Installing Windows 7 On Modern Laptop

[bizzfuzz]

I want to install Windows 7 on my Laptop. It is an ASUS Republic of Gamers GL553VE.

 

Their (ASUS') driver page only contains drivers for Windows 10. Intel's driver page also contains no drivers for my CPU (Intel i7 7700HQ)  compatible with anything but Windows 10.

 

I can go trough the Setup with just my keyboard, but I assume that due to the fact that USB 3 is not supported by the Setup, it cannot find the USB I have inserted that contains the Windows 7 ISO (It asks me for a driver.)

 

What can I do? Are there some unofficial drivers that would fix my issue?

 

P.S.: Do not tell me not to install Windows 7, as that would not do anything to sway my decision of wanting to do it.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Windows

***

 

CPUs don't need drivers, chipset driver handles them and many other things. There are guides here on forums on how to tweak both Win7 installer to accept older hardware and have USB3 driver etc.

[Radium_Angel]

5 minutes ago, bizzfuzz said:

I want to install Windows 7 on my Laptop. It is an ASUS Republic of Gamers GL553VE.

 

Their (ASUS') driver page only contains drivers for Windows 10. Intel's driver page also contains no drivers for my CPU (Intel i7 7700HQ)  compatible with anything but Windows 10.

 

I can go trough the Setup with just my keyboard, but I assume that due to the fact that USB 3 is not supported by the Setup, it cannot find the USB I have inserted that contains the Windows 7 ISO (It asks me for a driver.)

 

What can I do? Are there some unofficial drivers that would fix my issue?

 

P.S.: Do not tell me not to install Windows 7, as that would not do anything to sway my decision of wanting to do it.

All of these issues can be overcome, the USB3 driver is the most challenging one however.

Let me find the way to do it, hold tight

(Warning, it's involved)

https://www.poweriso.com/tutorials/install-windows-7-from-usb-3.0-port.htm

 

Another option for you:

I, like you, really love Win7. There is something you can try, it's called (jokingly) Windows 9.

I use it as my main system, and it's virtually indistinguishable from Win7.

If you are interested, let me know

[bizzfuzz]

1 minute ago, LogicalDrm said:

-> Moved to Windows

***

 

CPUs don't need drivers, chipset driver handles them and many other things. There are guides here on forums on how to tweak both Win7 installer to accept older hardware and have USB3 driver etc.

What I was trying to say, really, is that I could not find a single driver that wasn't made for Windows 10.

 

Or are you saying I can use those for the WIndows 7 Setup as well?

[LogicalDrm]

7 minutes ago, bizzfuzz said:

What I was trying to say, really, is that I could not find a single driver that wasn't made for Windows 10.

 

Or are you saying I can use those for the WIndows 7 Setup as well?

In theory they should work. The base didn't change that much. Or if there are Win8/.1 drivers, those are even better.

 

E: Mainly saying that you don't find any help on Intel downloads since CPUs don't have drivers. Intel would only support their own motherboards since manufacturers have custom hardware on theirs.

Edited January 18, 2021 by LogicalDrm

[Radium_Angel]

6 minutes ago, bizzfuzz said:

What I was trying to say, really, is that I could not find a single driver that wasn't made for Windows 10.

 

Or are you saying I can use those for the WIndows 7 Setup as well?

Install windows 7, as outlined above, when you are successfully in to Win7, then we can find the drivers, and I'll show you how to do so, but you need to install the OS 1st

[Seyrren]

2 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

-> Moved to Windows

***

 

CPUs don't need drivers, chipset driver handles them and many other things. There are guides here on forums on how to tweak both Win7 installer to accept older hardware and have USB3 driver etc.

You probably meant to accept newer hardware, something tells me older hardware is fine :p.

 

3 minutes ago, bizzfuzz said:

What I was trying to say, really, is that I could not find a single driver that wasn't made for Windows 10.

 

Or are you saying I can use those for the WIndows 7 Setup as well?

For gigabyte at least this patch works to install windows 7 via USB3 ports:

 

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z170-HD3-DDR3-rev-10#ov

 

As for drivers, for chipset you will have to make do with the generic ones, but there does seem to be drivers:

 

-for USB3: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/98085/Mobile-Intel-HM175-Chipset

-GPU just get them from Nvidia's site

For sound and network just find out what the latop is using and get them separately like that, you might even find the drivers for them on other asus products. Its kind of how i went and got my drivers up to date on 10.

[bizzfuzz]

2 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Install windows 7, as outlined above, when you are successfully in to Win7, then we can find the drivers, and I'll show you how to do so, but you need to install the OS 1st

I am following the link you sent me and installing multiple drivers including ones for Windows 10 in hopes it will work, but as I have mentioned in my own post I am using a USB to install Windows and all USB ports of my laptop are USB 3, which is not compatible so if I cannot find a working USB 3 driver I can use it won't be able to read the Windows ISO files from the USB in order to install it.

[Seyrren]

4 minutes ago, bizzfuzz said:

I am following the link you sent me and installing multiple drivers including ones for Windows 10 in hopes it will work, but as I have mentioned in my own post I am using a USB to install Windows and all USB ports of my laptop are USB 3, which is not compatible so if I cannot find a working USB 3 driver I can use it won't be able to read the Windows ISO files from the USB in order to install it.

Like i said here are the USB3 drivers: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22824/Intel-USB-3-0-eXtensible-Host-Controller-Driver-for-Intel-8-9-100-Series-and-Intel-C220-C610-Chipset-Family

[Radium_Angel]

7 minutes ago, bizzfuzz said:

I am following the link you sent me and installing multiple drivers including ones for Windows 10 in hopes it will work, but as I have mentioned in my own post I am using a USB to install Windows and all USB ports of my laptop are USB 3, which is not compatible so if I cannot find a working USB 3 driver I can use it won't be able to read the Windows ISO files from the USB in order to install it.

What part of the link are you stumbling on?

[bizzfuzz]

2 minutes ago, Seyrren said:

Like i said here are the USB3 drivers: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22824/Intel-USB-3-0-eXtensible-Host-Controller-Driver-for-Intel-8-9-100-Series-and-Intel-C220-C610-Chipset-Family

Yep, installed those following @Radium_Angel's tutorial.

 

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

What part of the link are you stumbling on?

None of it, man, it's more of me not fully believing it will work.

 

--

 

I will be testing the new ISO I created right now and let you know.

[Radium_Angel]

8 minutes ago, bizzfuzz said:

None of it, man, it's more of me not fully believing it will work.

Then you are wasting everyone's time.

Good day.

[bizzfuzz]

Update.

 

After backing up all of my data, which took a while, I attempted to run the Windows 7 Setup from my USB Stick.

 

I created it using Rufus with the following settings:

- Image option: Standard Windows installation

- Partition scheme: GPT

- Target system: UEFI (non CSM)

- File system: FAT32

 

I then added the Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver to both "boot" and "install" (Just for Windows 7 Ultimate, which is the version I wish to install) files using PowerISO.

 

However, this time I get another strange error. After showing me the "Windows is loading files..." text, it gives me a blue-screen with the stop code 0x000000A5 and telling me "The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant".

 

I tried tweaking the settings in my BIOS (Enabling/Disabling Fast Boot, Enabling/Disabling Secure Boot, Enabling/Disabling CSM Support, Enabling/Disabling CPU features like virtualization and AES instruction set and also tried just switching back to the default settings).

 

Is there something wrong I did here or is this laptop really fighting me from every angle in order to prevent me from installing Windows 7?

 

Regarding @Radium_Angel's previous suggestion to me, I found one of Linus' videos where he did what you said I could do and while I will most likely go that route if I cannot install Windows 7, I'd prefer if I could use Windows 7 itself along with its own kernel and set of features.

[LWM723]

Change BIOS from UEFI to legacy (MBR I Think)

[Chiyawa]

Unfortunately, Windows 7 requires CSM support because of the graphic protocol I believed. You may need to set the Rufus to Legacy and burn the Windows iso again. I couldn't get Windows 7 to boot in UEFI mode using Rufus. Haven't try using other software.

 

One thing I know of, but you need the Windows 7 iso burned into disc, and you can use external optical drive to boot the disc. You can install a UEFI Windows 7 this way but you really need to set CSM to enabled, otherwise, Windows 7 installer will hang.

[Chiyawa]

There's another hack: Get a USB 2.0 extension cable (male to female). Plug the male part to your laptop and plug your USB storage drive to the female part. That way, you can solve the USB 3.0 problem when installing Windows 7. It will make your Windows 7 installer slower, though.