Recovering "digital signature" after replacing the HD in an XP Toshiba laptop

retiredlucky

Estimable
Apr 24, 2014
3
0
4,510
My current problem is my wireless connection won't function. History:The 100GB HD in my Toshiba 17" M65 S809 XP laptop failed about three months ago, and I replaced it with a 160GB version. As a result my original recovery disk wouldn't work. Toshiba support told me that there was something special about the HD size, as the recovery s/w "had" to be in a specific location relative to the 100 GB address (my inference). I reloaded a version of Windows XP Premium SP2, and downloaded all the appropriate drivers for my laptop model from the Toshiba website. After this, everything seemed to work OK, except the look of the display seemed "off", and I couldn't get the wireless function to work. In order to load Turbo Tax 2012 and 2013, I was told by TT I had to have XP service pack 3 installed. With some effort ( M/S stopped supporting XP after 4/3/14) I downloaded the disk image of XP SP3 on my W8 laptop, burned it to a CD, and it loaded OK on my Toshiba. I loaded TT2012 and TT2013 successfully, but the wifi still wouldn't function. I called Toshiba support on this and I was told that the problem wasn't a missing or out-of date driver: The "digital signature" had to be restored, and "only Toshiba support" could do it. It would "only" cost $160 or $100 (12 months support or one time support). I thought this was way too expensive for the current value of the laptop, as I can use a wired Ethernet connection. Can someone substantiate this, or recommend a way that I can do the same for free or a lot less?
Thanks, retiredlucky
 

retiredlucky

Estimable
Apr 24, 2014
3
0
4,510
COLGeek:
Problem solved! Thanks for your recommended fix, which worked fine when I realized why the exec "hung". I downloaded the intel.com drivers on the wrong machine initially, namely my regular desktop computer (W7), and opened the drivers on it, instead of my Toshiba XP laptop. It's no surprise that the setup exec didn't work. I realized my mistake the next morning, and transferred over the zipped driver s/w to my laptop, and it opened and loaded everything without a problem, and the wifi connection is working fine now. Apparently the Toshiba customer support person was talking nonsense, when she said that only Toshiba C/S could provided the digital signature to make the wireless connection work. Thanks for saving me $100!!
retiredlucky
P.S. I also loaded System Mechanic to keep my XP system clean and efficient, hopefully. They also said that using SM should keep my XP system going and serve as a proxy for Windows s/w upgrades. Hope they're right