M11x & XP-64 bit

I have purchased couple of days ago M11x directly from DELL's website.
It comes with W7-64bit, but I want to install my own XP-64bit instead however i have tried to look online for XP-64bit drivers but couldn't find any...
Even DELL's website has drivers only for Windows 7.

Has anyone tried installing XP-64bit and faced any compatability issues?

 

Much of the components are either legacy or industry standard. Theoretically default drivers should work. You can also go to the vendors of the various subsystems and probably pull XP drivers from them. I go to nVidia for my XP video drivers.

Otherwise, you may not be able to get all the drivers for your M11x. If you got the stomach for it (back up your data first!), and the M11x has a restore disk or partition, you can go ahead and attempt to install XP and see what happens. If you can't get it working right, you can always go back.

 

Well I have bought a 500GB hard disc from amazon and I will replace it with the 160GB that comes with it (i paid $100 extra and got a 500GB and external HD enclosure to put the 160GB inside it, to have a 500GB built-in from DELL you gota add $150 on system price, so i kinda saved $50 and got a free 160GB external HD ) Anyway back to the point, i will replace it with the blanc 500GB and try to install XP-64bit and see how it goes. worst case scenario I will buy a copy of W7 Ultimate or Proffessional or whatever they call it.

I'm just used to use XP and don't want to shift to W7 yet. besides XP uses less resources than W7, means more processing power left for the M11x processor

 

Well the good news is that Win 7 is more streamlined than Vista, and indeed, if what I heard is true, Win 7 had much of its kernel code rewritten for more modern processors (Vista still had code that dated back to the 80286!), it is conceivable that it will work even better on modern systems than XP does.

I made the move to Win 7, and have no regrets. It has the stability and durability of XP, and if you disable Aero effects, you can free more resources for your computing uses. Try it out for a while, than if it still doesn't suit your needs, go ahead and install XP.

 

I was also sceptical of win7 at first but it would be better to install it as XP doesnt have built it driver support for the most basic drivers. E.g. Win7 has built in software to write dvds while with XP you have to install an external program to do it. Also Win7 has better software support for new technology i.e. multicore processors etc etc.

I have used Win7 on my 2 year old Inspiron with only 2Gb of RAM and a silly nVidia 7300 go and Win7 ran perfectly.

But as with any operating system its up to your own taste. But dont badge Win7 bad just because of Vista, because Win7 is everything Vista was suppose to be.

Hope my ramblings helped.

 

Um 64 bit xp was a nightmare. Driver support issues, when using unsigned drivers, ect.. I would not recommend using that operating system.. I have plenty of headaches, and nightmares with that version of XP.

And trying to run 32bit software on it that isnt 64 bit, well thats a mess too..

 

ME to XP or Vista to XP is ok, but moving from Win 7 to XP is like going from Ferrari to Bicycle

 

Thanks all for the feedback....
You guys got me convinced to finally give Win7 a shot...

Okay does anyone have an idea how i can somehow clone the recovery partition from the 160gb HD that comes with the M11x to the new 500gb I purchased seperately? Any partition cloning software maybe?

 

Windows XP (64-bit edition) was one of the first OSes with 64-bit capability, and as pointed out (and I agree), was and is probably still the worst one for finding 64-bit driver support. Give the new Windows 7 64-bit OS (Home Premium or Ultimate) a try - you will probably be very happy with it. WinXP 64-bit left such a bad taste in my mouth that I swore off 64-bit OSes for the longest time, until Windows 7 showed up... it's really much more 64-bit friendly...

 

There's a number of good disk cloning software packages out there. I personally used (recently) "Apricorn EZ Gig II". It supports SATA & USB/SATA for convenient disk cloning. I just upgraded my work notebook from an 80GB SSD to a 160GB SSD, and it worked great... that was a Windows 7 (64-bit) disk image BTW.

Apricorn Products

Looks like it may only be available from them in a HW bundle (came that way through my company).

I am sure others can recommend other disk cloning software...

P.S. I am lurking around here since I have plans to purchase an M11x later this summer (back to school notebook for a family member)...

 

kirk200 thanks for the tips. I went out today and purchased Win7 Ultimate. I will try it on my home computer as i have XP-32bit running on an i7-965-Extreme processor and i know i'm losing much power with the 32-bit system.

Regarding the M11x, I have done extensive research for the past two months to decide what netbook to buy for my self. I'm not that extreme gamer, but i would really like it to be able to play my favourite titles when i'm travelling, thats why i decided to spend extra $$$ to get the M11x after i read all those reviews about it. And i hope i won't be disappointed.

 

I have gotten the first release of the m11x working with Windows XP.

As far as I know, because of Optimus, the second release will not work with anything older than 7 (including Vista).

Let me know if anyone is interested and I'll post the driver list I had to use. The WiFi was particularly difficult to find!

I also need to do some additional research on getting the keyboard lights etc. changeable under XP.

 

For those who are interested, I just did a pass at 3DM6 - the system is pretty loaded with lots of software, but it still pulled in 6448 Stock overclock settings in BIOS, no GPU overclock though.

 

@Mimarsinan - have you tried the alienfxlite or something like that. The lite version of the utility to see if this works on xp?

Thanks,

StevenX

 

What did you use for graphics drivers? Can you somehow use both the Intel and the nVidia graphics?

 

AFAIK Hybrid Graphics switching capability is reliant upon TMM in Vista and multi-GPU device useability in Windows 7. Since XP does not have either capability the only way to get both Intel and Nvidia GPUs to work is the old switchable graphics technique of switch then reboot (XP then utilizes the GPU the notebook is switched to.)

Good news for those that want to use XP, mimarsinan.

 

I've never heard of alienfx lite until this thread, awesome time to get rid of all that extra fluff!

 

Yes, the beauty is that this works

I downloaded the nVIDIA driver from their website. Stock mobile driver (good thing nVIDIA now provides mobile drivers too - had to get them from NVIDIA & Laptop News | Latest NVIDIA drivers and related news | laptopvideo2go.com before then).

And the Intel driver also from the Intel website. I downloaded both the "GPU" driver and the chipset driver.

In the BIOS, set the graphics option to non-Discrete. I installed the Intel chipset driver first. Then the Intel "GPU". Finally, the nVIDIA GPU driver.

After you reboot, the Intel "GPU" will be active. It will report resolutions higher than the m11x LCD can handle as available, I didn't try those I just set the LCD to native size. All works fine.

In the Device Manager, you'll see a Yellow Bang next to the nVIDIA GT 335M GPU. FN+F6 has no effect - it will not enable the GPU.

Just go back to the BIOS, set the mode to Discrete, and get back in XP. Now, the real GPU is active

Sure beats Optimus if you ask me. People are reporting that they cannot force-enable the nVIDIA GPU and white-list applications. You shouldn't let poorly written software cripple the hardware you've paid for.

 

Hey, great tip

It's a little picky, but I believe it works. Just remember to select two zones for the keyboard, or the keyboard light goes out after a while.

I also want to experiment with Alienware's native software inside VMware. If the device can be connected to a VM, then it might think its running native and actually work.

 

Here's another effort at 3DM6: 6769!

This is with nTune overclocking - memory at 810 (+20), core clock at 500 (+50). Not bad, eh? Maybe the 7k barrier can be broken with a little more overclocking

 

Interesting project.
Cant see the benefit myself but each to their own.
Just waiting for the windows 98 drivers thread to crop up now

 

How did you get the intergrated wifi working? Do you have a linky to a driver file?

I am having real difficulty getting this thing to work with xp, yet on my linux mint live usb, it works fine!

 

Hear hear!

Trying to figure how to turn off nVIDIA GPU in Switchable BIOS mode. In switchable mode, both Intel and nVIDIA are active; which ironically consumes more than the Dedicated mode

People have actually found a way to get this working with Ubuntu! Shocking that no such solution exists for XP yet. If anyone has any clues, please advise.

RE: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1396552&page=10

 

I have an M11xR1 SU7300(virtualization)
I have windows 7 Professional.
Thus I have windows XP mode.

Using windows XP mode is like going down into the basement to tinker with things that have been left over from a by gone age.

VERY handy for testing web development in Firefox version 2.0, Opera version 9.8, IE6 and other legecy systems. Even have Apache server (127.0.0.1) setup to access USBs/HDDs without being online. The virtual PC mode maintains its own windows Update and anti virus and etc.

The Virtual PC eats CPU(C2D 1.7Ghz) like a fat boy eats cake and there's not much surgery you can do to slim the process down. So windows XP mode is not for someone whos business is XP, but it's good for the odd jobs and a bit of testing.

Then when finished, you can turn the light out go back up stairs and watch Full-HD movies with your favorite fluffy slippers on, with an OS that can use the full 4GB+ of memory.

 

Any info on the wifi driver?

Link or it did'nt happen lol.

 

Sorry for the late reply. Someone PM'd me and asked for the actual driver set, and I wasn't really aware of the new posts here in the meanwhile.

Driver Pack Download URL: http://www.mimarsinan.com/m11x_XP.7zip

What You Need To Extract: 7-Zip ( 7-Zip)

All XP drivers are included, with the exception of GPU drivers (which are multiple times the size of this entire pack). You may download the Intel GPU and nVIDIA GPU drivers from their respective websites (they both publish official XP notebook drivers).

Caveat 1: If you choose the Switchable mode in BIOS, BOTH the Intel and nVIDIA GPU's will be active, actually causing you to drain MORE battery than the Discrete mode, in which case only nVIDIA is active. Because nVIDIA is not supporting switchable graphics for XP (even though they are still publishing XP drivers), the only solution I have for this so far is to just keep the BIOS setting in Discrete mode, as it saves more power than having BOTH GPU's active.

Research Task: It may be an interesting exercise to see whether dual-booting Win7 and XP in Switchable mode, after graphics have been set to Intel only under Win7, would actually turn off the nVIDIA GPU.

Coding Task: The Ubuntu folks have actually made a release wherein the nVIDIA GPU is turned off while Intel is active. Sadly, just disabling the device in the Device Manager won't have any effect on its actual power usage. But since they've done it on Ubuntu, I'm sure some skilled coder could do it on Windows too.

Hint: Go bother Dell and ask why they didn't just add an Integrated mode to their existing Switchable and Discrete selections in the BIOS Note that both the Intel and the nVIDIA GPU drivers are installed and work just fine.

Please don't hesitate to ask if you need any instructions with installing these drivers. I have even included a one-click AHCI migration method for XP that doesn't require you to mess with creating your own AHCI-enabled XP installation CD. And a tool to change the keyboard lights/colors etc. on XP If anything is unclear, just ask!

 

Latest Drivers and Benchmarks for XP Here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/511106-m11xr1-xp-drivers-here.html

I have uploaded a complete driver pack, as well as the ability to control the lights!

Enjoy

 

Is it just me, or does the link, above (xp drivers here), go to this same thread (even though the url is different)?
There's a driver pack on this page, but no benchmarks or anything.
I'm a fan of xp and not a fan of 7 (I'm forced to use it at work and it causes far more annoyances than improvements).
JJ

 

Have there been any developments in this area? I'm going to be installing xp, tonight. I could try the dual-boot test, although I don't really care to dual-boot 7 and xp (hence the desire to reformat in the first place).
I just don't want this to fall by the wayside, as there are so many reasons to use xp over 7.

I'm going to use my custom n-lite xp install (using driverpacks) and see if it works with the ahci setting. I noticed that there is a bios setting for ide mode, instead of ahci, so I can just flip it if it doesn't work.
I wonder if the recovery partition will still work in ide mode?
I guess it doesn't really matter since I have the recovery disc (does it reinstall all the drivers and alienware stuff?).
JJ

 

Can't you just disable the Dedicated GPU in system settings when on internal GPU?

Thanks for the drivers, will try these tonight

 

The only options are switchable and dedicated. Switchable keeps both cards active.
I sent a message to Chris on the Alienware Club forum requesting an option for integrated only in the next bios release.
Lenovo works like that (integrated/switchable/dedicated).
JJ

 

The R2 can't do dedicated only. The IGP is required to be active at all times since it handles providing the video signal to the display for both. Hybrid graphics on the other hand, like the R1 has, can do what you're asking for.

 

There are two things that are irritating me about the m11x and xp...
1: Suspend doesn't work right with the nvidia drivers. The lights come on, but the screen doesn't come on.
I've always been a fan of suspend and never a fan of hibernation, until today. Since suspend wasn't working, I tried hibernation and it works perfectly. I have it set to hibernate when closing the lid.
2: Firewire has a ! in device manager. I haven't been able to find a good driver,yet. I haven't tried connecting my audio interface, though.
It may not make any difference to you guys, but I've been working pretty heavily with the driverpacks.net guys to get our parts working right out of the box.
JJ

 

ive been running xp32 still since it came out, with most everything working except for the BIOS limitation of using integrated vs discrete video, otherwise things seem to work tho i havent checked out its firewire ability tho i guess i could turn it on in BIOS and test its ability.

for suspend and hibernation, i was not ever able to get it working and i had my 11x since the first week it came out. i couldn't figure out if it was a BIOS issue, or videocard driver, or perhaps some intel chipset or rst drivers, etc.

but as of feb11 i suddenly can use both suspend and hibernation just fine. hard to tell what did it as i updated the nvidia and also intels video, intels chipset and rst ones, realteks audio, the nics, the bios.
i update my 11x drivers every two months, as well as all my programs and os (i leave nothing on auto-check i do it all manually as i like to keep only 14 processes running with none of my chosen windows/apps open). so this last updating i did, something enabled hibernation and suspend, thus now making my 11x fully working in xp minus the discrete/integrated issue (and maybe firewire?)

 

Well...
I think it's a faulty firewire controller (support does, as well).
I've been using 7 64-Bit during the troubleshooting time, but I'm looking forward to going back to xp.
JJ

 

ok so iv installed windows xp 32 on my r1 and my 3dmark06 scores are 1k LOWER then on windows 7 x64!!! and thats with the same overclocks and same video drivers?? no idea whats causing that....

edit.

i just ran ati tool and enabled the 3d view where it shows the cube, and the frame rate is considerably higher then on windows 7, on 7 i was getting 400-530 fps. on xp its 500-600 consistent. what the heck is the deal?

 

I have found that Titan Quest runs a little faster on windows 7 than xp.
I wonder if it has something to do with directx.
I've heard that directx8 runs better on xp but directx9 runs better on 7 (or something like that).
JJ

 

good video that shows 7 vs xp in gaming

YouTube - Windows Xp Sp2 x64 Vs. Windows 7 x64 - Gaming Performance - HD