Laptop OS : Any problem from WinMe to 2K ?

[redbaron_snoopy]

Old laptop is a Toshiba Sat. 1730CDT and running WinMe.
Plan to switch to Win2k. Can't find any drivers (graphics, chipset, modem, etc, sound, etc) for the machine except the bios. Will I run into a problem ?
Or should I leave the WinMe as is ?

Btw, upped the RAM from 64MB to 196MB. For LAN, should I get a Ethernet-USB dongle or a PCMCIA Network adaptor card instead ?

Laptop is for internet, LAN, email, basic office stuff.

Advice appreciated.

[rightcoast]

Do you have the Windows ME disc...it is best to do a clean install instead of an in place upgrade. The only catch is you need the ME disc to do it.

[redbaron_snoopy]

No, Recovery WinMe disc is long gone. Plan to do a clean install of Win2K, not upgrade. Presumably, all those on-board peripherals will need drivers which I don't have. Thought of ordering the WinMe disc but even then, the drivers are for Me, not 2k.

Hence my asking how should I go about it.

[rightcoast]

I just spent a little while looking (with advanced Google parameters and all)

Came up with nothing. The laptop wont't support Windows 2000, sorry.
I could be wrong, but if I can't find it, I don't think they exist.

[redbaron_snoopy]

That's what I did and came up nought.
What will happen if I install win2k and than install the reference chipset drivers from intel and the reference (ati I think) graphics drivers. Will the laptop be supported ? Maybe win2k can also recognised the rest of the devices during windows update ?

[rightcoast]

Possibly, but it is a risk, especially if you don't have ME to go back to. You Ethernet/modem ports may not work, along with your sound and others.

[JTH]

You shouldn't have a problem upgrading to Win 2k. Graphics will be supported by the Windows VGA driver anyway (which will give you enough viewing to at least go on the web and locate better ones). Mobo/chipset drivers don't really matter. And Windows supplies automatic mouse and keyboard drivers.

So yes, you would be wise to upgrade. Realistically, the only thing your going to run into trouble with is your modem. But just pop over to www.driverguide.com before you upgrade, put in your device's manufacturer and model in, download the driver, back it up to a floppy/CD and then install it when your 2k OS is in.

[Panama Red]

I had no problem finding Win2K drivers at driverguide.com for a Toshiba Satellite 1730. As JTH suggests, download them from there and save them on some usable media.

Here's the drivers from the official Toshiba site too. Use the filter to restrict the search to Win2K.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...odItemList.jsp

[rightcoast]

Aha! I found a few too, my problem was I searched the site like this:
Toshiba 1730CDT site:driverguide.com

Once I dropped the "cdt", a few came up. The modem can still be tricky from what I read on the forum there.

If you have ethernet, here is that driver I believe.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...-a%20target=nw

[redbaron_snoopy]

Thanks for the tips. I will try in on a 2nd exact laptop once it come back from the shop (had to replace the keyboard & add more ram).

Am struggling with internet connection on this 1st one currently..but that's another story.