Fresh install Windows 7 on HP Elitedesk 800 G3

[BillerDude]

lkubler

I also ran into this issue and was able to resolve the M.2 driver issue as well as the missing USB3 drivers with DISM.  I ran into these same difficulties prepareing the HP EliteDesk 800 G3 TWR for Windows 7 for imaging with our corporate SCCM Task Sequence.  I had already got this model working for Windows 10, but we are still supporting Windows 7 as well (long story...) so we needed to get this model working for Windows 7.

I encountered both the lack of USB 3.0 support (no keyboard\mouse) as well as the M.2 drive issue.  I was able to address both of these with DISM, a Microsoft provided command line tool that allows you to minipulate the .WIM files used for deploying modern Windows OS's.

Below are the high level steps that I had to perform to get the Windows 7 SP1 x64 on to this hardware

*Resolving USB 3.0 missing drivers

 - Once you have the correct USB3 drivers you can inject them into the Installation WIMs using DISM.  This is only required if you are planning on installing WIndows 7 "from disk".  I do this to then install the necessary drivers and capture them for use in SCCM.  For the SCCM deployment the drivers are installed furing the apply driver package step of the Task Sequence though.

 - Use the steps outlined here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Hh825070.aspx to add the drivers to the boot.wim file in the "source" directory on your Windows 7 media.  Once completed you'll have access to mouse & keyboard to install Windows. (yeah!)

*Resolve M.2 Storage Controller Drivers

 - You'll need to find the correct storage drivers for this model, but you'll want the "Standard NVM Express Controller" device driver.  I was able to grab this from the HP recovery media generated from the Cloud Recovery process.  If someone else has a link where they driver itself can be found in the INF format feel free to add it.

-The issue that I found had nothing to do with finding the "right" driver though, but that Windows 7 SP1 doesn't support ANY NVMe drivers natively!  MS posted a pair of patches to address this though, and they can be found here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2990941/update-to-add-native-driver-support-in-nvm-express-... and here https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3087873/-0x0000007e-stop-error-after-you-install-hotfix-299...

- Both of these hotfixes need to be applied to the install.wim prior to installing Windows with DISM or applied to an installation of Windows you intend to capture, or what I did, is apply them during my Task Sequence.  Since these hotfixes are only applicable to this specific model in my environemnt I've added a pair of tasks the Task Sequence to apply these using DISM.  In order to do this you must have the DISM optional component applied to your WinPE within SCCM.  Then just add two Run Command Line tasks immediatly after applying your Win7 WIM but BEFORE applying the drivers.  Since these only apply to this model I've added conditions to these tasks to only apply to this model (WMI conditions same used to apply the driver package).

- Once the hotfixes are installed SCCM is able to install the NVM driver correctly and the machine images as normal.

Hope this helps someone and saves them some time!

[350z_ant]

Hello,

I am literally going through exactly everything in your post. At this point I resolved the USB 3.0 driver issues. Previously I wasnt able to use USB keyboard or mouse due to that. I am using WDS for capturing and deploying. My question is, based on the link to the microsoft hotfix for the NVMe, which method did you use? method 1 or method2? Method 2 seems pretty straight forward. Install windows 7 on a sata SSD or HDD on the 800 G3 SFF, press CTRL+SHIFT+F3 to enter audit mode during OOBE process, install the hotfix package(s) and restart the computer. Sysprep and capture the image and deploy to NVMe drive. What would you recommend?  Method1 seems very time consuming as I've already been wroking on the issues with this PC on and off for days.

[jc2017]

I did exactly as above, but my Keyboard & Mouse not responding, any other setting to be done in BIOS / UEFI ?

[350z_ant]

If you are using WDS, use a Windows 10 boot wim in order to gain control of the keyboard and mouse. Once it boots from the Windows 10 boot wim, you will be asked which install WIM you want to apply to that PC. I hope that makes sense.

[jc2017]

It may be a solution, but I have Win 7 only, WDS require Windows Server 2008. Anything possible by using Win 10 Boot.wim and win 7 Install.wim combination?

[350z_ant]

I'm not sure what you mean but I have Win 7 only. Are you running a WDS server? If not, then the suggestion I mentioned wont work. I have a WDS server running on Server 2012 and I used the Win 10 boot wim in order to have a functioning keyboard and mouse on the troublesome PC models. Then after the boot wim has loaded, you will see the photo below and the install wims that you have previously loaded into WDS will be what you see in that list.