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    XP on Aspire 3810T?

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by littlebigman, Jun 14, 2011.

  1. littlebigman

    littlebigman Newbie

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    Hello

    For testing purposes, I need to wipe out W7 from an Aspire 3810T and install XP(SP3) on it.

    Tried three different CD's, but they all failed, possibly because the drive is SATA. In the BIOS, changed AHCI to IDE, but it didn't work.

    Next, downloaded the latest AHCI Intel SATA AHCI Driver (8.8.0.1009) from Acer's site, put the files on a USB drive, hit F6 when prompted to add drivers, but XP simply goes ahead without reading the USB drive.

    Next, I figured maybe upgrading the BIOS would solve the issue, so ran Unetbootin to install FreeDOS on a USB key, downloaded and copied BIOS upgrade 1.28 onto the USB key, rebooted on the USB key, typed C: to switch to the USB key, hit F.BAT which calls "fla JM31.128", but got a crash:
    Does someone know how to install XP on an Aspire laptop?

    Thank you.
     
    littlebigman, Jun 14, 2011
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  2. littlebigman

    littlebigman Newbie

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    In case someone else has the same problem: I had to add the AHCI driver to the XP installer using nLite, burn a CD with that new ISO, and set the 3810T to use SATA Mode=IDE instead of AHCI in the BIOS.

    I'm still interested in knowing how to reflash the BIOS.

    Thank you.
     
    littlebigman, Jun 14, 2011
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  3. littlebigman

    littlebigman Newbie

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    "exception error 0EH" dispappears when booting with Option 5 "FreeDOS Live Only".

    I upgraded to 1.28 using the Windows application, and the laptop stopped working (boot -> "Start Windows normally" -> self-reboot after a couple of seconds) :-/

    I had to get into the BIOS with F2, and change the SATA Mode back to IDE, even though I installed the AHCI driver in XP before reflashing the BIOS. Go figure. Solved.
     
    littlebigman, Jun 14, 2011
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