Windows 7 drivers available for Pavilion- 15-ab254sa?

[toddy0]

I purchased an HP Pavilion Notebook - 15-ab254sa that was completely formatted - no information on the hard drive.

I installed windows 7 64 bit by booting from a cd. 

Windows 7 runs fine, but I'm unable to connect to the internet / read usb sticks etc. because none of the hp drivers are installed.

I searched for the product here on the support website but they only list windows 10 drivers, windows 7 are not provided.

I tried using the windows 10 drivers but they don't work.

I also tried some drivers from a different model of hp notebook here that supports windows 7 drivers but this didn't work either unforunately.

Is there any way I can get windows 7 drivers that work with this model of HP notebook?

Kind thanks in advance for anyone who can help.

[Dudefoxlive]

try locating the hardware ID for the devices and googling them.  I had good luck by doing this and was able to install Windows 7 on my Windows 10 Laptop.

[AmpLighter]

The last place I was able to locate win7 was from a third party site. I DO NOT recommend doing this as the win7 software can be acquired via Microsoft for a fee of course. When you call Microsoft, make sure you have all important reference numbers which indicate that you purchased a system that had win7 on it originally. Without these serial  numbers, you may not be able to acquire a copy of the opsys.

Also, let's not forget that searching HP support & documents page, one should be able to locate the software & back up drivers nesserary for thier HP supported system.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/bph07165#AbT2

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @toddy0

You should be able to use all of the W7 x64 drivers and software from the 15-ab100 on your model, except the BIOS and firmware files.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-15-ab100-notebook-pc-series/8499302

[toddy0]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Paul!

These drivers are working (I was able to get the usb stick recognised for example)

However when I installed sp71191.exe (Realtek Local Area Network (LAN) Driver) It gives me this error:

Findfile failed. The Realtek Network Controller was not found.

I followed advice on an old microsoft support thread that suggested to download a driver from realtek.com ( "Win7 and Server 2008 R2 Auto Installation Program)

But this doesn't seem to work either.

Am I right in assuming this is the driver that would enable me to connect to the internet? At the moment the laptop is unable to conntect to the web at all - not wirelessly or by a direct ethernet cable connection.

Thanks again for your assistance.

[toddy0]

For some additional reference, the issues I now see regarding hardware are these 3:

http://prntscr.com/jl5u06

[mdklassen · Accepted solution]

When I access: http://www.computersurgeons.com/search.aspx?searchterm=15-ab2

there are several "system recovery sets" for the '15-AB2...' series of computers.

But, all of them will install Windows 10, not Windows 7.

Thus, it is reasonable to think that your computer was originally shipped with Windows 10 pre-installed.

So, your computer has been granted a "digital entitlement" to reinstall Windows 10, at no cost, at any time, onto the same hardware.

See: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

for a free download of the "generic" version of Windows 10.

After installing, return to that HP Support web-site, to install all the HP-specific device-drivers.

Note that Microsoft will terminate all support for Windows 7 in January 2020 -- less than 2 years away.

At that time, you will need to "upgrade" to Windows 10.

But, you can avoid that "migration" effort, by installing Windows 10 today.

P.S. The site:  www.restoredisks.com     seems to be "offline".

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I don't see anything missing from the device manager from the screen shot you posted except the wifi adapter, intel management engine interface, and an unknown device.

You need this driver for the PCI Simple Comms Controller:

This package provides the Intel Management Engine Interface (MEI) Driver for the supported notebook models and operating systems. The Intel Management Engine Interface enables communication between the host operating system and the Intel Management Engine firmware.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp71001-71500/sp71183.exe

Please post the hardware ID's for the Network Controller and the Unknown device.

There are too many different wireless adapters and unknown devices for me to post a driver.

Use this guide for how to find the hardware ID for a device.

https://www.howtogeek.com/193798/how-to-find-drivers-for-unknown-devices-in-the-device-manager/

[toddy0]

Thanks again Paul

Re the driver for  the "PCI Simple Comms Controller" - when I try to install the .exe from your provided link, I receive this notification:

“The setup ended prematurely because of the following error:
This platform is not supported”

Re the hardware IDS:

Unknown device:

acpi/msft0101

*msft0101

Network controller:

pci\ven_8086&dev_3165&subsys_40108086&rev_81

pci\ven_8086&dev_3165&subsys_40108086

pci\ven_8086&dev_3165&CC_028000

pci\ven_8086&dev_3165&CC_0280

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

OK...try this IMEI driver instead...

This package provides the Intel Management Engine Components Driver for supported notebook models running a supported operating system.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp79001-79500/sp79059.exe

Wifi:

This package contains drivers for the Intel Wireless LAN adapter in supported computer models that are running a supported operating system.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp84001-84500/sp84414.exe

Bluetooth:

This package contains the driver installation package for the Intel Bluetooth in the supported computer models running a supported operating systems.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp84001-84500/sp84412.exe

acpi/msft0101:  I have zipped up and attached the Microsoft hotfix to install that device below.

Unzip and run the hotfix.