Downgrading HP Pavilion 15t_ab200 from Windows 10 PRO to Windows 7 PRO

[Jonathan_Le]

Is there a way to downgrade my HP Pavilion 15t_ab200 from Windows 10 PRO to Windows 7 PRO?

I tried looking into the Security and Recovery section, but there is no option to "Go back to Windows 7". Plus, I don't see any Windows 7 driver for this particular laptop model.

I'm not familiar with Windows 10 at all. Please help. Thanks in advance!

[WAWood]

Jonathan_Le

Sorry, but the basic answer is no.  HP isn't writing old Win7 drivers for the hardware contained in the new Win10 PCs.

While you can force the installation of Win7, that is a very difficult thing to do, and when you're done, you will have a laptop for which some of the hardware will not function properly due to the lack of HP drivers.

If you wanted a Win7 PC, you should have bought one with Win 7 already installed.

Good Luck
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[lasvegaswireman · Accepted solution]

When requesting assistance, please provide the complete model name and product number (p/n) of the HP computer in question. HP/Compaq makes thousands of models of computers. Without this information it may be difficult or impossible to assist you in resolving your issue.

The above requested information can be found on the bottom of your computer, inside the battery compartment or on the startup BIOS screen. Please see How Do I Find My Model Number or Product Number? for more assistance locating this information. DO NOT include your serial number.

Based on HP series"15t-ab200", your computer uses a 6th generation Intel chipset called "Skylake". Intel removed USB 2.0 support from the Skylake chipset, therefore normal DVD and USB Windows 7 installs will not work on 6th generation Intel chipsets. You have to add the USB 3.0 drivers into the Windows 7 ISO using this Intel utility; 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25476/Wi​​​​​ndows-7-USB-3-0-Creator-Utility

After running this utility and directing it to your Windows 7 ISO, the resulting ISO/USB/DVD should be able to install Windows 7 on your computer.

You may also need to provide the below driver for Windows 7 to see the hard drive... Extract the files onto another usb flash drive without any folders;

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25165/In​​​tel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Dri...

You may need to install the below driver to make the USB ports usable in Windows 7;

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22824/US​​​B-3-0-Driver-Intel-USB-3-0-eXtensible-Host-Cont...

You will need to DISABLE "Secure Boot" and ENABLE "Legacy Support" in the BIOS prior to installing Windows 7. There may be other BIOS settings that need to be changed and you may need to supply USB and/or AHCI driver before the installation will proceed.

Many of the Windows 7 drivers from the HP Pavilion Notebook - 15t-ab000 CTO (ENERGY STAR) - Software and driver page should work on your computer. Please don't use BIOS and firmware downloads from this model.

Please post the Windows Device Manager's "Hardware Ids" (just the string of text will do) for those devices you having issues with, and any others that are listed as missing or unknown devices as shown in the example below;

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Please click the White KUDOS "Thumbs Up" to show your appreciation

[Jonathan_Le]

Thank you very much for your time and effort...

I was able to install Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and all the drivers, except there two:

[lasvegaswireman]

Please try sp71811.exe <HP 3D DriveGuard Software (HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection)> to resolve the HPQ6007 issue.

It appears the MSFT0101 issue is related to Windows 7 lacking support for Intel PTT (a type of virtual TPM). Please read this Intel Communities thread and then attempt to download and install this Microsoft Hotfix.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Please click the White KUDOS "Thumbs Up" to show your appreciation

[Jonathan_Le]

It turns out that many of the official Windows 10 drivers are fully compatible on Windows 7.

Thank you so much for your time and support. I finally have all the drivers installed on my Windows 7 system. However, I think I'm running into the conflict of the audio drivers (Intel Display Audio vs Realtek HD Audio). They don't play nicely with each other. I don't really like that fact that the new laptops these days always have multiple audio streams playing and, somehow, controlled by different applications. 

It is still soon to come to conclusion for my case. I would have to spend more time to test out the problem with these audio drivers. I will keep you posted.

Thanks again!

-- JT