Windows Vista / 7 WITHOUT ACPI?

1607

So recently I obtained a couple of older Toshiba laptops - a 110CT and 480CDT. Both work fine and the 480CDT was happily running Win2k.

Whilst I know that the install would be completely unusable, I thought it'd be interesting to try and get Vista / 7 on the 480CDT. It currently has 64MB RAM but another stick is on the way - and Win7 will boot with 64MB anyways. My problem is the lack of ACPI support in the BIOS. This prevents both the installer from starting and a transported install from another PC from booting.

I know with XP there was a way to force the "Standard PC" HAL - is there any way to do this in Vista / 7?

(I'm going to try pre-reset Longhorn too)

calvinb

No dice - starting in Vista, the only HAL is for ACPI systems. IIRC, 7 needs 128 MB to boot? It's surprisingly comfy with 512 MB though.

1607

I've had 7 run with 96MB and it *should* run with 64MB, but if there's no HAL then that's the end of it.

I've got the Longhorn setup booting (4053), just need to find a way to bypass the RAM requirement.

calvinb

If you're lucky enough, there may be BIOS updates that added ACPI support. I know the final generation of "classic" (read; pre-letter series) ThinkPads like the 600X got them.

1607

ampharos wrote:

If you're lucky enough, there may be BIOS updates that added ACPI support. I know the final generation of "classic" (read; pre-letter series) ThinkPads like the 600X got them.

I had a look and no, whilst similar models did have an update adding ACPI this one did not. However, I have purchased a 4000CDS which is identical apart from it's Pentium II CPU and ACPI support. £5 on eBay... decent deal in my opinion.