I bought a Toshiba A135-S4527 with Windows Vista Premium installed on it. I quickly decided to downgrade to XP Pro. It took me days of searching to locate all the drivers since Toshiba does not provide XP drivers for this laptop.
Installing all the updates from the Windows Update site did a lot of the drivers for me. HOWEVER, Windows Update will misdiagnose the display adapter. It will try to install a driver for the Intel 945GM but it must be some generic 945GM driver, because it will not give you full functionality (e.g., multiple display outputs, etc). Use the method I describe below to get the correct 945GM driver for this display adapter. ===================================================== Hardware and drivers needed to run Win XP Pro on Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 ============================================================== Run 'infinst_autol.exe'. This is an Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility (now called Intel Chipset Device Software I think).
It will identify and load the proper driver files (.inf) for various things. I did this at the end last time, but if done near the beginning, it might take care of things like display adapter, etc. Check Intel's site for the most updated one. Go to Display adapter is Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset Family Driver was named win2k_xp14182.exe. I downloaded it initially from &agr=n&lang=eng&prdmap=2301 Mouse is Synaptics PS/2 Port Touchpad Driver file was called XP_2K.8.3.4.zip. Can be downloaded from the Synaptics website.
Wireless adapter is Atheros AR5006EG Driver can be gotten from Windows Update (or maybe the Win Vista CD too) Ethernet adapter is Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC Driver can be gotten from Windows Update (or maybe the Win Vista CD too) Modem is Toshiba Software modem Driver can be gotten from Win Vista CD. During XP installation, drivers were automatically loaded for: - multimedia card reader - firewire port (IEEE 1394) - DVD/CD drive. Thanks for the info!! Im about to do the downgrade, but I have some questions first. Do I have to disable the SATA interface from the BIOS when Im about to start the xp installation?
Im saying this because when I downgraded a pavilion laptop, I had to do this. After I finished I installed the SATA drivers and then I enabled SATA from the BIOS again. I imagine that I need to do this since xp doesnt have sata compatibility (at the moment of installation), but Im asking anyways. Second question, I presume that infinst_autol.exe contains among other thingies, the sata and audio drivers needed. Is this correct?
Download the latest drivers for your Toshiba Satellite A135 to keep your Computer up-to-date.
Thanks a lot and I hope I get an answer soon!!! I got this laptop a few days ago and after one session with vista and seeing how slow it was and how much of the mem it ate while just at rest ( had only 50% ram avail) and how much hd space it took ( had 50 gig out of 80 avail with just crap toshiba had on it), I decided to put windows xp on it.
I formated the hd from the xp install disk, and almost half the drivers were already on just from xp. I dug around in a few places like this forum and another and found all the rest in one sitting! No worries it can be done with any pc - do not let idiot sales and service folks try to tell you the hardware was built only to function on vista! They tried that crap on me lol. This machine screams now.
Boot times are about 1/10 as long and everything run a ton faster - i click on my internet connect button on left of laptop and i am on in 1 second flat and that is no exageration and that is on wireless! Browsing is faster and installations are faster.
YOu have to do this if you dislike vista it is easy if you are used to installing operating systems. Good luck and do it - you will thanks us for telling you to.
Satellite A135-S4527 ACPI Flash BIOS version 1.40 Change History Version 1.40 A BIOS update was applied due to Intels request. Version 1.30 A workaround was implemented to correct a Realtek 8101E LAN Driver 186.1103.2006 issue that caused the computer to automatically wake from hibernation.
Version 1.20 The Intel micro-code was updated because some T2060 processors would be incorrectly configured. Corrected: Second HDD failures when waking from S4. Added: Critical Battery Wake-up item in Setup. Corrected an issue where the Fn sticky key function was still enabled after waking from Ctrl Alt Del -- lock this computer.