Win7 on a Win10 machine: Warranty & HP Support Assistant

[Fortran64]

Just about ready to take my new machine in & pay Geek Squad $100 to upgrade it from Win10 to Win7  (got new Home Premium disk & key, also downloaded 7 & made an ISO image in hopes of saving hours installing all the updates when I thought I was going to try & do this myself).  Two questions:

This isn't a reversion from Win10 upgrade, it's a native Windows 10 machine. Is this likely to void my warranty?

And will I still be able to use HP Support Assistant, or is it going to look at my system and say

"OMG, this fool needs all new drivers" and then send me the Windows 10 drivers that it thinks belong on this machine?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

This is a peer to peer forum, so we can only give you our unqualified opinions regarding warranty info.

There used to be written info online regarding warranty information.  I can't seem to find anything relevant to your question anymore.

Based on what I have read in the past, you will void the software warranty since you are installing an unsupported operating system.

This means that if you have a problem with Windows or any of the programs installed on the PC, HP will ask you to reinstall W10 before proceeding to troubleshoot the PC under the warranty.

Installing W7 should not void the hardware warranty.

I don't use the HPSA myself, but it should not scan your PC and recommend W10 drivers. 

The safe thing to do would be to have it notify you of any updates but not automatically install them.

Don't leave it on autopilot (automatically download and install updates).

[Fortran64]

Thank you. Having had two hard drives and a motherboard (or vice versa) replaced on the Dell within 8 months, I am antsy about hardware warranties, so since the Forum isn't allowed to give me an official answer, maybe should check directly with HP.
...Drivers, though: the last straw was online confirmation of my suspicion that you CAN +/- brick a machine by installing W7 and then be left without keyboard, mouse or even a screen to install the new drivers. I know when I'm in over my head and am not going to search Microsoft for some utility which reportedly exists to patch the ISO and/or install disks & fix this.

...Nothing has been ever set to automatically install (one of my lesser complaints about Windows 10). So HP Support Assistant should be safe enough, but all I know is that it's just there in the taskbar; if there's something more useful I'd be glad to learn of it.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Yes, in order to confirm exactly what the warranty will and will not cover, you will have to contact HP technical support directly.  In the USA/Canada, that number is:  1-(800)-474-6836.

Stay on the line until you are able to contact a customer services rep.  The automated assistant will try and have you contact support online or direct you to this forum.

I was able to find some warranty info online...see the info on page 9, which pretty much repeats what I have already written above...

Software technical support does NOT include assistance with: • Non-HP software that doesn’t ship with computing product. • Installing HP software on non-HP computing products. • System optimization and customization. • Non-PC-based network configuration. • Advanced feature usage on non-HP software.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03130989.pdf

I took a look at the specs for your PC and IMO, it should be easy to find the W7 drivers you need for your model directly from the hardware component manufacturer's websites (AMD, Realtek, etc).

You may brick the PC if you try to install a BIOS update written for a different operating system other than W7.

I've never heard of a driver wrecking the PC.

I don't use any programs to update the drivers on my PC.  I just check the support pages or component manufacturer's websites once a year or so to see if there are newer drivers available for the hardware my PC has.

In the case of your PC, where W7 is not supported, you will be relegated to checking the individual hardware component manufacturer's websites for updated drivers (or Windows Update may install some).