Gateway with windows 8, trying to put windows 7 on it...

[ElementalWindX]

Ok this is my first computer I'm trying to get Windows 7 onto that is Windows 8. I'm using a OEM Windows 7 HP cd and it will not go past the Windows start up logo. I tried booting to my WinPE USB drive and it does the same thing.

Just to see what would happened I turned of the secure boot in the bios, no change. Tried a clean new hard drive, no change.


Any body else ran into this? What did you do to fix it?

Gateway model SX2110G ( http://support.gateway.com/product/default.aspx?modelId=4522 )

 

[nlinecomputers]

I had an HP on my bench that I rolled back to win 7. I had to disable Secure Boot, enable legacy support, and disable fastboot.

Don't know if there are such options in your bios or not but I would look for anything that suggests support for GPT drives being default and turn that off. If you have an option for standard bios over uefi I would take that too.

 

[ElementalWindX]

I had an HP on my bench that I rolled back to win 7. I had to disable Secure Boot, enable legacy support, and disable fastboot.

Don't know if there are such options in your bios or not but I would look for anything that suggests support for GPT drives being default and turn that off. If you have an option for standard bios over uefi I would take that too.

They had quiet boot and fast boot, I had fast turned off. I just turned off quiet boot, and also enabled CSM which opened up some greyed out legacy options, and now it is going thru with the install.


Thanks!

 

[drjones]

How did it go with drivers? I've read that there could be big problems installing 7 onto a brand-new 8 PC because there wouldn't necessarily be any drivers for the newer hardware....

 

[ElementalWindX]

How did it go with drivers? I've read that there could be big problems installing 7 onto a brand-new 8 PC because there wouldn't necessarily be any drivers for the newer hardware....

I checked before I started this lil venture with this guys pc and gateway does provide windows 7 drivers so it went 100% smooth with the exception of my little bios hiccup. He is one happy customer!

 

[brandonkick]

Fortunately there are applications coming along very nicely that allow windows 8 to appear and more or less function as windows 7 did.

I just really don't think it was necessary to orient the OS towards a touch screen. Apparently so did enough people for these apps to be written!

I may just move my workstation machine to windows 8 (of course using these apps as well) to get over my predisposition and learn some things about the OS in case I need to service a machine where the customer actually uses and loves windows 8.

I would have been curious to see, how many devices weren't supported by windows 7 generic drivers and at that rate how many of those that weren't supported were fixed by driver genius.

 

[scottay]

Fortunately there are applications coming along very nicely that allow windows 8 to appear and more or less function as windows 7 did.

I just really don't think it was necessary to orient the OS towards a touch screen. Apparently so did enough people for these apps to be written!

Have to agree with you on the necessity to orient toward touch screen... I bought a Lenovo Twist and upgraded my main desktop machine in November. Being in the business I decided it was time to plunge into W8 and can't f****ing stand it. No start menu is the REAL deal killer, as using keyboard combos and crap are hugely inefficient.

Yes, there are programs that make it "look like" W7, but I shouldn't have to jury rig my brand new OS out of the box... The fact that MS totally did away with our W7 features is killer - I can see disabling them by default and having the option to revert if you want.

Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread... Just saw the quoted post and had to vent

I've read that the BIOS setting mentioned are common problems when doing the downgrade. Also, regarding drivers, I think most will have W7 versions available. Those that don't, I would try the W8 ones. Worst that will happen is you'll have to uninstall and try something else...

Keep us posted on the progress. These are the types of posts that will save every tech a lot of troubleshooting as W8 takes hold!

 

[brandonkick]

As far as I am aware if you have the secure boot, fast boot, and or UEFI BIOS mode enabled you will not be able to boot anything other then windows 8. It won't boot a WIN 7 disk from the drive and it (I think) won't even work if you put in a hard drive that already has 7 on it.

So you must:

Disable Secure Boot
Disable UEFI BIOS mode (set to legacy bios)
Disable Fast Boot (not sure this is always the case)


Using these steps you should be able to go forward with the "downgrade" or installation.

 

[Zacherio]

I checked before I started this lil venture with this guys pc and gateway does provide windows 7 drivers so it went 100% smooth with the exception of my little bios hiccup. He is one happy customer!

Where did you find these drivers at? I recently bought a nice Gateway NE72206u laptop and got a windows 7 install disk. In order to get it to work I had to partition all drives, and now when the setup is complete, it all boils down to the fact that all my importaint drivers are gone, including network, so I am not even able to access the internet. Any info would be helpful

 

[ElementalWindX]

Where did you find these drivers at? I recently bought a nice Gateway NE72206u laptop and got a windows 7 install disk. In order to get it to work I had to partition all drives, and now when the setup is complete, it all boils down to the fact that all my importaint drivers are gone, including network, so I am not even able to access the internet. Any info would be helpful

gateway.com drivers/support section.

 

[Zacherio]

gateway.com drivers/support section.

Yea thats what i was afraid of, ive already checked there and contacted Customer Support, but apparently the laptop i have is "too new" and the techs havent had time to put the drivers up under support yet. There is absolutely nothing as far as any support goes for this laptop =\

 

[BillMoney]

all the win 8 downgrades I have done so far have been surprisingly easy to find drivers for, especially Lenovo

 

[nlinecomputers]

Driverpack solutions also would probably help out here.

 

[ElementalWindX]

Yea thats what i was afraid of, ive already checked there and contacted Customer Support, but apparently the laptop i have is "too new" and the techs havent had time to put the drivers up under support yet. There is absolutely nothing as far as any support goes for this laptop =\

Look up the chipset info and you might be able to get it directly from the manufacturer.

 

[Zacherio]

Driverpack solutions also would probably help out here.

that was my first though, but the problem im having is that one of the missing driver is my network drivers. Gateway was a terrible choice. I was hoping to talk straight to AMD as i dont think they would care which windows i was using, unlike gateway or Microsoft. I have found plenty of chipset drivers for toshiba/sony or whoever, but none work on mine.

 

[glricht]

that was my first though, but the problem im having is that one of the missing driver is my network drivers. Gateway was a terrible choice. I was hoping to talk straight to AMD as i dont think they would care which windows i was using, unlike gateway or Microsoft. I have found plenty of chipset drivers for toshiba/sony or whoever, but none work on mine.

3DPnet can also be used to determine/install the network drivers (http://www.3dpchip.com/3dpchip/3dp/net_down_en.php)

Or why not just use another PC to download the needed drivers to a thumb drive and then transfer to the new PC?

 

[nlinecomputers]

that was my first though, but the problem im having is that one of the missing driver is my network drivers. Gateway was a terrible choice. I was hoping to talk straight to AMD as i dont think they would care which windows i was using, unlike gateway or Microsoft. I have found plenty of chipset drivers for toshiba/sony or whoever, but none work on mine.

I have the full copy of Drivepack Solutions on a external HDD. No need to worry about downloading drivers so long as you keep it upto date.

 

[Zacherio]

3DPnet can also be used to determine/install the network drivers (http://www.3dpchip.com/3dpchip/3dp/net_down_en.php)

Or why not just use another PC to download the needed drivers to a thumb drive and then transfer to the new PC?

Thats what I had been doing, it was more of a "my laptop is brand new with no windows 7 drivers" issue. I finay got it after using devsub or whatever it is called to look up the "closest" antheros drivers. Got the wireless working and the rest worked itself out. Thanks everyone for the help and advice.

 

[brandonkick]

Curious?

Why did you go to the lengths of removing windows 8 and installing windows 7 when a "shell" app could have made the transition much smoother and faster for you?

I'm not trying to be rude, just wondering why you did it?

 

[ElementalWindX]

Curious?

Why did you go to the lengths of removing windows 8 and installing windows 7 when a "shell" app could have made the transition much smoother and faster for you?

I'm not trying to be rude, just wondering why you did it?

Shell app?


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