I bought a Gateway GT5628 from buy.com when they were on sale for $599.99 with some additional coupons and free shipping. The first thing I wanted to do was to remove Vista and install Windows XP Home Edition but I ran into a problem during the installation. The first problem was that the PC hit the blue screen of death during the first running of Windows XP after the files were copied over and the second problem was that I couldn’t get the mass storage drivers on because the motherboard had no provision for a floppy drive. The end solution is to use the Driver Packs Base software, a few tricks and Nero to burn a bootable ISO that is a “SplitStream” Windows installation disk with all the drivers already on it. Here are the basic steps:

1) Buy Windows XP and download isobuster, then copy the entire CD and boot image from your Windows XP CD directly to the hard drive according to the instructions here:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm
2) Install the DriverPacks BASE software and then download the CPU, Chipset and MassStorage driver packs. Put the files directly in the DriverPacks installation directly, like this example: c:Program FilesDPs_BASE_7052DriverPacksput the driverpack files here.
3) Walk through the DriverPacks BASE software, select the correct driver packs and create the output.
4) Burn the CD using the instructions here: http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd_nero.htm
5) Install Windows XP
6) Use the sound driver here: http://downloadmirror.intel.com/8658/eng/5.10.5258_MSXP_W_STACGUI_HDFP.exe
7) Use most of the drivers from Intel because Gateway only released Vista drivers for this board: Intel XP Drivers
8) Get the Nvidia Driver from Nvidia

Your done with a complete XP installation and now have a splitstreamed disk you can use in the future. This took me a while to assemble and was frustrating. I tried a few things before reaching this solution and had the DP0304 bios as covered in another post.

This procedure should also work to put XP on other gateway hardware and may include:

Gateway GM5478 Desktop Computer [Part #1009570]
Gateway GM5485E Desktop Computer [Part #1009586]
Gateway GM5485H Desktop Computer [Part #1009597]
Gateway GT5214j Desktop Computer [Part #1014668R]
Gateway GT5216j Desktop Computer [Part #1014670R]
Gateway GT5218j Desktop Computer [Part #1014676R]
Gateway GT5628 Desktop Computer [Part #1014737R]
Gateway GM5632E Desktop Computer [Part #1014739R]
Gateway GT5636E Desktop Computer [Part #1014825R]
Gateway GM5638E Desktop Computer [Part #1014837R]
Gateway GT4220m Desktop Computer [Part #1014857R]
Gateway GM5643E Desktop Computer [Part #1014859R]
Gateway GT4222m Desktop Computer [Part #1014867R]
Gateway GT5226j Desktop Computer [Part #1014950R]
Gateway GT5228j Desktop Computer [Part #1014951R]
Gateway GT5092b Desktop Computer [Part #1014956R]
Gateway GT4224m Desktop Computer [Part #1015181R]
Gateway GT5236j Desktop Computer [Part #1015197R]
Gateway GT5240j Desktop Computer [Part #1015202R]
Gateway FX7024 Desktop Computer [Part #1015229R]

Here are some nice references in my search:
http://www.msfn.org/board/Big-Trouble-Installing-Sound-Drivers-t114654.html&pid=749757#entry749757
http://forum.driverpacks.net/viewtopic.php?id=1647
http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=21764&dscr=Intel%20(Schroeder%20Town)%20G33%20Motherboard%20BIOS%20Update&uid=192178515
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=207544960&loc=101
http://www.isobuster.com/

I purchased a Gateway GT5628 when it was on sale at Buy.com for $599.99 with some coupons and free shipping so it looked like a great machine. My biggest problem was Vista, we have too much incompatible software and Vista is simply too latent when moving quickly from task to task which is what I do often. My first step was to remove Vista and try to install XP.

I immediately ran into a brick wall as the XP install would blue screen as soon as it went to start Windows for the first time. One thing I wanted to try was to upgrade the known buggy bios on the motherboard. DPP3510J.15A.0261.2007 was the firmware on it and the gateway bios revision site only had bios update tools that run through Windows for this Intel (Schroeder Town) G33 Motherboard BIOS Update: http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?st=pn&param=1014737R .

I wanted to do this without Windows so I found the intel bios update tool for the same board: Intel ISO / CD Based bios update tool . Intel has a really nice bootable iso that you can simply use. So I stripped the newer bios from the gateway exe file using 7zip, put it in the intel iso using poweriso and updated the autoexec.bat file to match. The result is a nice iso that updates the gateway board to the newest firmware without windows.

After the revision your bios should be DPP3510J.15A.0304 . I know some people say that you can use the Intel update directly if you find xxx bios and whatnot but I just wanted to update the bios reliably, quickly and without windows.

Download the iso by clicking here DP0304P.iso

This firmware update should also work for the following Gateway hardware:

Gateway GM5478 Desktop Computer [Part #1009570]
Gateway GM5485E Desktop Computer [Part #1009586]
Gateway GM5485H Desktop Computer [Part #1009597]
Gateway GT5214j Desktop Computer [Part #1014668R]
Gateway GT5216j Desktop Computer [Part #1014670R]
Gateway GT5218j Desktop Computer [Part #1014676R]
Gateway GT5628 Desktop Computer [Part #1014737R]
Gateway GM5632E Desktop Computer [Part #1014739R]
Gateway GT5636E Desktop Computer [Part #1014825R]
Gateway GM5638E Desktop Computer [Part #1014837R]
Gateway GT4220m Desktop Computer [Part #1014857R]
Gateway GM5643E Desktop Computer [Part #1014859R]
Gateway GT4222m Desktop Computer [Part #1014867R]
Gateway GT5226j Desktop Computer [Part #1014950R]
Gateway GT5228j Desktop Computer [Part #1014951R]
Gateway GT5092b Desktop Computer [Part #1014956R]
Gateway GT4224m Desktop Computer [Part #1015181R]
Gateway GT5236j Desktop Computer [Part #1015197R]
Gateway GT5240j Desktop Computer [Part #1015202R]
Gateway FX7024 Desktop Computer [Part #1015229R]
[Part #1015336R]
[Part #1015350R]
[Part #1015351R]
[Part #1015427R]
Intel (Schroeder Town) G33 Motherboard [Part #4006194R]
Intel (Schroeder Town) G33 Motherboard [Part #4006269R]

It has been a while since I posted. Trying to dump my views here will just take too long to research and articulate so I’m just going to post about things that are fixes for bugs I run into and reference information that will help me out down the line if I need to come back to it. Perhaps it will help some others out too.

Ok, so MS downloaded Service Pack 1 for my Windows XP install automatically and I decided to let it install. It failed and subsequently prevented me from opening Quickbooks Enterprise. I searched around for a while about a Quickbooks problem, thinking it was something related to Quickbooks not starting or failing to start as it would just get to the loading screen, scroll some dots across the screen and fail with no diagnostic information reported. I realized that it was probably the failed .net 2.0 install as Quickbooks does use and require this.

After searching for a while I found this:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2820568&SiteID=1 . I used the advice posted by Tammysisland and downloaded the very nice dotnet cleanup tool here: http://astebner.sts.winisp.net/Tools/dotnetfx_cleanup_tool.zip . Once I ran the tool I followed his instructions though I did not bother with .net 3.0 and I probably didn’t need to bother with .net 1.1. It is worth noting that I did have to install .net 1.0, install the 1.0 patch, reboot, install 1.1 patch, reboot, install 2.0, install 2.0 patch and I was good. I did delete the temp files after each operation. I suspect this affects a lot of intuit products like turbotax, quicken, quickbooks, etc.

Well I got the same error with my TURBO TAX and installing Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 from the microsoft site would not work. SO HERE IS A LITTLE PATCH “SEE LINK BELOW” THAT WILL CLEAN UP YOUR .NET FRAMEWORK FOR YOU then it will work.

I too have Windows XP SP2, FULLY LOADED UP TO .NET 3.0 the error codes for SP1 were throwing me off.

I first got error code KB929300 AND KB110806, then couldn’t get those to work at all, tried to ignore them for awhile. Then, when I tried to install my Turbotax software it would not install!! Found in other blogs that .NET framework 3.5. install might fix the issue. AND YES I could not get 3.5 to install either, I got error code .Net 2.0a. So finally got this cleanup tool!!! Evidently somehow the .NET FRAMEWORK either got corrupted or?? well who knows. Anyway, here it is, you need the link below to fix it. Plus read all my notes on housekeeping to get this to work and solve your pesky problems too! It worked for me and now I am HAPPY!!!

http://astebner.sts.winisp.net/Tools/dotnetfx_cleanup_tool.zip

1) Clean off delete all temp files off your machine, with ccleaner.com or other, or just go to Local Settings, Temp (have to unhide these files to see them). VITAL!!!

2) Close all internet windows open, VITAL!!!

3) Close HP photo digital imaging monitor in task tray, if you have a high end HP printer installed like I do, HP C7180, I found it interfered w/ installations.

4) Run Zip file link above

5) Immediately close Microsoft.com update internet window where you got zip file, or it won’t work!!!

6) direct it to fix all versions of .NET, may need to restart computer

7) repeat steps 1-3

8) Open Windows update check for updates, custom install should have 3-4 packages to update

9) Update only one at a time, start with .NET FRAMEWORK version 1.1 Service Pack 1

10) restart computer, repeat steps 1-3

11) Open windows update check for updates, custom, may have KB928366 OR KB110806, ONLY run one update at a time.

12) restart computer, repeat steps 1-3

13) open windows update, check for updates, custom install should have KB829019 .NET 2.0:X86 run install

14) restart computer, repeat steps 1-3

15) open windows update custom install, KB928416 .NET 3.0:x86 should be last one.

16) restart computer

17) May get a few anomoly error messages documentviewer.msi missing or can’t find photogallery, will have to resolve these later, end messages running with “WINDOWS TASK MANAGER” to move on.

Anyway this fixed it for me, plus it fixed the original errors I kept getting from not being able to update and install KB929300 AND KB110806 Microsoft updates which were pesky SP1 updates that were to say the least annoying!!!