Recently, Circuit City has HP Compaq Presario CQ50-142US on sale for US$499.99 after US$30 rebate. I think it a pretty good deal especially it comes with a big 15.4” monitor, Intel Pentium Dual-Core Mobile T3200, 3GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive. I decided to grab one.

Of course it comes with the stupid Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (or whatever), I turned the machine on (with Vista) and, as expected, it is slow as hell. I know I will either get Windows XP installed or have it refunded. After battling with it for two days, I finally got Windows XP running on the new CQ50-142US with some problems that I still cannot solve: the built-in microphone does not work as the notorious Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221 refuses to work under Windows XP; a perfectly working driver is nowhere to be found. The sound card, however, is working and it correctly mutes the speakers when I plug in the earphone. Another minor problem is the wireless button. It does not turn blue under Windows XP, but I can simply live with that. Currently, I installed two operation systems on the notebook: XP and Vista just because of the microphone issue.

The HP Compaq Presario CQ50-142US uses Intel ICH9 I/O Controller, which is so new that you will get a nice blue screen of death (0x0000007b error) if you just pop in the Windows XP installation CD and try to install it. Moreover, CQ50-142US does not offer SATA compatibility option in BIOS (nice try, HP!). You will either need to have a USB floppy drive ready and press F6 to install the driver (which can be obtained from Intel’s web site) or have a specially prepared installation CD by integrating the Intel ICH9m Chipset driver into the Windows XP installation CD image using nLite. After that, it’s just the Windows XP installation routine.

After you enter the Windows XP, that’s where the pain starts; you will have to battle with the drivers.

First, you need to install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Driver. You will need to reboot before you can install the audio driver.

After the reboot, you will most likely see two Audio Devices in Device Manager.

Then, you need to get Intel 4 Series Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Windows XP which includes the driver for CQ50-142US’s 4500MHD video card.

After installing the graphic driver, you will see that Intel HDMI audio device has been regconized and installed.

You will still see a Unkkown Audio Device and that is the notorious Conexant 221. You will have to manually update the driver by right clicking on it and install whatever Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221 driver you can find. The only working version I found so far is 3.47.0.0 (2008/01/21). The funny thing is that you can also install the Vista audio driver provided by HP. It will install, but the device will not function. Anyway, the built-in mic will not function correctly. There is no solution so far, so you can just move on.

You will also need to install Intel INF Update Utility for Intel 4, 3, 900 Series Chipsets. That will solve those SM Bus and some other non-working devices.

Driver for HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP can easily be found on HP’s website (sp33839).

Drivers for Atheros AR5007 Wireless Ethernet Adaptor and Realtek RTL8102E Ethernet adaptor (sp38329) are not hard to find either. There are plenty of links on HP’s support forum.

You will also need to install the driver for Realtek USB 2.0 Card Reader if you have not yet done so.

Lucky, the web cam works fine with Windows XP built-in web cam Driver.

Another HP official Vista driver that will work on Windows XP is the Synaptics PS/2 Port Touchpad Driver (sp39534). You will need it if you want to customize the touch pad functionalities.

Finally, don't forget to install HP Quick Launch(sp39425) driver or your keyboard shortcuts will not work.

As I mentioned earlier, there are two issues under Windows XP so far.

First, the built-in microphone does not work at all. I tested the microphone under Vista and it works flawlessly, so unless there is a new Conexant HD SmartAudio 221 Driver for Windows XP, it will not function correctly under XP.

The second is the wireless switch button. Normally, the button has a blue light when the wireless is on and has an orange light when the wireless is off. However, it always stays orange when under Windows XP. Although it is a minor issue, I actually wonder if there is a solution to this.

*** Note: I also found another problem; that is the laptop's screen fails to turn on after recovering from stand-by mode (tho the system is running).

This laptop is lighting fast under Windows XP since it got 3GB of RAM (Vista uses most of them for stupid visual effects). I ran EA’s Command and Conquer 3 using 1280 x800 resolution (low-detail setting though) and the game play is smooth. I think Intel 4500MHD is actually good enough for casual gaming.