hello, i tried searching for a similar problem to mine before i started this. here is my problem: i have a new compaq f572us laptop. it came with vista. i wiped vista and tried to install win2000. i ran into a problem about bios acpi incompatibility and was able to install by pressing f7, bypassing acpi and using standard pc hal. all drivers installed except sound and modem: conexant hd audio and hdaudio soft data fax modem with smartcp. i learned that i needed uaa - universal audio architecture- to install audio. installed uaa; this appeared to work as i can see it in system devices. but audio still and modem still does not install. i believe the problem is the hal layer. if i can get this to install with hal acpi then i believe the drivers would install as well. the motherboard is by quanta - oem manufacturer. i believe it is the c30d board. there is limited information about this board. i installed xp without problems. xp recognizes the board as acpi. i read that acpi compatibility is determined in txtsetup.sif. is there a way to modify this file to install win2000 as acpi? any suggestions would be very helpful. oh, the reason i want win2000 rather than winxp ( i do have valid licenses for both ) is i do not like activation. also, i tend to reformat and reinstall every 6-8 months and would rather not deal with activiation everytime. it's a small hassle but still it feels like such a big hassle to me. thanks in advance.