HP Pavillion 15-ab218nh. Win10 to Win7 downgrade

[Johnpo36]

I have just bought a HP pavillion. I am very happy with the laptop, but i do not like the windows 10 OS. Is it possible to downgrade to windows 7?  Thanks 

[Huffer]

Possible but not easy. Of course you have to buy Windows 7. There are no Windows 7 drivers posted for it here but can be found on an item by item basis. I have found if you just turn off Cortana you get an experience in Windows 10 not much diffferent from Windows 7.  

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @Johnpo36 :

Looking at the product specs for your notebook, you may be able to use the W7 x64 drivers and software from the 15t-ab100 on your model, except the BIOS and firmware files.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-15-ab100-notebook-pc-series/8499302/model/8788170/d...

The first thing you need to do before proceeding to install W7 would be to make the set of W10 recovery media in case your experiment with W7 is not successful.

Then you have to go into the BIOS, enable legacy mode and disable secure boot.  See this guide for the settings to change.

W7 is not compatible with secure boot.

https://www.support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03736054/

Your notebook has the Intel Skylake chipset, which means that you cannot install W7 until you put the USB3 drivers into your W7 USB flash drive installation media.

You may be able to install W7 from a DVD, but I'm not 100% sure about that.

For the USB3 drivers, you need to run this USB3 Creator Utility.  There is a readme link on the webpage for how to use the utility.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25476/NUCs-Windows-7-USB-3-0-Creator-Utility

[Johnpo36]

Hi Paul, thank you for your reply. I had done everything with the BIOS settings that you mentioned in your post. I have installed win 7 ult x64 from disc. But all i need now are drivers. I tried the link you posted but it only offers windows 10 x64 in the drop down menu. Any futher ideas?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very wecome.

I swore I saw W7 drivers on that page.

OK, use the ones from the 15-ab100...

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

Install the Intel graphics driver first, restart the PC, then install the AMD graphics driver.

I think you need the 1st Intel graphics driver listed.

[Johnpo36]

Thanks again Paul. Those two drivers installed with no problems, But what about the others? Like ethernet and wilan, bluetooth

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You need this ethernet driver from that model's support page...

This package provides the Realtek Local Area Network (LAN) Driver that enables the Realtek Network Interface Card (NIC) Chip in supported notebook models that are running a supported operating system.

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp71001-71500/sp71191.exe

I don't know what model wireless card your notebook has, so please post the hardware ID for it, and I will post the links to the drivers you need...

The wireless card is listed as a Network Controller in the device manager when the driver is not installed.

Use this guide for how to find the hardware ID.

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

The only drivers listed are for the Realtek wifi card, but sometimes HP installs other model cards.

I also noticed that the Intel USB3 driver is not listed on the 15-ab100 support page, so you will need this driver for the USB3 controllers...

This package contains the Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver for supported notebook models running a supported operating system.

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp74501-75000/sp74851.exe

[Johnpo36]

Hi Paul, when i had Win 10 installed, the drivers for the Bluetooth, LAN and wireless network controller were all Broadcom. The hardware ID for the network controller is

PCI\VEN_14E4&DEV_4365&SUBSYS_804A103C&REV_01

Thanks again for all your help

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You need these W7 wifi and bluetooth drivers...

The package contains the Broadcom wireless LAN drivers and utility that are required to enable the integrated Broadcom Wireless LAN Adapter in supported notebooks that are running a supported operating system.

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp72501-73000/sp72879.exe

This package contains the Broadcom Bluetooth driver and software for supported models that are running a supported operating system. Broadcom Bluetooth 4.0 Driver is required to enable Broadcom Bluetooth 4.0 devices and is compatible with Broadcom Bluetooth 3.0 and earlier versions.

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp72501-73000/sp72617.exe

[Johnpo36]

Hi Paul, thank you very much for all your help. All the important drivers are installed now and working, I could not have done it without you, Thanks again:smileyhappy: