Hi-grade notbook xp woes

[ptitterington]

I would appreciate any assistance.
At the moment I am on holiday in cyprus and am trying to sort out my fatherinlaws laptop
It is a Hi-Grade notbook L8400 700chip and about 12 gig HD
It is Phoenix bios ver 0105
The problem is that it was working ok on win 98se but was a pain for his digital photos.
I got him xp pro and he had a friend on the Island try to install it.
The guy is a proper Tec who knows what he is doing but said that the machine is basically an Acer and the problem is that the modem is onboard and will not work with xp and drivers do not exist. He has upgraded to xp on fat 32 but admits the machine needs wiping and a clean boot on NTFS as the reg is full of .dlls.

Anyway is sthi all correct, can I wipe it and just get an external modem.
He basically only wants to send some emails and store his pics.
I think that I will aslo need to swop in a cd burner to allow him to backup his pics.
I have very little experience with notebooks and any assistance would be appreciated It has taken about 2 hours of chashes and lockups to just make this post

 

[ptitterington]

Sorry for the crappy spellings etc but its a race to retype and post before it dies on me.
Thanks

 

[iss]

I know what you are going through a few weeks ago a friend of mine bought an older sony viao that came installed with win 98. I tried putting XP on it for him it was a total B**** the problem there was not the modem it was the graphics chip that XP didnt like and they didnt make a XP driver for.. I tired a Win2000 driver as they will often work ok on XP but not in this case I never could get the machine to be stable.

anyway make sure its only the modem that is the problem. if it is then disable it in the bios or try a win 2000 driver ( though disabling it is proably your best bet. then get a PCMIA modem or a external one.

good luck.

 

[ptitterington]

It appears that its only the modem and I think we can get one from Dabs for about £15
I suppose its worth a try.

 

[Rick]

Personally, I believe there is a way to get your computer working properly with XP. Many, many integrated modem chipsets are supported by XP. And if your computer is a 700MHz, then I think there is almost an impossibility that XP does not support your modem (along with other integrated peripherals).l

You need to find the chipset of the modem (Perhaps Conexant HSF or HCF) and download the Windows 2000 or XP drivers for it. If you are trying to get drivers from the manufacturer's website, then this is probably the problem since they may not "officially" support XP on their site. Acer does not make the hardware though - Other companies make the parts Acer uses.

 

[ptitterington]

I sent a request to Hi-grade who are apparently very user unfriendly and they have confirmed that they do not support xp on this series of machine. I am tempted to bring the machine home and try to sort it out one way or the other, the seller did not even supply a copy of win 98 so at the moment we are past the point of no return and it will be a matter of honour.

Looks like im gonna find out more about notebooks

either that or you will soon see a fine machine hardly used with 98se on ebay
cheers

 

[Rick]

Your modem IS supported by Windows XP. I am certain. You just need to find the right reference drivers. Download these reference drivers and see if they work.

http://esstech.com/techsupp/drivers.shtm#comm


Look under "ESS PCI Audio/Modem Combo". It's the top two choices of either "Allegro.comm ES1988 Allegro audio + ES56CVM-PI modem" or "Maestro3.comm ES1980 Maestro-3 Audio + ES56CVM-PI Modem" from what I've found out.

Do keep in mind there are multiple versions of the L8400. There's B, C, L etc.. Look on the bottom of your laptop and there may be a letter designation along with the model number. This is for the C model.. It may be the same for all, but probably not.

 

[Rick]

Yopur laptop is made by ASUS and here is the link to find more information about your particular model.

http://www.asus.com.tw/inside/TechnicalReference.htm

Look under the "Notebooks" section and then choose the appropriate model. Lastly, choose "modem" to find more information on it.

I'm a master driver hunter, so I'll be glad to help you for any devices that aren't automatically detected by XP. I do this stuff all the time and I can honestly say I've yet to see a 700Mhz-anything that had integrated hardware that could not be supported by XP.

 

[ptitterington]

Well Rick you are yet again a ray of light.
The serial below the barcode is 06N1018015B

I am in the process of rying to talk my fatherinlaw into letting me take the machine back home, Jersey Uk, instead of trading in as all he needs is a simple store for digital pics and email.
thanks

 

[ptitterington]

I have returned home with the laptop and put in xp pro on reformatted ntfs and so far so good.
The modem cannot be seen but I am using the PCMCIA card with no problems.

I have tried to strip the case to look for mobo details but cannot get the back off.
I removed the keyboard and sundry plates but could not get deep enough.
I really would like to replace the cd with a cdrw and know they are available, I am unable to locate a guide to do this, It cannot be that hard.

thanks