I installed Vista Ultimate on my Advent 4211 this evening. The is my first post but I decided I would put all of the information I needed to get it all workign in one place. Much of it is taken from this website and others, so I take no credit for anything, but I thought a simple guide might help any new people. Please feel free to add to it.

Type of install:
1. It had to be booted from an external DVD/CD USB drive and installed from there, as the upgrade option from Windows didn't want to work for some reason. The install is an original Vista Utimate SP1 disc. No modifications have been made to the Windows install method.
2. When looking for the HD, I had to format the drive to get it to continue. If I tried to just install over the already existing 71.5GB partition without format, the installation would stop at Stage 4 of the next install.

Post-installation necessary updates:

1. Wireless networking:
Adaptor type: Realtek RTL8187SE
Driver location:http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=40&PFid=40&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true.
Driver version: 6.9067.710.2008
Driver Date: 10.Jul.2008.
Vista installation: no difficulties, it is a Vista driver direct from Realtek.
This was not supported by Vista after install and was flagged with an exclamation mark.

2. LAN/Wired Networking:
Adaptor Type: Realtek RTL8101(L)
Driver location: Windows can find a driver for this automatically if you do Device Manager > Update Driver > Search for Driver Automatically. Note that the Realtek sites lists the driver as being part of a package with several other drivers. However, it didn't work and when ran, it was actually for the Realtek RTL8139.
Driver version: 6.207.606.2008
Driver Date: 06.Jun.2008
Vista Installation: can be automatically installed by Windows using the online search (assuming really that you setup wireless first and are online now).

3. Bluetooth:
Adaptor type: Toshiba ??????
Driver Location:
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/bluetooth/?page=download (Thanks Pedling!)
[url]http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={918f7496-db3a-41c0-b8d3-1132fa04fe42}&CatID={789879f1-f9f1-470a-86b6-3445bf15cc31}[/url]. Note that they have a pretty unreliable website. To get to the software updates, you need to go to Product Support, search for 4211 or Advent, then when you get to the actual product page there *should* be a list of around 10 hyperlinks, of which is the downloads for updates. However, several times, it may only have one link for e.g., "system information".
Driver version: 5.0.4004.7
Driver date: 04.Jul.2007 (yes, quite old. (it is the BT Personal Area Network driver. Other devices are newer).)
Vista installation: the installer is listed as being for XP, but installed without a problem on Vista and didn't give any error messages. It creates the BT network adaptor and several BT devices, including USB BT EDR. The Enhanced Data Rate was a problem I could not solve with XP Microsoft drivers. After the Toshiba is installed, it will then have two LANs available: EThernet 100Mbit, Bluetooth 3Mbit. For me, it is great because I should get close to full speed for HSDPA from my N95 8GB over Bluetooth.

4. Graphics
Adaptor type: Intel 945 Express
Driver location: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-022034.htm. I chose the one that says Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset, Graphics driver.
Driver version:: 7.14.10.1504
Driver date: 18.Jun.2008
Vista installation: no problems at all. Increases the Windows Vista Experience to 2.7. Once it's installed, Aero is active, and it's very nice indeed.

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Review of the above:
1. Installation:
Very straightforward. I chose to wipe the Tech Guys recovery partition (and what's more, I didn't even make a backup of it first!). There are no difficulties with reading any message boxes or things being off the bottom of the screen.

2. Performance:
It is definitely as responsive, if not more so, than the Windows XP that it shipped with, and that is with Aero on and plenty of Windows. Furthermore, I have got the standard 1GB of RAM, and it's fine. I am comparing it to my main laptop, an XPS1730 with SLI 8800GTX's and 4GB. The Advent is slower sure, but not by much for general tasks. It gives memory usage at ~ 500MB used and CPU usage at around 7-8%. After installing DivX, I started to stream a few episodes of Top Gear from my XPS over to the Advent. It played them flawlessly, no frames being dropped at all, at 624x352. It took around 6 seconds to start the stream from double clicking in the Folder browser for the main computer to it starting to play in WMP11 on the Advent - this is impressive I think. Battery showd 2hr 13mins when unplugged from a full charge at Balanced mode. I haven't tested it fully by running it down yet.

3. Advent/MSI/ specifics
The new System Control Manager from MSI's own website released on 01.Aug.2008 installs on vista with no complaints, and all soft Function keys work perfectly, including brightness, webcam, etc., . All pop up on the screen as appropriate when activated or not, and the brightness dims to medium with proper settings when plugged/unplugged automatically.

Overall, a great upgrade. It has caused no downsides, all hardware is working, and it is a much more modern interface to work with, and seems more responsive on the desktop to me.

Wow, 500MB ram seems a lot considering it only packs 1GB.

Can I ask, what made you go for Ultimate, surely Home Basic would have been a better option?
I'm planning on getting a Wind soon, and was wondering how well it could handle Vista.

well I wanted Aero and all the nice stuff, and the price was not much more. I am surprised it didn't ship straight with Vista Business or something, but maybe the licensing costs for XP kept the OEM costs down.

Bluetooth driver from Toshiba!
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/bluetooth/?page=download

Hi,

I've installed the bluetooth drivers - however it doesn't auto dial out for my HSPDA connection with my Nokia n95 8GB.

Any idea how I add the settings as I cannot see anywhere to add settings?

On older phones you had to dial out via *99# or something - I believe the settigns are now seamless..

Help
Minty

The drivers for LAN and WLAN at the MSI site for XP also work on Vista. If you had no problems with those drivers with XP, it is best to use them.

Have you tried using the Nokia dialler itself? I foudn it quite flaky TBH. The settings to dial a HSDPA connection are actually in the Toshiba stack. You need to add the following AT command to the modem:
&D2 +CGDCONT=1,"IP","your.hsdpa.gateway.com"

Dialling is *99# as normal. Without trying to dial up, try to query the modem directly and make sure it is responding either by BT or USB. You need to pass this command directly to the modem in the control panel, it is not an option as far as I can see to add it to any dialling rule in the dial up options. You need to go to the actual Modems in control panel to add the AT command to both BT and USB modem connections.

Once you add that AT command above, you can use the Windows dialler to connect when you connect up the phone. It seems a lot more stable to me using the windows own dial up application. It should connect within 3-4 seconds.

The Nokia dialler (there is a new PC Suite out by the way, it might be worth checking) will do this itself when you manually enter what networking or accesspoint you are connecting to. However, on several occasions the Nokia dialler wouldn't detect the modem at all, but Windows would allow me to dial it directly.

Option 1: Use One Touch Access to make it an effortless connection using PC Suite. This is a bit flaky though.
Option 2: Create a dial up networking set for your BT modem, phone number is *99#, AT command added and username/password from your ISP = much more reliable.

A big problem (and there doesn't seem to be a solution yet), is that the listed maximum speeds for COM ports is 921kbps. BT-EDR or USB should be well beyond this, but it seems that the COM port driver has not been updated in a long time (I don't know if it's a Windows problem or not).

Thanks for this a big help


What about drivers for the TouchPad? Scrolling isnt working on mine

Drivers for Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&Inst=Yes&ProductID=2259&DwnldID=16618&strOSs=156&OSFullName=Windows%20Vista*%20Ultimate,%2032-bit%20version&lang=eng

Hopefully you don't have a wind in which the scroll function is an impossibility not at the software level, but at the hardware level. There are a lot of posts already on this subject, it seems some touchpads on a few winds and advents cannot scroll, some people experiencing this (and trying every conceivable means of solving this problem with software and failing) have simply returned their faulty units.

http://www.synaptics.com/support/drive.cfm

Installed Vista x32 and all sorted

Here is complete solution for instalation of Windows Vista on notebook MSI Wind U100:
(Drivers are available on czech download server, for download click to "stáhnout zdarma")

Youtube Vista review

Chipset:
http://www.sosejte.cz/system/ovladace/intel-inf-update-utility-9-0-0-1009-whql/

Graphics:
http://www.sosejte.cz/system/ovladace/intel-graphics-media-accelerator-15-8-3-1504/

Audio:
http://www.sosejte.cz/system/ovladace/realtek-high-definition-audio-codecs-r2-00/

LAN:
http://www.sosejte.cz/system/ovladace/realtek-rtl810x-network-adapter-6-207/

WiFi:
http://www.sosejte.cz/system/ovladace/realtek-rtl8187se-6-9067/

Bluetooth:
http://www.sosejte.cz/system/ovladace/toshiba-bluetooth-stack-6-10-10/

Touchpad:
http://www.sosejte.cz/system/ovladace/synaptics-device-drivers-v10-1-8/

Card Reader:
http://www.sosejte.cz/system/ovladace/realtek-card-reader-driver-6-0-6000-20097/

System Control Manager:
http://www.sosejte.cz/system/ovladace/system-control-manager-2-0208-0807-001/

I haven't got an external cd drive but Ive got a large external hard drive available. Would that work?

When I installed Vista on mine, I downloaded all drivers and utilities from the Taiwan site of MSI called Micro-star, eveything for XP loaded with no prob except their Lan and WLan drivers which I couldn't install at first but after I went to property of the setup, under compatibility I checked the box "run in compatibility mode for XP sp2, then they istalled with no prob. Also, don't use their VGA driver as it'll give you Windows Experience index of 1.0, go to intel site and download their latest graphic driver for the 945 chipset family, you'll immediately get the index of 2.7! (if you install the MSI driver first and update it with Intel's latest one you only get the index of 2.2, but fresh install will give 2.7)

I'm getting my MSI wind tomorrow.. I'm a newcommer to this site..so xcuse me for the boring stuff I asq. My questions for you are : Does windows vista works as best as windows xp home that msi u100 comes with ?and If so ... how can I save the preinstalled kit of win xp msi version ... ? Another thing ,is my RAM module (1024mhz) enough for a smooth navigation on vista, do you sugest 2gb? What is the best advice you can give me on choosing a os?

Anyone here who tried using vlite?

Im hopefully getting my Wind tomorrow with 2 gigs of ram and 6-cells battery. Im downloading Vista Business and vLite at the moment and really looking forward to doing this tomorrow! It sounds easy when you read the guides on the net, but i assume there are going to be som quircks. I'll post a update tomorrow of how it went with vLite and how the system runs with Vista Business.

No luck what so ever with vLite. The program itself is very good and if you follow a guide to make the dvd no problems. However, my install made with the SP1 intergrated failed during update from XP. It actually failed during the very last installment of the OS. So it was just the SP 1 version that i had that was corrupted.

So i had a big problem, no OS installed, no recovery cdrom. I just made another bootable USB pendrrive, and installed a full business Vista from there. vLite is very good, especially removing Vista components you dont like. But for me i didnt work at all.

Need help i cant seem to get my camera to work with Vista Ultimate... Do i need to install a driver for it?

Download the XP camera pack from the msi webpage then install. Remeber to turn the cam ON before installing and testing. Otherwise it will not work.

Did you find any problem while using the wireless networking?
I can't manage my U100 to connect to my DSL router (256bit WPA-PSK encryption)...

At the first moment, the latest Realtek driver (from aug 2008) failed to install (OS not supported).
Then I manually installed the driver by browsing the folder starting from device manager. The installation was ok, but the wifi didn't connect to the router.
Then I edited the isconfig.ini, and put 1 instead of 0 in VistaX86 line. Now also the Realtek utility installed successfully, but I've got still the same problem...