Broadcom WLAN driver for Acer 5750Z in XP

[jeff009]

I recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5750Z laptop and I'm attempting to install Windows XP Pro onto it. (XP Pro because I have some older hardware and software which doesn't run under Win7).

I've managed to install 32-bit XP Pro, + SP3, and have managed to get drivers installed for everything exception the WLAN card, and I'm looking for some help to get it installed and running.

I know that the WLAN card is a Broadcom WLAN card, but I don't know the chip set. I'm new at this, but I guess for starters,
1) Are drivers available for my WLAN card for Win XP 32-bit? (I know not from the Acer site, but I mean elsewhere)
2) How do I determine the chipset of my LAN card? I was thinking that maybe if I knew the chip set I could try to locate drivers that way. Unfortunately, I'm not certain how to go about finding out what the chipset actually is.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[blazorthon]

Look up the specifications for that laptop on Acer.com to find out the exact model of your WiFi card and then check for an XP driver for it with Google. If you know the exact model of WiFi card that you have and are having trouble finding the proper driver, then copy/paste the model name here and I'll look around for the drivers.

 

[blazorthon]

Also, there might not be an XP driver for it, so you might need to re-install 7 and then run XP in a VM and give it direct access to your older hardware such as printers and such and then share then on the virtual network (or connect the VM directly to your main network and share it to all computers on the network that you want to).

 

[jeff009]

Thanks blazorthon,

The Acer web site isn't too forthcoming on specs. I chatted with their support and was finally able to get the following out of them:

WIRELESS LAN BROADCOMM (FW 04L4), FOXCONN, 43225 2X2 BGN (HM) T77H103.00

I'm guessing that the chipset is 43225, but that's just a WAG.

Searching "broadcom 43225" I did find that Acer 5230 laptops use the same WLAN card, so I went to Acer's site, downloaded the Broadcom WLAN drivers (for XP), and install on my laptop, but no luck. The WLAN card still doesn't like the drivers and is unconfigured.

At the moment, the only other information that I have is that while in Win7, the hardware item is listed as "Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter".

When I open up the computer, the WLAN card has printed on it:

T77H268.00 HF
2201000763-03

(note: the info the support person gave me said "T77H103.00", but my WLAN clearly has "T77H268.00 HF" printed on it)

Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[blazorthon]

Maybe you don't have the wireless auto-configure service running.

I don't have access to my old XP laptop right now because it's in a different building, but on my Server 2008r2 computer, I had to make sure that a certain service was running before I could use my WiFi adapter. For me, it's called "WLAN Autoconfig" in my services from "Administrative Tools" in the control panel. It might have a different name on XP, but it's probably the same.

I'll see if I can find solutions to your driver problem, but check if you have the service running or not. It should be set to Automatic so that it will automatically start itself on boot-up.

 

[jeff009]

Thanks blazorthon, I don't think the auto-config was the issue. I think the piece you are referring to is more of a system-wide tool, where as the issue I was working on was more lower-level/needed to be resoved first before getting to the WLAN auto-config.


Well eureka though! I managed to get it working. On the WLAN card is the number, T77H268.00 HF. I searched for "acer T77H268.00 HF and noticed that the Acter TravelMate 8481 has the same WLAN card. I went onto Acer's site and that particular model supports 32-bit WinXP, so installed this driver and it seems to be working now.

 

[jeff009]

Best answer selected by jeff009.

 

[blazorthon]

You're welcome, glad to see that you got it working.