS_022E 1028&REV_12;

--base system device # 2:
PC\VEN_1180&DEV_0843&SUBSYS_022E 1028&REV_12;

--base system device # 3:
PC\VEN_1180&DEV_0852&SUBSYS_022E 1028&REV_12;

--BCM2045:
USB\Vid_413c&Pid_8126&REV0100;

--Ethernet controller:
PCI\VEN_11AB&DEV_4354&SUBSYS_022E 1028&REV_12;

--network controller:
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4312&SUBSYS 00071028&REV_01;

--PCI Device:
PC\VEN_8086&DEV_284B&SUBSYS_022E 1028&REV_02;

--SM Bus Controller:
PCI|VEN_8086&DEV_283E&SUBSYS_022E 1028&REV_02.

Using this info, could you tell me how to identify the correct drivers for these devices so I can try googling for them, please?

Also, how do I get the default XP clock icon (it always remains on the right end of the screen)?

The first 3 are for your Ricoh Memory Stick Host Controler.

The others appear to be -

USB\Vid_413c&Pid_8126 = Bluetooth Module
PCI\VEN_11AB&DEV_4354 = Network Interface Card
PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4312 = Wireless Adapter
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_284B = High Definition Audio
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_283E = ICH8 SMBus Controller

There is an online search you can use to ID them -

PCI Vendor and Device Lists



Right click the task bar and select properties - look for Show Clock.

I tried this, but all I got was the digital text that's there (on the bottom of the taskbar) - I wanted the clock widget that shows up as a graphic analog clock with the hands that appear at the top right corner of the screen.

Also, I d/l my favorite XP game screenshot taker - XnView. But I was having a problem with it (it kept jumping up to show the browser every time I tried to minimize to the task bar) so it'd be running in the background while screenshots are being taken, but I fixed this problem (I was in Tools > Capture Screen, and I clicked the "Hot Key" radio button (the "Delay" radio button was originally clicked by default) and the problem went away.

I installed DarkStar on the Dell XPS (with Windows XP (32-bit), the game installed, and it runs (I was testing it just now) perfectly, no glitches/jerkiness/sluggishness, etc. I tried it on my Acer (windows 7 (64-bit)) about a month ago but the game only played the intro screen and IIRC, it crashed when I got into the game proper - I'm so happy that The Great IyIMeeMe gave me another laptop 1 month after I get my Acer - He's better than Santa Claus (hint: He's our creator).

I don't know of an analog clock widget that's native to XP. However there are 3rd party clock widgets like the ones ***here***.

You can get ClocX at ***Softpedia***.

XP doesn't have any native widgets. Are you thinking of your Windows 7 laptop which does?

Neither do I - are you thinking of the Google Sidebar that displays an analog clock at the top of the screen?

Vista has the sidebar with clock too, maybe she saw it before she formatted the hard drive.

I remember seeing this clock displayed as a black analog icon with a white circle near the outer rim, white hands on a screenshot taken from your computer, Inland, back around 2007 - 08 that you posted on JA when you was giving me directions on how to fix a game/MS Virtual PC/VMWare Player, and it looked like to me that this screenshot came from an XP screen. This is the kind of clock I'm looking for.

Like we said, this is not native to XP. You will have it available on your Windows 7 laptop by right clicking and selecting Gadgets. Gadgets are also available in Vista, but they are not in XP. If you want one, it will have to be from a site like the one Jenny linked you to.

Like these -

Windows 7

Windows XP


The XP system was skinned and also had Google Sidebar installed.