Downgrading the Toshiba Satellite U305-S5077 to XP

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I had to assist in the downgrading of a Toshiba Satellite U305-S5077 to Windows XP from Windows Vista last night, and it turns out that Toshiba does not make this convenient or easy, despite it being totally in their power to do so.

Here are the drivers you need, with handy links (in most cases, to Toshiba’s own site, which should have this information, but does not.)

Update:Some users have reported these drivers to be non-working for their systems. I don’t know if this means that some U305′s are using new devices since I created this post, or if it’s user error (I suspect a little of both.) So, please do take all due precautions when using these drivers, even though the majority of respondents here have reported them as operational.

Update, December 11, 2009: I appreciate all the folks taking time to thank me for this couple hours’ worth of work. It really has been interesting to hear from some of the 5,067 people who –to date– have been helped by this post.

But, that said, please DO NOT expect “custom support”; I have no particular interest in Toshiba laptops, nor am I regularly engaged in technical support, and so I DO NOT know how to help you with your specific model. I just figured I’d put this post up, and help others as a side benefit of the time I invested working on this machine for my cousin. In short, beyond helping point you to these drivers, and in the one case, actually hosting it, I cannot help you.

Many of these drivers have been reported to work for other “U305″ models, but I do not and can not make any particular claim or warranty as to their suitability for use in models different from the actual Toshiba U305-S5077 that I actually personally put my hands on back in January 2009.

So, without further ado, here’s the drivers:

Display Adapter:

win2k_xp14311.exe [link] (Note: downloaded from driverguide.com and personally verified.)

Audio adapter:

driver_audio_realtek_26359B.exe [link]

SM Bus (motherboard):

driver_chipset_intel_25916A.exe [link]

Card Reader:

driver_card_reader_26016C.exe [link]

util_sd_memory_26023A.exe [link]

Network Adapter:

driver_lan_realtek_26360A.exe [link]

Wi-Fi Adapter:

driver_wifi_atheros_26288A.exe [link]

Modem:

driver_modem_25766B.exe [link]

Touchpad:

Synaptics_Driver_v10_1_8_XP32.exe [link]

Camera:

util_camera_26013D.exe [link]

Continue reading » · Written on: 01-02-09 · 76 Comments »

76 Responses to “Downgrading the Toshiba Satellite U305-S5077 to XP”

  1. trevor wrote:

    You are amazing and so is this blog post! You saved my computer.

     January 4th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
  2. Mike Doyle wrote:

    Brandon,
    Thanks a ton for doing stuff like this. It makes the world just a little bit better place.
    (I’m looking at buying a Satellite L355 and would like to “downgrade” to XP but am a little intimidated by the difficulty in finding the right drivers…these links might point me to the places for the L355…at least that’s my hope.)
    -Mike

     January 9th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
  3. TJ wrote:

    Thanks a million Brandon!!

     January 14th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
  4. Nebu wrote:

    i have download audio driver from the link but still doesn’t work … still no sound after i install it on my notebook, is there any solution bout ma problem ? i appreciate if u could help fix ma problem … thx

     January 17th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
  5. Carlos Martius wrote:

    Muito boa essa atitude de disponibilizar os drivers, muito obrigado.
    Tenha um bom ano!
    Abraço Amigo
    Carlos Martius

     January 17th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
  6. bugtea wrote:

    thanks’ 1000x a lot

     January 25th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
  7. bugtea wrote:

    it’s so great

     January 26th, 2009 at 10:29 am
  8. hilman wrote:

    thank’s very very a lot Brandon

     February 3rd, 2009 at 11:03 pm
  9. AGUSTIN LEGASSA wrote:

    Thanks…a lot.
    Can you tell me please, how to know now the battery level?.
    Every thing seems to be ok, but this thing is not there.

    Thanks again

     February 6th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
  10. WindyMan wrote:

    This is fantastic info. I found a few of the drivers on my own but it’s nice to know there’s a page out there that sums up everything at once. I did run into a few issues with the self-extractors not working but unzipping them and running them off the file directly seemed to do the trick. Thanks a ton!

     February 8th, 2009 at 1:41 am
  11. Brandon Dawson wrote:

    @AGUSTIN LEGASSA:

    The power management settings, unless I’m very mistaken, should be built into Windows. Thus, you just need to tweak the setting that makes the tray icon display. Here’s some links:

    http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-xp/65465-win-xp-power-options-icon.html
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310578

    @WindyMan:
    Which ones are not working? I’d be happy to hunt down another copy of the display adapter driver (the only one that I’m personally hosting) if it’s problematic.

    @All:

    Thanks for the kudos.

    As of now, there’s at least 450 people who’ve snagged the drivers via this page. I’m glad to have helped.

     February 12th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
  12. John wrote:

    Thanks Alot!! Saved me tons of time! Have a great year!

     February 15th, 2009 at 11:10 am
  13. John E Burns wrote:

    You solved some issues, but my main one is that somebody else flashed the bios with a 5.0 flash for something, and it would not load Vista, or XP .
    I flashed it back to 3.10 ( from Toshiba), and it still won’t go past “Windows Setup, Loading Windows ” , did the F6 thing at prompt, loaded the raid drivers for XP from Intel for Xp sp2, even loaded the front end of XP from 6 floppys , just gets to the same point, and freezes.
    ??????
    Any Ideas ,
    Thanks, John

     February 19th, 2009 at 10:02 am
  14. Brandon Dawson wrote:

    @ John Burns

    Is it an actual Toshiba BIOS, and not a third-party one? I’d check their support sites.

    Beyond that, I’m not sure. I’ve not personally run into this one.

     February 19th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
  15. John E Burns wrote:

    Went to Intels site and downloaded SATA raid drivers and installed the one for XP SP2 , Installed at F6 Prompt via A: ( USB Floppy)- Left it in during the rest of install, it was accessed several times during install .
    XP with SP2 installed , using your drivers everything but the network card is up and running, will deal with that later.
    The reason that Vista would not re install is that it is installed on the disk, and was not available as a restore feature ( the bloatware probably would not fit on the restore DVD’s).
    Thanks , More than you Know!!!
    John
    PS I went into the bios and turned on both sides of the processors before i did the install.

     February 19th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
  16. michael wrote:

    Thanks man, u’re a life saver.

     February 22nd, 2009 at 9:16 am
  17. Zamper wrote:

    Muchisimas gracias por el link…
    Estuve buscando por mucho tiempo hasta que di con esta pagina…
    Muchos saludos a Brandon Dawson!

     February 24th, 2009 at 12:54 am
  18. AGUSTIN LEGASSA wrote:

    Everything is working fine now. Thanks a lot.
    Now my computer is fast enough.

    I had to use a different audio driver, but it was easy to find.

     February 24th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
  19. Stones Jr. wrote:

    Brandon, thanks a lot !!
    Manaus, Brazil

     March 1st, 2009 at 12:18 pm
  20. Henry wrote:

    thanks brandon, you’ve help me a lot, but there’s still one driver that i can’t find (ethernet controller) hope you could help me with this one. Again thanks

     March 10th, 2009 at 1:35 am
  21. Brandon Dawson wrote:

    Try this one:

    http://209.167.114.38/support/Download/files_downloads/psu30c/xp/Network%20Driver%20-%20Realtek-5.664.205.2007.zip

    But beyond that, see if you can get any diagnostic info from the BIOS as to who exactly the ethernet controller manufacturer is.

     March 10th, 2009 at 2:33 am
  22. RRC wrote:

    from Costa Rica, Muchas gracias, “thanks a lot”

     March 17th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
  23. Msun wrote:

    thank u brandon
    u r amazing!

     March 31st, 2009 at 4:34 am
  24. LINK Pancarian « Skandar1’s Blog wrote:

    [...] sini atau [...]

     April 1st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
  25. indra wrote:

    thank u brandondawson….

     April 4th, 2009 at 7:23 am
  26. /\/[+]\/-\ wrote:

    THANK YOU SOO MUCH SAVED MY COMP!

     April 4th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
  27. JC wrote:

    Thanks a lot!
    :D
    from Monterrey, Mexico.

     April 6th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
  28. Mike wrote:

    Hi!

    Your collection of drivers helped me a lot. I got to spend some time downgrading my satellite u305 as well and it was by sheer luck I stumbled upon your blog.

    Although Id like to mention that you didnt include the video drivers. That it is easy enough to find!

     April 10th, 2009 at 5:08 am
  29. Jared Edelson wrote:

    The audio driver does not work. Any suggestions?

     April 18th, 2009 at 1:19 am
  30. Brandon Dawson wrote:

    Jared, I’d start by checking your product code or service tag against Toshiba’s site to make sure you actually have this specific model.

    Sometimes, you’ll see limited-run sub-models that aren’t actually reflected on the service tag, but which come up as a different model when you actually check the OEM’s site.

    Beyond that, you’re stuck in driver hell: sometimes, you have to get utilities that tell you the hardware ID of the hardware in question, and then start looking on that basis. Other times, you have to resort to the FCC ID.

    It can be a pain.

     April 19th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
  31. lexall wrote:

    thank so much save my comp

     April 21st, 2009 at 8:14 am
  32. shams wrote:

    thank you all but i have problems with my toshiba l355 laptop i installed windows xp sp2 alien spirit but everything is not working someone please please please help me help any kind one help me hey guys everyone who knows the site of the drivers for windows xp it will be very very kind of u to help me. thank you again every body and somebody please help me i am in danger with this laptop.

     April 29th, 2009 at 2:23 am
  33. Toni Wicaksono wrote:

    Brandon, thanks a lot !!
    Toni, Indonesia.

     May 6th, 2009 at 3:26 am
  34. Thank you! Thank you! wrote:

    Thank you so so so very much. You saved me!!!

     May 13th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
  35. Greg wrote:

    Thanks, but only three out of ten work, I get Error 0 running command install.exe. My laptop is dead in the water. I’ve loaded XP, but now I can’t get on the internet, no ethernet card, nothing. Let me know, thanks.

     May 22nd, 2009 at 3:46 pm
  36. harry wrote:

    so simple but very good

    thanks you so much

     May 24th, 2009 at 6:16 am
  37. arpan karki wrote:

    i have a toshiba satellite U305-S5077. actually these days iam having a problem with sound, i need to install audio driver everyday. so if anyone can help me then i will be very grateful. thanx

     May 26th, 2009 at 12:50 am
  38. azur wrote:

    thanx…VERY MUCHHHH

     May 28th, 2009 at 9:39 am
  39. Joish wrote:

    Thanks, man!

     May 31st, 2009 at 1:32 pm
  40. soa wrote:

    THANKS YOU’RE THE GREATEST!!

     May 31st, 2009 at 2:05 pm
  41. Larry wrote:

    Yes……yes yes yes….omg it works I have sound again thank you so muck just posting this sight was such a great public service. The Karma gods will be smiling down on you for sure

     June 2nd, 2009 at 10:32 pm
  42. Bhanu wrote:

    Thanks a lot…. you ROCK..!!!!

     June 6th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
  43. D Hook wrote:

    When loading XP on a previous Vista L355, I couldn’t get past the BSOD when booting from the XP cd. Read somewhere else that you have to change the bios to “compatibility” under the RAID settings. This took me right on in and I got XP loaded.

    Then went to the intel site and downloaded the series 4 chipset drivers and that gave me the video and sound. Then went to Realtek for the RTL8102e family for the ethernet. So far, it’s all good but now have to do it again because I screwed up the partitions and loaded XP on a small partition instead of where the original OS was. I’m a novice at laptops, to state the obvious.

     June 13th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
  44. Hardijanto wrote:

    Thanks for a lot for your shared………

     June 17th, 2009 at 5:28 am
  45. Mustafa wrote:

    Thanks Brandon, you are the man.

    Please check this page if you try alternate versions of some drivers.
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=156311&page=3

     July 21st, 2009 at 4:08 pm
  46. mo wrote:

    HELP ME PLEASE!!!
    I have a toshiba u305 s5077. It was working great until one day windows update prompted me to install updates and restart. When I restarted the laptop it would say needs recovery. Long story short I have installed the recovery 4 times and tried putting WIN XP SP@ on it but it taqkes about 10 hours to load and then doesn’twork again. PLease any help would work.. MEMORY and Harddrive have been replaced and still same issue

     July 29th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
  47. Freddy Garcia wrote:

    You are great man!, Thanks a lot!!!!

     August 23rd, 2009 at 11:13 pm
  48. Lawrence Yamikani Mtalika II wrote:

    Thanks a million. The drivers worked for my Satelitte U305-S5087 without any problems

     August 27th, 2009 at 1:55 am
  49. candra wrote:

    thanx, it’s really help ….

     August 29th, 2009 at 9:49 am
  50. Iqbal Leo wrote:

    Dear Brandon,

    My U305-S5097 now back to normal.
    Thank you very much. You have helped me so much..
    Again, thank you!!

     September 1st, 2009 at 9:49 am
  51. Aldrie wrote:

    I have a problem with U305-S5087…
    I cant find my audio device..
    I have Installed correctly with the driver,, but it keeps doesnt work with the audio device…

    Can someone tell me how to resolve this problem ???

    please email me to dry_crushader@yahoo.com

     September 3rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
  52. Jairo wrote:

    Brandon, Thank you so much.
    I’m from Rio de Janeiro Brasil.

     September 7th, 2009 at 12:27 am
  53. Eduardo Sofiate wrote:

    Clap Clap Clap Clap
    Thank you.

     September 22nd, 2009 at 7:24 am
  54. Raging Paradoxidation wrote:

    Man, I wish that I would have found your post on this hours before I did. I went “installed” all of the drivers that Toshiba offered and none of them worked. I also went through all of the Driver Packs provided out on the interwebs and none of them worked either.

    All of yours worked perfectly.

    Thanks for your contribution to the net.

     September 26th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
  55. ndra wrote:

    thank you so much,…

     October 25th, 2009 at 8:07 am
  56. Tedi wrote:

    Thanks brandon…
    great job… you help me already…

     October 30th, 2009 at 6:36 am
  57. f@hd wrote:

    Brandon you are a total badass for taking the time to put this up. Thanks a ton man.

    -Total Stranger!

     November 2nd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
  58. Totaal wrote:

    Thank you so much a acouple of link listed an abreasate, but my problem stil hir in my laptob is TOSHIBA Satalaite U305-S5079. all this list not support. i need Drivers supported WIN XP not vista for U305-S5079 for all installation drive i.e sound, LAN, VGA,…
    e-mail me: yahleem@hotmail.com

    Thanks and Best Regards,

     November 5th, 2009 at 4:35 am
  59. Kamal wrote:

    Hi Mr. Brandon,

    I have a Toshiba Satellite L45-S4687, it comes with Vista, I downgraded to XP but could’nt find Audio, Video, Display & Wi-Fi drivers. Please help me out. I am in deep trouble.

    Tried to find in Toshiba Website. But could’nt find drivers related to XP for this model.

    Will be eagerly awating for your response.

    With regards,

    ( KAMAL )

     November 12th, 2009 at 10:43 am
  60. subhan wrote:

    thank you very much…i’m subhan from indonesia

     January 13th, 2010 at 9:05 am
  61. E. Reffly wrote:

    Hi…Mr. Brandon,

    You are great man!, great job
    Thanks a lot for your shared
    My God Bless You….forever

    I’m from Indonesia

     January 16th, 2010 at 5:36 am
  62. Landau wrote:

    Hi, Brandon…
    I just would like to thank you that exactly 1 year after your posting, it is still useful.
    You had saved me a lot of search and try time to fix the notebook for my friend.
    Thanks from your friend here from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

    Bye.
    Landau.

     January 31st, 2010 at 11:39 pm
  63. Sirio wrote:

    Thanks so much body.

     March 11th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
  64. Vara wrote:

    Thanks a lot, can any one help me drivers for USB and video controllers

     March 20th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
  65. Vara wrote:

    USB keyboard and mouse drivers

     March 20th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
  66. Castillo wrote:

    Thanks for this. You saved me a ton of time.

     March 24th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
  67. po2npoloko wrote:

    thanks brother….nice website 4 me, help us 4 this software.

     March 31st, 2010 at 5:44 pm
  68. Priyadi wrote:

    Thank’s Bro, u save my Laptop

     April 4th, 2010 at 6:06 am
  69. David wrote:

    DUDE YOUR A LIFE SAVER, I TRIED SEVERAL SITES LOOKING FOR THE DRIVERS FOR A MACHINE I’M FIXING FOR A FRIEND AND COULDN’T FIND THEM ANYWHERE AND THEN BAMMMM, THERE THEY WERE!!! THANKS TO GUYS LIKE YOU IT MAKES LIFE A LITTLE EASIER FOR A WHOLE BUNCH OF US!!! THANKS AGAIN!

     April 6th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
  70. Sugeng wrote:

    Thank’s bro, you broke my frustation

     April 8th, 2010 at 3:07 am
  71. Anonymous wrote:

    i was trying to install network adapter in my satellite computer. i have downgrade it to xp sp 3 but whenever i try to install th network adapter it shows the error report so can u tell wats the problem. i dont have access to wireless internet. please someone help me ……….

     April 19th, 2010 at 3:16 am
  72. Serge wrote:

    Thank you so much for the drivers, very big help, and i hope toshiba learns a lesson that not EVERYONE wants to be stuck with vista one their machines!

     May 15th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
  73. N3w_K!d5 wrote:

    thanks brandon…!!
    it works..!!

    you saved my comp.. and now i can work with my comp..!!

    thanks a lot.. you are genious..!!

     May 21st, 2010 at 7:17 am
  74. dian wrote:

    thx a lot bro,,, i am from indonesia.

     July 10th, 2010 at 11:09 am
  75. Timo Randunna wrote:

    thank y very much.good work

     July 12th, 2010 at 6:43 am
  76. Pablo from Argentina wrote:

    Thank you, you saved my life!

     July 18th, 2010 at 1:56 pm

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