Johnny Tremaine

I'm working on a Gateway T1616 that was downgraded from Vista to XP before it was given to me. I've fixed wireless connection problem (why it was brought in) which seems to have been killed by malware. Working now.

Noticed in Device Manager during troubleshooting 4 yellow-flagged devices. One was the SMBus Controller, which I got fixed from ATI.

The remaining 3 flagged devices are ACPI\PNP0C31, ACPI\PNP0C32 and ACPI\PNP0C33, the exact same 3 devices missing drivers in Post #3 of this thread.

Information on 3 unknown devices:

They seem to have something to do with "HotStart" (I have no idea what this is), and one suggestion is to download and uppack Vista 32-bit drivers and let XP find the one(s) it needs.

Gateway gives the following link for Vista 32-bit drivers for this model laptop:

http://support.gateway.com/support/d...ista%20(32-bit)

I don't think I want the "A20381-001-001.exe - Hot Start Utility Version: 3/29/2007" because it's an executable "utility", and don't think it will run under XP even if it does install drivers, so my question is which of the drivers on the page (above) would I need ?

What is "Hot Start" ? Is this necessary for an XP-downgraded laptop, and will it even work if it's not necessary ? Is this worth pursuing, and if so how ?

Thanks in advance.

Johnny Tremaine

Bump, please.

I have the laptop done and ready to go back except for these 3 missing drivers.

Madcatz

From what I can gather, Hotstart is for the hotkey buttons on the laptop. and your correct, a vista program will not run on XP.

But, ACPI devices are usually tied into the chipset drivers, or sometimes you will find them in thier own download file. I'd try to find that first.

and nobody can access the link you gave without the serial number, hate how gateway has thier support site setup...But after going and just selecting the model and all downloads for XP, looks like gateway doesn't make Hotstart compatible with XP.

Johnny Tremaine

That's what I'm beginning to believe also. I'm looking for an alternative. The laptop has some hardware buttons for playing DVD that do not work; I'm thinking these missing drivers are for these buttons.

Also, one of the posts in the site above seems to indicate that these buttons do not necessarily need "drivers", but rather some Registry Entries. Not sure, I'll do some experiments later tonight and post results.

Madcatz

usually the hotkey's just need software to run, which sounds like the hotstart is that software.

Or thier another option is just tell them to wait for 7 to come out in october :)

Johnny Tremaine

Okay I got into it a bit last night. Gateway has the "Hotstart Utility" that is supposedly a "driver" for the Hotstart keys.

It's a batch file, and two Registry Entries. If a certain "eHome" (whatever that is) exists in the \Program Files directory, the batch file adds one group of registry entries, and if it doesn't it adds another.

Here's the text of the batch file "Hotstart"

Here's the text of the Registry Entry "cyber"

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

And here's the text of the Registry Entry "Media"

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

I don't understand why there are two choices for entries. I also don't understand why Windows Media Player gets two buttons. I don't know what "eHome" is. And I don't understand how making a few registry entries is somehow going to get connected to a physical hardware button on the chassis of the laptop.

So I'm wondering if there is any connection at all between the physical buttons of the laptop to this "utilitity". The only connection I feel I CAN make is that the missing drivers are numbered 1,2 and 3, which coincides with these registry entries.

Okay, so I double-clicked both registry entries (and skipped the batch file) and the entries were made (I verified this with RegEdit), but no amount of pushing any of the buttons will make anything happen.

Also, Cyberlink's DVD program was uninstalled as it was corrupt and had messed up the video filters.

I read in the post from the other forum that you could customize these entries to launch whatever program you wanted (for example Media Player Classic) so I could try that if it seems worth trying. Even after the registry entries were made, Device Manager still reports 3 devices with "Missing Drivers".

Is there anything I can try, or do differently ?

Finally (and additionally) there are 7 buttons on the laptop console (not 3).
1. Music symbol
2. labeled "DVD"
3. (media) Play/Pause button
4. (media) Stop button
5. (media) Reverse button
6. (media) Forward button
7. Mute button (works)

Any help appreciated.

Johnny Tremaine

One more thing:

Occurred to me just now that this laptop looks like a "Media Center Edition" laptop, only it shipped with Vista. When they did the XP downgrade, it seems they installed XP Professional.

Should they have used an XP Media Center Edition Installation disk ? If so, what are my options ? Can I do an overlay/repair install with an XP MCE disk, and will that make these buttons work ?

Is there a difference between XP Pro and XP MCE ?

Madcatz

There is a difference between Pro and MCE. Pro is of course Pro, but it doesn't have media center in it. MCE it depends on what version, older versions are basiclly Pro with media center and all the added media capabilites, the 2005 version has the Pro advanced networking features taken out of it.

I might say that if you have a spare hard drive lying around, put that in it quick, throw MCE on it and see if that fixes the problem. If it does then you can go back to your customer and say hey, heres the problem, heres how to fix it, heres how much, yea or nay?

Johnny Tremaine

Good. Thank-you. I sort of figured it was going to go this way and it's good to hear my own thoughts coming back to me. If they are wrong, at least I'm not alone.

Didn't occur to me to use another HD to test the MCE install. Good thinking. I think I'll tell the customer close to what you described; that the reason the buttons aren't working is because XP Pro was used to do the downgrade when MCE possibly should have. Let them decide if it's worth the time to try to make the buttons work. Money isn't the point; I work on a flat-rate mostly for fun and education.

To your knowledge, do these media buttons need MCE to work ? Have you ever seen a "media" laptop with anything other than MCE and the media buttons worked ?

Madcatz

Honestly, no I havn't. XP Home or XP Pro laptops I've seen don't have hotkey buttons. I also looked around and really didn't find much with XP Pro and hotkey support either. I would be guessing that XP Pro doesn't have the hotkey support without additional software and that MCE does support it.

But I meant money wise as to getting the XP MCE License Key, if they don't have one, it won't take a XP Pro key.

Johnny Tremaine

Alright, given that then that's going to be my "official" line; that XP Pro probably doesn't provide Hotkey support, and so their buttons probably won't work unless/until XP MCE is installed instead.

Which means I've got to think about the Product Key and find out if MCE is going to accept a Product Key that now works with Pro. Pretty sure they overlap, an OEM MCE should work but you never know.

Off to work, thanks for your help.

Madcatz

XP Pro and MCE use a different PID number, they keys won't work on both versions. Just like OEM keys won't work on a retail install. But there is a way to change a retail install disc to an OEM and the other way around.