Windows XP BIOS compatibility issues with 2-year-old HP Pavilion (1 Viewer)

[Ken Seeber]

A co-worker of mine sold me a two-year-old HP Pavilion, Umax flatbed scanner and a never-used Epson Stylus printer for the grand total of $75.

Everything looks like it's never been out of the box and is in great working order. I wanted to do some upgrading to the computer, so I installed a Seagate 40GB 7,200 rpm hard drive and a lot of RAM. A friend of mine who is more computer savvy than I am tried to install Windows XP Professional as the operating system, but got a dialog box that said the file system of XP wasn't compatible with my BIOS.

We called HP tech support and they basically said that HP isn't making a BIOS update available. We theorize this is part of an evil plot to get people to buy new computers if they want to run XP.

So, is there anything I can do to get XP to work on my computer? Are there BIOS updates available from third-party vendors? Or do I have to go back to Windows 98 SE, 2000 or ME?

 

[Randy_T]

There wouldn't be any third party "BIOS". As for which operating system you should use really depends on what you plan on doing with your computer. If your in to gaming, go with Windows 98SE (I'd stay away from Windows ME at all costs). If your more concerned about stability, go with Windows 2000. How much memory did you install? Sometimes Windows can get funky when you install over 300+(sorry...I can't remember the number)MB of ram.

 

[Ken Seeber]

This computer maxes out at 384 MB of RAM (128 x 3). I have 288 installed.

I'm not into gaming. I'll be using the computer for some graphics work, especially using Adobe Photoshop, as well as watching DVDs and manipulating audio files. Nothing too taxing, really.

 

[Rob Varto]

Ken,

What is the model number? I too have a 2 year old HP - Pavillion. I did the same things as you (new HD, more RAM) but I had no problem installing XP pro.

 

[Thom B]

There wouldn't be any third party "BIOS".

That's not entirely accurate. If you can figure out what type of motherboard you have in the system, head up to the manufacturers website and check for updates there.

We recently went through this with my uncle's hp. Couldn't get it to recognize a second HD he'd picked up, and hp was less than helpful. We found a spec sheet on hp's site, went to the motherboard manufacturer's homepage, downloaded their most recent bios, and were up and running in no time.

T

 

[Ken Seeber]

Rob,

I'm at work, so don't hold me to this, but I believe it's the 4530.

Thom,

Thanks for the tip. I'll check HP's Website and I'll look at the motherboard when I have the case open this weekend.

 

[Rob Varto]

Mine's the 8000 series... shouldn't matter much. I would definitely take Thom's advice and search for an updated BIOS by the mobo manufacturer.