Upgrading an extremely old laptop (Samsung X10) from XP to win10

Fafhrd · 02 May 2017

Often the USB is seen as a Hard Disk - it needs to be moved to the first boot above the HDD.

But:

Even if the machine does not support booting from USB, a bootmanager such as Plop boot manager (also available from the EasyBCD program - add new entry, portable/external, BIOS Extender) can give you a boot entry that does!

alecela · 02 May 2017

alecela said:

Ok Gents, armed w/ an win10 install USB created as per this link AND an win7 clean-install DVD, I tried my luck again this past weekend:
1st off, this machine is SO old that it doesn't even seem to support booting from USB as i can't seem to locate the USB boot option with the BIOS. The best I can manage is selecting 'removable devices' as the 1st in the boot sequence, ahead of CD rom and internal HDD. Needless to say, it doesn't see the USB at all and went to CD/DVD drive.

Subsequently I tried my luck in terms of booting straight from the win7 install DVD. This time I ran into BSOD, complaining that the BIOS in my x10 is NOT fully ACPI compliant! I'm trying to research into this error but not looking good at the moment! :-(

Well, I managed to figure out the BSOD, by turning off the Speed Step in the BIOS and got win7 to install without a glitch. When I tried to go further by upgrading to win10, I got stopped out cold by the install program stating that my CPU does not support PAE/NX. Upon further checking, it does seem that my CPU is a bit too old for the PAE/NX BUT somehow it does support SSE2. In any case, I think win7 is good enough for the purposes now I just need to figure out whereI can get the win7 driver as even the ethernet driver is missing!

SIW2 · 02 May 2017

Bios update 09YE (VRAM 64mb)

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/co...08265_09YE.EXE

Bios update 08EE
Íóæíà ïðîøèâêà BIOS äëÿ notebook Samsung X10

micom_ver_08ee__vram_is_32mb__945.rar

alecela · 03 May 2017

Bree said:

The normal way to do a clean install of Windows 10 is to boot from physical install media (DVD or USB). You can download the Media Creation Tool and use that to make install media for another PC. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10

One quick question: Do I have to do anything special to make the USB bootable? I did the media creation on a normal USB then tried to boot off it but no luck... Not sure if I have to do it the old fashion way, like formatting the USB prior and specifying it being bootable...

Bree · 03 May 2017

alecela said:

Do I have to do anything special to make the USB bootable?

No. If you used the Media Creation Tool to make USB install media it will make a bootable USB.

You may need to change the boot priority in your Samsung X10's bios in order to boot from a USB.
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/65...s.html?page=88

alecela · 04 May 2017

Fafhrd said:

Often the USB is seen as a Hard Disk - it needs to be moved to the first boot above the HDD.

But:

Even if the machine does not support booting from USB, a bootmanager such as Plop boot manager (also available from the EasyBCD program - add new entry, portable/external, BIOS Extender) can give you a boot entry that does!

You're right. I managed to find the USB disc within the HDD and changed the boot sequence such that it's booting form the USB PRIOR to HDD. Tx for the tips.

alecela · 04 May 2017

Just a quick update FWIW: I managed to identify the wifi adaptor: Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B PCI and found the driver directly from intel:

Downloads for IntelÂ® PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection

Once I got the wifi working, I was able to get online, update of windows 7 eventually got drivers updated for the remaining devices so all good now. Thanks to all for your kind suggestions & pointers.

rawbl1 · 28 May 2017

alecela said:

I'm planning to give away to local charity my old trusty Samsung X10 Laptop installed w/ win XP. Knowing that it's completely out-dated and lacks any support whatsoever, I fear that it might produce more trouble than the potential benefit. As such, I'm thinking of a clean install of win10 so that hopefully someone can get some use out of it with little hassle. It's got a 1.5Ghz single core CPU and 2Gb of RAM w/ 40Gb PATA HDD. I *believe* it should meet the minimum requirement for windows 10. Here're the problem I've encountered so far:

I copied the win10 ISO file onto the USB and used virtual CD program to access it (create the drive, then mount the file etc etc). Unfortunately the laptop complained the setup.exe is NOT a valid win32 app. I check the very same file on my own laptop and the it is perfectly intact. I also defrag'ed the HDD on the X10 prior so that there is literally NO fragmented file anymore. At this point, I'm running out of option and can't seem to find a good solution while searching the net. Any help/pointer pls? Tx in advance.

Sometimes too old is just too old!