How to install XP on a Philips Freevents laptop
computers, howto, work February 29th. 2008, 3:45pmWe got a couple of Philips Freevents 11NB5800 laptops at work this week, and they’re actually very nice. Of course, they come with Vista installed, so we had to remove that.
Problem #1
There are no XP drivers for the Freevents 11B5800. There’s nothing in the box (not even a Vista restore disc), and Philips have no mention of any of their laptops on their website. In fact, outside of PC World’s online store, the Freevents doesn’t appear to exist.
Thankfully, the 11NB5800 is actually just a re-badged Twinhead F11Y. It took me ages to figure that out, and it was only by searching for the SATA controller chip that I made the connection. Twinhead helpfully provide all the necessary drivers for XP (and ME and 2000, if you’re that way inclined).
Problem #2
Sadly, you can’t get as far as XP installing, as the XP Pro SP2 install disc doesn’t include the SATA driver necessary for the installer to see the laptop’s hard drive. Of course, this is often a problem, but you can usually solve it by putting the driver files on a floppy disk and pressing F6 when prompted during setup.
If only it were that easy. I had a USB floppy drive and managed to find Ye Olde Floppy Diskette, put the drivers on it, and pressed F6. XP Setup recognised the drivers, and I chose the Mobile variant of the Intel SATA chipset driver, and Setup continued. Unfortunately, Setup still couldn’t see the hard drive.
Problem #3
Then, after some more Googling and getting a hint from someone having similar problems with a HP laptop, I found this page. I tried the same thing, slipstreaming the SATA drivers into a copy of the XP Pro SP2 setup disc, creating a new disc in the process. Booting from this new disc and… success! I could see the hard drive, delete the Vista partition, and start XP Setup!
Problem #4
But then, disaster! The partition formatted, and the files needed for setup were copied to the hard drive, and then the machine rebooted as expected. But that was all - the laptop froze on the POST screen and refused to progress any further. I couldn’t get into the BIOS, I couldn’t boot from a CD, and removing the battery for a while before trying again was futile. Oops!
Luckily, I had another identical laptop. I decided to try the risky venture again, only with one small (and, it turned out, vitally important) difference. On the partitioning options during setup, I deleted both the Vista and the small System Restore partitions from the drive. This time, everything worked fine and after a (surprisingly quick) installation, I was at the XP desktop ready to install all the XP drivers previously downloaded from Twinhead’s website.
Of course, I still have one bricked laptop, but as soon as I figure out how to get the hard drive out, I’ll have that sorted by cloning the working one to it…
February 29th, 2008 at 17:25
HI Dekay, I have a Phiips freevents X59, its a great little machine. The stickers on the front of the machine palmrest are a bugger to remove and may leave you with a gooey sticky mess to get rid of.
One other thing I should say is that do not even bother to contact Philips if you have a problem. Philips deny all knowledge of being involved in any laptops and will not help you, even when faced with the packaging with Philips all over it and the fact you can register it on the Philips website, tech support deny it. They are arseholes, so if you do have a problem, just deal with PC World tech guys.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:02
Hi deKay!
I have the exact same issue as you with the Phillips Freevents laptop.
I created a new partition, installed XP Pro and now the d*mn thing won’t boot up, can’t even boot from CD!
My question is - were you able to remove the Hard Disk and if so, how? I am confident that if I can remove the drive and format it in another machine this should resolve the issue (probably where the boot records have got messed up on the disk).
Hoping to hear from you!
Cheers,
Simon
March 5th, 2008 at 11:14
Hi Simon,
I had a go at taking the drive out, and have located where it is (under the plastic to the right of the trackpad), but you can’t get at it without unscrewing the screw under the “Void if Removed” sticker. As I didn’t want to void the warranty, I didn’t do that.
However, I did take it back to PC World and they looked at it, agreed it was knackered, and replaced it. You might want to try that?
March 5th, 2008 at 13:57
Thanks alot for your quick response!
Yes, I did notice that “Void if Removed” sticker and was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. I have taken out all other visible screws and managed to get the keyboard off etc, although I think the hard disk is actually under the top right of the keyboard (there is a cooler visible on the outercase and a fan underneath it) rather than to the right of the trackpad.
Do you think if I removed the screw underneath the Void sticker I would be able to get at the hard disk?
To be honest I really don’t want a laptop that I have to return to PC World every time I have a problem with it! I’m still pretty keen to try and get this dual boot working too, I reckon if I delete all the other partitions so that it only has a C:\ for Vista and D:\ for XP that may well work…
Thanks again,
Simon
March 5th, 2008 at 14:05
I’m pretty sure the drive is to the right of the trackpad, as you can hear it. The cooler under the keyboard is for the CPU, I think.
I’m almost certain that taking the final screw out would let you access it. Once all the partitions are removed completely, I don’t think you’ll have any issues at all. You may need to reinstall Vista though.
March 6th, 2008 at 16:37
Hi again, I did as you suggested and took the machine back to PC World who replaced it with another one.
Just wondering - when you installed XP on yours, did you first boot onto the XP CD and use that to remove all the existing partitions and then create a new one? I’m cautious because the last thing I want is for this new one to become a brick as well!! (I’ve already created a XP CD with the SATA driver included and I know this works as of course I was able to install XP before).
However, I might then try to dual boot it with Vista once XP is on there as apparently that is the recommended way round of doing it according to this article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529
Cheers,
Simon
March 6th, 2008 at 17:31
I booted with the SATA-injected XP Pro setup CD I’d made, and deleted all the partitions from the drive. I then created a single (NTFS) partition which filled the drive, and installed XP there.
I can’t help you with a dual-boot system, I’m afraid, as I didn’t try that. Be sure to report back if everything works out (or doesn’t!).
March 13th, 2008 at 12:23
Thank you so much for writing this blog. You saved me from a fate worse that death… Vista!
March 13th, 2008 at 13:07
No problem - I’m just glad I can save other people from tearing their hair out!
March 16th, 2008 at 22:05
If only this had been posted a month earlier! ! ! I tried removing Vista and got frozen out at the philips screen too. Unfortunately for me, I was even MORE stupid by breaking into the ‘void if removed sticker’. I got the drive out… replaced with a bigger version, and got the whole thing up and running again with a fresh Vista install, but the original drive was knackered… and after putting everything back together, for some reason part of the keyboard (the left side of the spacebar and the Alt key) were raised (allowing dust and all other kinds of crap to easily get in. Two days later the touchpad kicked the bucket… so using a USB mouse was the only way to navigate.
I bought another identical model last month and have been ‘ living ‘ with Vista… but some of my favourite software is incompatible, and there’s just no way I can afford to invest in all new sotware versions. And so, after reading this I’m going to buy a 3rd unit to see if I can achieve what you have now that you’ve posted this solution. If successful, I’ll be happier with this laptop than I’ve ever been. Thanks for posting !
March 20th, 2008 at 16:33
anybody know what the Twinhead model number is for the x59?
Thanks
March 20th, 2008 at 16:47
Tom,
It would appear to be a Twinhead H12M:
http://www.twinhead.com.tw/product_notebook/H12M.asp
March 21st, 2008 at 22:15
thanks. It seems that this is the one they forgot when they put together the drop-down list for downloads.
March 25th, 2008 at 17:10
Im so glad i came across your blog(XP on a freevents)
I`ve just aquired 11NB5800 and would rather dedicate the 2gig of ram to an XP platform than a Vista,unfortunatly for me when i get a notion the price tag is as meaningful as a binary string so within two weeks i had barged through the void if removed sticker and whay hey,at that point it doesnt matter anymore cos your`e not going to get any help from PC world.I managed to strip it down and install another hard drive but guess what,system didnt recognise it.Hence the joy when i found your blog.So i can have XP.Im not a pc wizz but your description seems pretty sraight forward.Thanks
skinz
March 25th, 2008 at 20:08
I’d love to put Ubuntu on it. Goodness knows what would happen!
March 29th, 2008 at 17:45
Hello again,
in following your`e descriptions and with the links you have kindly posted the whole process was a breeze.This makes my freevents a tool im now very fond of.The bottoms coming off again though because i beleive that crucial are on the verge of launching their solid state Sata drives which i think will have a marked improvement in several areas of performance.Also on the verge of aquiring an intel wireless A,B,G,N card on mini PCI-E to compliment my “n”router.Need to be sure what connection the present one is though im led to beleive it is mini PCI-E.Swapping this though means taking the base off and the mainboard out as this is located between the upper casing and m/board,and of course,is there room for the third antenna
…anyway thanks again DeKay .
April 4th, 2008 at 16:21
i have a freevents x65 and unscrewed everything, still tho, the plastic around the keyboard wont lift enough to allow me to get at the hard drive. What do i need to do?
April 4th, 2008 at 16:42
andy:
I don’t know, sorry - I never took mine apart.
April 4th, 2008 at 17:11
ok thanks, its annoying, think i can see it where you believe it is, but dont want to break the plastic lifting it
April 14th, 2008 at 03:14
I’ve been considering buying one of these to run Linux on. Anyone actually got it working okay? It sounds a little suspicious that it’d just stop working entirely because of a minor partitioning problem..
April 23rd, 2008 at 16:19
Followed the instructions above for my 11NB5800 with the note on partitioning, just deleted all the partitions in fact, added the SATA driver to the XP set-up disk, the hard drive was recognised and XP installed without a problem.
Now running XP pro sweetly - many thanks for all the great information here, very useful.
April 23rd, 2008 at 17:30
Thanks for this, i’ve been trying to recover my 5800 all day after falling at the last hurdle turning it into a hacintosh. Got it all to work it Iatkos apart from the network cards. then couldn’t get xp or vista to reinstall because i’d forgotten about the sata issue. Am now happily formatting with my Nlite XP disc. Thanks again.
April 27th, 2008 at 21:02
hey…..i just won one of these on th ebay…..it has media centre on it which lets face it…….is dick.
so….i am gonna slipstream the sata driver onto the xpsp2 disc i have using nlite….BUT
what driver was it exactly……the exact name?>
i am using nlite to build this dis and ther are quite a few drivers under the twinhead sata one
would appreciate your help…
andy
April 27th, 2008 at 22:39
I don’t recall which one it was, but if you select all of the ones labelled “Mobile” it should be fine. XP will use whichever one it needs.
April 27th, 2008 at 23:34
Excellent advice, I tried it this weekend, I now have a phiips laptop that is a lot happier running XP (no more weird spurious screen blanking), the only thing missing is Mah Jong, but I can live with that.
Cheers mate, thanks for writing the guide.
April 28th, 2008 at 21:24
Hi,
Does anyone know what is Twinhead model number is for the Phillips freevents 12NB5800 ?
Many Thanks
April 28th, 2008 at 21:37
Hi Nick,
Looks like a J12S to me: http://www.twinhead.com.tw/product_notebook/J12S.asp
April 28th, 2008 at 22:57
Dekay,
I am trying to locate Xp drivers for the 12NB5800. J12S does not have the Xp drivers listen on the twinhead website it has drivers for the vista OS but than it does not have drivers for the bluetooth and Webcam so does that mean 12NB5800 looks like a http://www.twinhead.com.tw/product_notebook/J13S.asp
???
Many Thanks for your prompt reply.
April 29th, 2008 at 13:40
I don’t think it’ll be the same as the J13S. However, most of the Twinhead laptops seem to have the same or similar hardware, so the XP drivers for some the F11Y or J13S hardware may work on the 12NB5800. If you’ve still got Vista installed, try running some sort of hardware profiler (like SiSoft Sandra) to get a full list of the exact hardware the machine has. You may find that most of the components are generic and the drivers can be had from the parts manufacturer rather than direct from Twinhead. e.g. if the webcam is an Intel-made model, Intel themselves may provide an XP driver.
April 29th, 2008 at 14:59
Thanks for the help,
is the 11NB5800 Bluetooth enabled, if yes are there any XP drivers for it.
Many Thanks
April 29th, 2008 at 15:22
It isn’t, no. However, there are only about three different bluetooth chipsets and there are generic drivers for them all, I think. I’d imagine the one in your laptop will be Intel based, which shouldn’t cause a problem. You might even find XP SP2 has the drivers built in already.
April 29th, 2008 at 15:41
Hi DeKay
Thank you so much for your brilliant blog. I bought a Philips freevents 11NB5800 around Xmas time. I had loads of trouble right from the start trying to run my old progs on Vista, even my printer wouldn’t work properly. So I did what most others folks seem to have done, and tried to install XP. I got past the first hurdle eventually, and slipstreamed the SATA drivers onto a boot disk, and promply bricked up the machine. It went back to PC World, who replaced the hard drive. I then experimented with VM Ware, running XP as a virtual machine alongside Vista. This was far from satisfactory, being slow and unreliable. I decided to try and live with Vista, but it is such a pile of wombat’s doo, I have spent months trying to get it right and failing. I was on the verge of chucking the unit in the river. Following your instructions I now have an XP system, and all my software running sweetly, done in about a day. Great stuff, thank you. The only thing that isn’t now working is the audio. The drivers installed OK, but there is no sound. In Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices, it says “No audio Device”. Did you have this problem ? Anyway, this is not a big problem to me, I am just delighted that the unit is now useable.
Cheers
Russ
April 29th, 2008 at 15:51
I didn’t have any problems with audio, no. Perhaps try removing the device from device manager and reinstall the drivers? I suppose it’s also possible you have duff audio hardware.
May 8th, 2008 at 07:29
I have recently tried to partition the hard drive of a Phillips Freevents 11NB5800 and it went horibly wrong as it is rebooting the laptop the whole time. i would like to know how to restore the laptop from the recovery partition. i didnt delete anything but would like to know how to solve the prolem soon.
Thanks in advance for any solutions
May 8th, 2008 at 09:21
Stuart:
Did you make a recovery disc when you first booted the machine? If so, boot from that. If not, you’ll need to go the whole hog and delete all the partitions - assuming you have an XP Pro CD “nlite’d” as described in my post. You’ll need a boot disc to delete the partitions - try a Linux Live CD or something like BartPE: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
May 31st, 2008 at 12:55
Ubuntu Linux on 11NB5800:
I’ve installed the Ubuntu “Hardy Heron” 8.04 distribution on this Laptop. Everything except the wireless drivers seems to be pretty solid. Wireless networks only reconnect about 1 in 6 times at re-boot and take a long time to connect (2 mins) for encrypted networks. I tried installing the Ubuntu “backports” as I had read that this may fix the wireless issue, but on this hardware it just lost audio support too!
Booting from the old Ubuntu 7.04 distro live CD is much more satisfactory for wireless support, but the battery life indication and glidepad side-scrolling are bugged/unsupported.
I’m still hoping to resolve the wireless support under 8.04, but if not the I’ll go for 7.04 instead and hope that the Ubuntu guys get the wireless “unimproved” back to the level they were achieving a year ago!
BTW: I used the partioning feature of Vista to shrink the NTFS partition 2 to make space for further partitions, then installed Ubuntu manually into partitions I set-up using the gparted live CD. I was too chicken to remove the restore partition 1.
June 1st, 2008 at 00:07
Hi all!
I have a freevents xp 55, and i would like reinstall the xp, but i cannot, because the xp doesn’t see the hdd. I solved this problem, with raid slipstreamer, and the xp installed well, just after the reboot the xp loading, then blue death screen (like a memory problem) and reboot. I tried everything, but no more idea. How can i finish it??
If somebody know the solution, please write for me…
Thanks
June 1st, 2008 at 10:03
Peter,
Have you tried reinstalling XP again over the top?
June 6th, 2008 at 21:02
Hi.. Followed your instructions to the T and now my laptop is super fast under XP.. Thanks ever so much
June 6th, 2008 at 22:52
[...] that owns a Philips Freevents laptop and is finding it slow with Vista should take a look here as it gives a detailed account of how to successfully put XP over vista [...]
June 20th, 2008 at 09:54
Hi - good to meet you all. I was/am on the brink of buying an 11NB5800 to replace my old Philips - great machine - as I travel a lot and use it all day in front of groups I’m retiring it to the home office as it starting to look shabby. I was just thinking of moving on to Vista as the new machine has it… but after your comments I am not sure. There’s no way I could do all that partitioning stuff - I run loads of Powerpoints - would I be able to run the old stuff on Vista? would the PC World guys do all that partitioning and put XP on for me? thanks Jules
June 20th, 2008 at 10:15
Hi Jules,
If pretty much all you want to do is run Powerpoint, then you may as well stick with Vista. In my opinion, you get a faster, more responsive machine by putting XP on it, but you don’t sound like you’ll be doing anything that’d need a faster, more responsive machine. We don’t support Vista on our network, so it had to go. If you’re not on a corporate network then it shouldn’t matter to you.
Having said that, so long as you follow the instructions I’ve provided and linked to, anyone can do it. You just need confidence
I doubt very much the Tech Guys at Purple World would put XP on it for you - certainly not at a reasonable price, anyway.
June 20th, 2008 at 15:51
thanks deKay - that is very reassuring…. I’m not saying I won’t do anything else at all on it … but I’m not into games / media nor a techie so it would only be basic stuff. I really just want a lightweight and reliable laptop for the courses I run… and I have been very pleased with the other Freevents laptop. Weird though that Philips don’t seem to own up to any laptops! Thanks for your help … maybe I’ll get a boost of confidence and try your instructions! Jules
June 21st, 2008 at 15:52
Last possibility to recover the HD, my be the following: 1) buy one IOMEGA small portable HD, with USB interface, that includes a SATA HD. 2) swap the HD inside IOMEGA with the one inside the PC 3) reformat the HD using some tools. 4)reinstall the HD. (Good luck.)
June 25th, 2008 at 08:01
Hi, Great blog!
I’m trying to upgrade by X66 to 2GB of RAM. I’ve unscrewed all the screws on the base, plus the ones holding the screen and speaker section, but I still can’t get the base off. All the screws have been removed from under stickers and gromits, but the base only comes partly away. Not enough for me to do what I want.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
June 25th, 2008 at 09:03
Are there any clips or tabs holding the top half of the case to the bottom half? Try running a flat knife round the join.
June 25th, 2008 at 10:21
Everythings ok until you get to the section just above the CD bay, next to the express card slot. This won’t budge a millimete! Like it’s superglued! Perhaps I’ll just try sticking XP on instead. Do you know where I can get the Raid drivers from?
June 25th, 2008 at 10:32
ARRRGH. Now my touchpad has stopped working! Any ideas? I haven’t touched anyting inside the case and there are no obvious connections that I can see.
June 25th, 2008 at 17:17
Panic over! I’m now an expert in dismantling and rebuilding an X66 if anyone’s interested! Everything now up and running. I even upgraded the memory so I’m going to stick with Vista Ultimate. Thanks!
July 5th, 2008 at 17:28
hi again - my next question before I embark on the wonders of PC World support! My new 11NB5800 keep shutting itself off and coming back with safe mode options - a couple of semi-techie friends have looked at all the sleep/hibernate stuff, I’ve downloaded all the updates etc but it still keeps doing it - it’s 3 weeks old! and I deliver training so I can’t have it do this. Is this something obvious or should I brave PC World and its “customer service”! thanks Jules
July 5th, 2008 at 17:47
Hi Jules,
I think you might need to take it back. I presume you stuck with Vista in the end? The 11NB5800 does get pretty hot, so I suspect yours is probably overheating.
July 5th, 2008 at 18:20
Thanks D - yes I did stick with Vista (although a couple of people have suggested I shouldn’t have!) - I also put Norton on it - but someone slapped my wrists took it off and put on AVG free! I feel quite proud though cos I did think it might be overheating - is the fan underneath? wouldn’t it have been sensible to design it with ‘feet’! Ah well - the joys of PC World await me - thanks again j
July 14th, 2008 at 15:45
Hi, I have a 12NB5800 which came with vista! within a week i had it running XP because lets face it vista sucks. The laptop ran XP like a dream, fast and stable. Thing is, i’m now on a linux binge and have Ubuntu 8.04 working like a dream
yay. FYI, I brought the XP drivers from ebay. Msg here if you want the name of the seller.
July 22nd, 2008 at 14:17
I downloaded the file sata.exe which expanded to an extensive folder tree. - iata_cd-application-help-monitor-etc etc. However, I cannot see which files in all this are the actual driver files. What extension do they have etc. Many thanks, Errol
July 22nd, 2008 at 21:14
Errol:
If you’re using the nLite method of slipstreaming the drivers into the disc image, you don’t need to worry. Just try the folders you’ve expanded in turn (as you add the driver to the image), and it’ll find the driver files for you.
July 23rd, 2008 at 20:26
Thank you !!! I have XP working, BUT,
1. No sound. 2. When typing, the keys with blue symbols are the default. To get the normal letters, I have to press the blue Fn key. ie its function is reversed ! How do I fix this ? ie K gives a 2 unless I hold down Fn.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:28
Hi there ! I have now downloaded the sound drivers from F11Y and the chipset drivers. Will try them, but there doesn’t seem to be a keyboard driver available. I have set all language and regional to UK (including keyboard) but no joy so far. Any help would be very welcome. Is there a keyboard code to set ? Many thanks, Errol
July 27th, 2008 at 21:35
Errol:
You shouldn’t need a keyboard driver. The FN problem is almost certainly because numlock is on - turn it off. You may need to set in the BIOS whether numlock is on or off on boot up.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:03
Can i ask what is the point of instaling xp? Seems like a step back to me. I think nowadays, it is just ‘cool’ to dislike vista, which is a real shame because it isn’t a bad operating system, people just don’t give it a chance.
A lot of people (when asked) haven’t got a clue why xp is ‘better’ they just say it is. If they have any sort of reasonable excuse it can usually be discredited, especially with the release of sp1 which has improved the OS greatly. Did anyone use xp before the service packs? it was riddled with errors and security issues. service packs are microsofts way of saying that they are listening, and no matter what anyone says, no operating system is perfect when it gets released.
A minor nuance that many people have is the UAC, and i do admit that it is very annoying, but it takes literally 2 minutes (including a google search on how to do it) to turn it off.
Rant over
July 30th, 2008 at 16:25
Hi Joe,
There were several reasons to put XP on these machines:
1) The staff who are going to use them specifically wanted small, XP machines. They’d used Vista, and don’t like it.
2) We don’t support Vista on our network, and won’t until *all* our machines are capable of running it adequately. Past experience with mixed 2000/XP, 98/ME and ME/2000 networks have shown me that having more than one OS on the network causes support hell.
3) A lot of our software (mainly educational stuff) simply won’t run on Vista.
4) Our school management system is not supported if we run it on something other than XP or OS X, and the automatic updates don’t work if you use Vista.
5) The Freevents runs *much* quicker, and cooler (although it’s still pretty warm!), than it does with Vista. It boots in around 20 seconds, instead of over a minute.
August 6th, 2008 at 21:12
hi
read andy’s report on 25 june reference upgrading the 1g ram to 2g on his x66 i’m thinking of doing the same, andy states he has the experience does he have any tips i have tried to locate the whereabouts of the ram thought via the web as there is no access port as on many other laptops and i can’t find any information or drawings on any site, i did try removing the keyboard but alas it wasn’t there.
August 10th, 2008 at 17:04
hi andy, a couple of questions,
1; philips x66 duel 1.06 vista ultimate same laptop?
2; how did you solve the snag with taking it apart?
3; what memory did you get and how good is it running now?
frustrated owner wishing for no slow down!
August 18th, 2008 at 18:21
In reply to the last 2 comments, i recently upgraded mine from 1gb to 2gb of ram.
after the upgrade it boots a lot quicker, but running there isn’t (or doesn’t seem to be much diffrence) but then I thought it was a quick machine anyway.
got the RAM it’s self from ebay, 2gb was £35 delivered
How to install it…….Its a nightmare!
1, remove all the screws from the bottom, 13 in all. 3 under the battery, 3 under rubber bungs, and 1 under a warranty seal and the rest are visible
2, eject the CD (via powering up or the little pin hole to manually eject) remove the 2 screws now visible in on the lip of the CD tray.
3, now the hard bit, with the CD drive open GENTLY pull. What your trying to do here is unconnect the drive on the inside and slide it out of the laptop about 1cm, thats all it will come.
4, once the CD has been dissconnected you can then remove the bottom cover, for this your going to need some kind of plastic panal opener or the like as you will need to gently lever the cover over the VGA port, USB ports and audio ports.
5, the back cover will them come off and the CD drive will come with it.
The ram slot is then visible in the bottom right hand corner of the main board.
Putting it back together is the reverse.
Also worth noting it only has one slot, so buy a 2gb stick, not a 1gb hoping to end up with 2.
August 18th, 2008 at 18:42
Thanks for the helpful comments, Mark!
August 26th, 2008 at 15:07
Hi
I have a Twinhead H12Y (I think its also called a X55). When I first got it I was very pleased with the speed but it has noticeably slowed down over time. I have stopped all the crap that likes to live in the ststem tray. I have defragged it, cleaned it of spyware and adware etc but it is still slower than it should be. It runs XP media edition.
My question is how do I perform a full system recovery please. I know that I need to do it from the recovery partition but I do not know how and cannot find any instructions on the net.
It is my assumption that a full system recovery will get rid of everything except the default factory software. All my other software and data is backed up.
I am not a techie so please can I have instructions in idiotproof language. Thanks.
August 27th, 2008 at 09:37
I have an X56 / H12Y which is total junk. PC world replaced the touchpad 4 times, and the keyboard twice. When it came back the last time no audio, no device found, and no screen backlight. At this point I got fed up and in the end PC world gave me my money back. They didn’t want the laptop back. I have now had the defective card , below the screen in the top, replaced and the screen now works however still haven’t found a fix for the audio problems.
August 28th, 2008 at 04:24
Hi I have Philips 12NB5800 I have installed XP and everysingle driver but my camera doesn’t work the error says check device connection and make sure that any other application is not using this device at the moment. I have launched it under My Computer. P.S When I’ve installed XP the driver was already on can anyone tell me the model of the camera so I can download the proper driver?
August 28th, 2008 at 22:43
My problem is trivial compared with trying to run XP over a Vista installation and other headaches. But I do have a problem. I have a Phillips Freevents X54 with XP, Microsoft Office and Outlook 2003 and sometimes I seem to lose control of my cursor. I can be typing an email and take my eyes off the screen momentarily and the cursor has skipped a line, (or a paragraph), and I find I am typing in the wrong place. Or suddenly the cursor, of its own accord moves to a sidebar and starts scrolling the page up or down.
I have never experienced this before with any other computer or laptop and do not know if it is peculiar to Phillips X54 or is it a quirk in the software installed? Can anyone help please?
Bob
September 5th, 2008 at 00:58
I have 11NB5800 too. Is there any option to have XP on external-USB connected HD or on SD card and keep Vista on the internal HD and decide which OS to boot? That would be great for me because I am not a TechGuy:) - not able to struggle reinstallation and because I am leaving for Africa for few months and that gives me opportunity continue working while one system is bluescreened.
Can you recomend and guidline how to install XP to external HD and setup BIOS? My Vista doesn`t allow me to install XP at all, not even to the external HD or SD card. BIOS doesn`t show me option to boot from USB or SD card, just CD/DVD, HD or some Network:Realtek Boot Agent - what is that?
Thanks for any help
September 25th, 2008 at 12:36
Oops. Oh boy, I really wish I’d read this before trying to install XP on my 5800……..
I now have a 2 month old machine that appears useless, completely locked up as per deKay’s orginal ‘problem 4′ and as far as I can see, irretrievable. Cannot even get into the BIOS to boot from an alternative device. Have rung the Techguys (not Philips) support and been told, wait for it, the installation of any other OS invalidates the warranty.
So, there doesn’t appear to be much point in sending it back to pay for them to sort it - I may as well try to do it myself. presumably by removing the HDD and reformatting in another machine as necessary. Would be very grateful for anyone who has a walkthrough on how to dismantle one of these babies
September 27th, 2008 at 12:09
I think if you want to install XP on this laptop, just use VMWare or any Virtual Machine Utilities and THAT’S IT!!!
September 27th, 2008 at 13:52
I think you’re missing the point. One reason for replacing Vista with XP is that the latter runs much quicker. Running XP in a VM under Vista is only going to be slower - not faster.
September 28th, 2008 at 00:26
Hi Just read some of you blog.
I am looking for a recovery disk for the Philips x55.
Any idea where I could get one?
Thank
September 28th, 2008 at 10:02
jar:
This any use?