This has been a long time coming. One of the most frequent questions I receive (and poor old Simone has to answer to) is “How do I put Windows XP on my PC?”

I’ve sent draft versions of these instructions to people who say the magic words in the right order and at the right moment but as Simone and I are seriously democratic kinda guys we decided to polish it up a little and publish it here.

I would like to make the usual disclaimer. I haven’t checked this with the legal department but please remember that this was done in the spare time of a guy who really does know what he’s doing. It is, therefore, authoritative but by no means official. I need to make this clear as you could be violating your warranty rights by doing this.

OK. Still interested? Right…

To install Windows XP on AS5920 / AS5920G you have a range of different choices:

First – using an FDD reader
You need an external USB FDD reader. The important thing is that this reader must be recognized by the BIOS of your computer, because it has to work as soon as the machine boots and Windows Setup starts.

Second – Integrating all necessary drivers into a Windows XP CD, this means burning a CD with added files.

Third – change the BIOS parameter “SATA mode” from AHCI to IDE (you need the BIOS v3708).
How? Turn on the notebook and press F2, move to “main” page, you can see the SATA mode parameter below in the page … change it with F5/F6 keys

Why do I have to do that?
What’s the difference?
Do I really have to do that?

Well, if you’ve got the time read on, otherwise, scroll down a few paragraphs.

AHCI is the main functionality mode for Intel HDD controller; it’s the enhanced mode that manages the latest SATA drives, but Windows XP cannot recognize this working mode because it’s too “old”. Vista Setup can work without problems, but who cares? You want WinXP!!

That’s why you need additional drivers – to inform WinXP about this new working mode of controller. Change mode from “AHCI” to “IDE” and the controller emulates the default IDE controller, so also Windows XP can recognize the controller without the new drivers but with its own.

What’s the best way? The new AHCI should be the right one, but I haven’t seen many differences during normal use… but that’s just my personal opinion. And if you don’t have an USB floppy driver, it’s probably also the quickest way to setup Windows…. Besides, it’s much better than buying one just to install Windows XP, no? 

I’m assuming you have the driver for the AHCI controller; it’s from f6flpy32 package v7.5.0.1017 or newer version, which you can download from the Intel support website.

If you want to go the IDE way, you don’t need this step, simply plug the CD and run.

When you have downloaded the zipped package, extract it . . . you will find another exe file (f6flpy32.exe), it’s a winimage file that lets you to create the floppy you will use later to install Windows XP.

(What? a floppy? in 2007 I really need a floppy?? – well, you have the second choice too)

I have added a picture for beginners and for all of you who don’t remember what it is…….

Floppy!

this is a floppy !

You need one of these for AHCI mode installation.

Now you need the FDD reader, plug it into a USB port, insert the floppy into the reader and run the “f6flpy32.exe” file.
When the program completes all steps, you will find some files inside the floppy:

Directory of A:\

09/14/2007 05:06 PM &ltDIR&gt .
09/14/2007 05:06 PM &ltDIR&gt ..
04/11/2007 01:36 AM 11,352 iaahci.cat
04/06/2007 03:29 PM 8,116 iaahci.inf
04/11/2007 01:41 AM 11,156 iastor.cat
04/06/2007 03:31 PM 7,678 iastor.inf
03/21/2007 12:58 PM 304,920 iastor.sys
04/11/2007 03:26 PM 11,321 license.txt
03/21/2007 12:09 PM 45,465 readme.txt
03/21/2007 11:59 AM 4,243 txtsetup.oem
8 File(s) 404,251 bytes

Now you should restart the notebook, press F2 and enter into CMOS BIOS setup
Move to MAIN screen and push F12 to change the boot sequence.

Insert your Windows CD into the optical drive (DVD burner unit) and restart the notebook again, saving all the changes.

When the Acer splash screen appears, you should see below a message like “press F2 ….. “ and newest message shown “press F12 to change the boot sequence”; OK!! Just do it, press F12 and choose to boot from optical DVD drive.

Press F6 immediately after Windows boots from the CD (you can read a message below on your screen, it’s shown as soon as Windows starts, on a blue background screen), press the F6 key more than once just to be sure the boot sequence can recognize the command but when you have done it, don’t expect a message from the system like “ok, I have understood what you want!” or “You’re installing manually, you’re a real PRO!” or “thanks for choosing our Company!”. Windows will continue as if nothing is happening, so don’t panic if you don’t see signs of life 

After about 10 seconds the message will change to “press F2 for …. blah blah blah”, this is the right moment to stop pressing the F6 key and wait while Windows setup runs.

Windows will now show you a new screen asking you to choose additional drivers from another source, press “S” key, Windows will read the floppy and will prompt a list of controllers, select the controller with name: Intel(R) 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller (it should be the third on the list).

That’s all; Windows will load the correct driver from FDD and will continue the installation.
After this you will see the same screen as before, but his time the AHCI controller is listed; in this way you could add another driver if needed, but you don’t .

NOW press ENTER and go ahead partitioning HDD and installing Windows XP.

It’s not easy I know and AHCI technology requires some “special steps”, but if you really want XP Microsoft has made sure you have to jump through some rather spectacular hoops to do it.

The second option does not require a FDD reader, (easier!) but you need to burn a Windows XP bootable CD after adding the necessary files into the default Microsoft Windows CD content (not so easy!).

How do I do that? Just copy, paste and burn a new CD?
Mmmmh it seems easy, but it’s not the right way …

There are many guides in Internet that explain how to do this, and they are very detailed, don’t ask me to copy one of them here. If you want to use this option I strongly suggest you use “nlite” software and their guides to do all steps easily
The web site is easy to navigate trough, and there are guides in a lot of languages, really a great job!

And don’t forget the last option! You can install with IDE compatibility mode without any driver…
Some of you might be daunted by all this (I know Michael is!). Some of you might think I’ve only covered the main steps but that was the point of this post. There are plenty of other sites online with more in-depth guidelines (search for “how to install Windows XP”), but from a practical point of view, these are all the important steps you need to know.

I hope this guide will be easy enough for most of you … probably my concept of “easy stuff” is different from yours but I hope this helps…

One final note. I strongly suggest you check to see if the USB FDD reader is recognized by your AS5920 BIOS, just because I can use my Acer USB FDD reader, I cannot guarantee it’ll read yours even if I’ve never had any issues with USB floppy drives that failed with notebooks. . . .

How to check the FDD Bios recognition?
Simple:
1- Plug the FDD in a USB port
2- Start the notebook and press F2
3- Move to BOOT option screen
If you can see the USB FDD reader in the bootable device option list, you can use it to install Windows