185A5 * Win2K

[Grayson]

Hey all!

I'm new to this forum so bear with me if this has been repeated (couldnt find anything so far). I just bought the 185A5. I want to redo the software load completely. I would like to use Win2K as I'll be dual booting between an english version and a chinese version. I read somewhere that the 185A5 does not work with Win2K at all? Is this correct? Thanks.

[Angus]

The 185A5 and 200A5 work perfectly well with Windows 2000. I should know too, since I'm running Windows 2000 Pro on my 200A5. Well, I shouldn't say it works PERFECTLY since there's on problem that seems to be permanent... System standby does not work. It will enter standby mode but not come back. Permanent coma requiring a reboot. But hey who cares, I just use hibernate which saves more battery (since the computer is OFF) and works just fine.

Here's a few tips to follow for installing Windows 2000. Your mileage may vary since I have a 200A5 but they should be identical really. I'm just covering my ass!!

1. Go to vprmatrix.com and download ALL the drivers first thing. Then take the drivers and burn them onto a CD before you start installing Win2k or get rid of XP. This is essential.

2. Do a totally fresh reformat to get rid of XP.

3. Install Win2k as normal and let it install all your hardware with default (albeit incorrect) drivers. Reboot.

4. Stick that CD you burned into the drive and install everything on it taking care to reboot when it asks. You should see hardware problems in Device Manager start to disappear

5. Install all the drivers including both keyboard drivers.

6. When you setup new user accounts if you're not going to go the advanced route and setup a group policy to disable accounts from having Standby as a default option in power savings (and even I'm not that anal) then just make sure that when you create accounts you disable Standby and replace it with Hibernate.

I can't think of anything else that's essential. That's pretty much all there is to it. My 200A5 is running strong to this day using what i feel is the first and only decent OS microsoft has made to date. Hehehehe. Though I'm starting to yern for the skinning of XP. But that's a hard sell even for me and I'm really picky about how ugly Windows is by default.