I was recently asked to downgrade a friends Packard Bell SW51 from Windows Vista to Windows XP. My friend is not what I would consider to be a geek, but even he could see that Vista was a steaming pile of horse manure, and he just wanted an OS that would work. So it was back to XP for his notebook.
Luckily, the Packard Bell website had all the necessary SW51 drivers for XP, so the install should have been simple enough: back up his profile, wipe the machine, install XP, apply service packs, install drivers and do a Windows Update to get the latest patches, install the necessary programs, and put back on his data.
There was only one issue - the wireless LAN driver provided by Packard Bell for Windows XP, doesn’t work on Windows XP. It’s a Ralink RT73 USB Wireless LAN card, but the supplied driver just doesn’t work. So it was time to go hunting for the correct driver. I was lucky that I wasn’t the first person to come across this issue, and I was able to locate the correct driver here. It’s the ZyDAS ZD211B driver, but it works perfectly.
UPDATE: As per Guillaume’s comment, the original lik was broken, so I have changed the link to the new download location. Thanks Guillaume.
24 Comments
thank you, you saved my live:)
You’re very welcome, just glad that someone else found this of use!
Thanks man!!! I’ve spent 2 days looking for this driver - almost gave up. Have already prepared a CD with BIOS for Vista - to put this trash back…
Can’t wait to try it out!!….
Still wondering, why the original Packard Bell’s didn’t work - any ideas?
Glad to be of help. I tried the original PB driver several times, before I gave up. My guess would be that the XP driver provided by PB is actually the Vista driver, hence the reason it doesn’t work.
I installed this on a friends laptop and it works great. He hasn’t had a problem with it since. The interface isn’t the most polished, but it does the job - which is more than can be said for the PB driver!
Cheers,
Paul.
Thank you.
You’re very welcome Francisco.
Paul, hi.
Took your advice and downloaded Zydas drivers, however, having some difficulty installing - or rather, getting XP to recognize.
.
Hardware wizard won’t see them at all,. Any tips on installing?
Thanks
iAN
Hi Ian,
If memory serves me right, if you try to install the drivers provided on the Packard Bell website, the wireless card won’t be seen correctly by Windows - I think the card is seen as an Atheros brand card. Before the Zydas drivers can be installed, you’ll need to remove the incorrect drivers. Here’s how:
Open Device Manager, (right click My Computer - Properties - Hardware - Device Manager), and click the beside the Network Adaptors. Now right click your wireless card and click uninstall. Click OK when asked if you’re sure you want to uninstall and follow the wizard. Once the uninstall is complete, restart the computer.
When your computer restarts, you should get the Add New Hardware wizard. Close this wizard and then use the ZyDas installer to install the drivers. Restart the computer, and you should be good to go.
If this doesn’t work for you, post back or email me with any error messages or problems you have, and I’ll be happy to see what I can do for you.
Cheers,
Paul.
Paul, thanks - I’ll give it a go and let you know.
As an aside, the New Hardware wizard reports my WLAN as ‘802 b/g WLAN’ i.e. completely generic rather than misinterpreting it as something else (I’m assuming mine’s a Ralink also)
Anyway, I’ll let you know how I get on. Watch this space!
Ian.
Best of luck Ian!
And like I said, if I can help you out with anything, don’t be afraid to give me a shout.
Cheers,
Paul.
Thank you very much. An instant solution to the problem! On my laptop under device manager I had an unknown USB device. I’ve even tried downloading the driver (after finding out the chip’s product number) from Ralink’s website but.. still no luck! The ZyDAS ZD211B driver you proposed is indeed the solution!
Thank you once again!
It’s a bit of a strange one alright, and the PB website is no help at all. Not only do they provide the wrong driver, but they don’t give enough information to quickly solve the problem.
Glad this worked for you.
Cheers,
Paul.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the Wireless driver tip (tried to find it myself with no luck!).Did you have to slipstream any drivers into the XP install for SATA or does SP2 (I assume) already include them? If it doesn’t where could I find the drivers as there aren’t any listed on the drive page for SATA.
Any help most appreciated ( I hate Vista!),
Tom
As the “bloke” said you saved my life bro, I agree vista has so many errors. Though I must admit it looks great, but I would rather have functionality most of all.. Big “props” to you man!!!!
Yank: stuck in U.K.
The reason the supplied drivers don’t work is this: The driver is for a Ralink RT73 chipset, and the wireless card for the Vista version of the SW51 was made by ZyDas - now part of Atheros.
Thanks for the info Jon. Explains why so many people have had this problem.
Regards,
Paul.
Hi Paul,
The link you give in your article is broken.
So I can’t download the driver ZD211B
Please could you send me it by mail ?
Thanks,
Guillaume
P.S : excuse my poor English … I’m French.
Hi Guillaume,
Thanks for letting me know that the link was broken. I don’t have a copy of the driver, but I have updated the link with one that works. You can download the driver from here:
http://drivers.softpedia.com/progDownload/ZyDAS-ZD1211B-Driver-6-2-0-24-Download-16176.html
All the best,
Paul.
Thank you so much Paul !
It’s working perfectly.
Guillaume
Glad to hear that it’s working for you Guillaume.
Cheers,
Paul.
Help Paul! I have a Packard Bell Easy Note with Vista. Can I use your link to swtich to XP? There is nothing on the computer yet. Best regards, Alicia
Hi Alicia,
Without knowing the exact model of your PB Easy Note, I can’t say if the wireless driver I found for the SW51 will work for yours or not. If you go to the Packard Bell Support site (http://support.packardbell.com/) and put in your serial number, it will bring you to the dedicated support site for your laptop.
On this page you’ll find a link for Product Downloads which will contain links for all the available drivers for your system. Download and save all the available XP drivers. Burn them to CD or save them to a USB stick. Install Windows XP, then install the drivers you downloaded.
If you have any other questions, then don’t be afraid to ask.
Best of luck,
Paul.
This works fine for my PB57 too, fantastic, thaks a lot,you are a life saver, we hate vista.
You’re welcome and thanks for the comment!