General Windows 7 Upgrade Guide for HP Laptops

[Roadrunner100]

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mikasi1968 wrote:

Hi Roadrunner,

I have a different model but had the same issues as you.  I upgraded, recovered to Vista, Clean installed, recovered 10X before it was finally determined I had a hardware issue.

Thanks for the thorough info and encouraging words. I have performed all of the above at one point or another in trying to figure the issues before posting here. 

I would however like to further clarify my issue. The upgrade program I speak of, is one supplied by HP at purchase, in the period just before Win7 was released. This meant that you purchased an HP product with Vista on board, and had to wait for HP to ship out the upgrade kit, which consists of two disks: 1) HP upgrade manager, containing device specific drivers and SW, and 2) Win 7 OS disk. The procedure I'm looking for, is one that utilises these two disks to clean-slate install rather than upgrade. 

Thanx.

[CherylG]

Boot with the Win 7 OS dvd and choose Custom Install.

[mikasi1968]

This is the same I am referring to.  It is possible to do the clean install from that Win 7 disk, you can choose "Customer installation" and it works much the same as purchasing the disk from Microsoft.  However, you CAN clean install keeping the HP stuff.

When you custom install, it creates a "Windows.old" folder for the current vista stuff  which can be deleted afterwards.  HP has some useful step by step procedures for that clean (custom) install.  From my research I've found the only thing you have available is to purchase the full 7 version from Microsoft but the disk sent from HP has both install options available for you.

[Daccount]

Emailed HP and they've directed me here.

I looked at the list of supported laptops but I couldn't see mine in there.

I'm using an HP Pavilion HDX9160EA.

Was wondering if I could upgrade to Windows 7, is it possible with this model?

I'd be disappointed with HP if it's not possible as this system more than meets the minimum requirements for Windows 7.

Thanks,

-Doug

[CherylG]

@Daccount

There have been other owners of the HDX series who upgraded to Win 7. An active member here,HaggisCat, who owns a model with similiar software often helps out. I will ask him to join in here in case you have problems. He has I believe done an upgrade to 7 and also a clean install on his laptop.

[HaggisCat]

After many tries of upgrading I found the best thing to do was to do a clean install. There were so many problems to do with the hot keys not working. Most other things went well.

There is a longish thread to get the eject button to work and the bass and treble sliders as well. It took a lot of trial and error, but my self and whitebotshady solved all of that.

Your IDT audio driver will get the mute button to function correctly, so it will turn orange when muted and white, when not.

Personally I like to do clean installs. Save all your personal stuff and delete everything on the drive and reinstall all the drivers after the clean install.

Here is a link from Cheryl on how to do a clean install.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/windows-7-clean-install-part-1.htm

Here is the tread to deal with your Hot Keys :

 http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Operating-systems-and-software/HDX16-buttons-in-windows-7/td-p/154571/p...

Just go to the solution on page six.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your HDX may have two hard drives. If it does, all you have to do is move all your personal stuff to the other drive. Also save your SwSetup file on drive "C". This contains your drivers and most of the software in Vista. Most of them will work in W7. I like to save it to DVD. It takes a little while, it's quite large. You can also simply just drag that file over to the other drive.

You may also want to make some recovery disc's just in case you want to return to Vista, but I am quite confident that everything will work fine. Still, make the recovery disc's. I get paranoid sometimes.

I also recommend doing a clean install because when I tried the upgrade on mine, it was slower to boot than with Vista.

When I did the clean install I left as much HP software out as possible. Things like HP Advisor and HP update. These programs keep the laptop busy and use up ram. I can't stand them !

If you have any problems I will walk you through it. I can be very patient. Check out this thread with giudo_1

 http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Operating-systems-and-software/Want-to-format-please-need-answers/td-p/...

 I had a look at your note book tour guide and your UK model is quite a bit more complex than the HDX 18 & 16 series here on the North American continent. I am not saying it can't be upgraded to W7, I am just saying that you may run into more problems concerning the Key board filter.

Just make sure you have a set of working recovery disc's. Apparently there is a patch for the recovery manager so if you create your own disc's they will work if the W7 installation fails.

I am going to contact Cheryl and ask her about that.

[jericho68]

Hi Cheryl,

My laptop is DV6885se I can't start to install windows 7 because it just hang in the boot screen after it loads files.

http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv110/HACKSDaily/Windows7_Beta_Boot_Screen.png

I tried it more than 20x and waited for sveral minutes bu it just hang in there I can't proceed with the installation process.

I have downgraded my DV6885se to XP by the way and now I want to install a windows 7 but setup can't start. Please help me out my mind is blowing searching for a solution.

[HaggisCat]

Cheryl can jump in here if she has something else to add.

 How are you trying to install W7 ?

 Are you telling your laptop to boot from the installation disc ?

 To do this : When the laptop is on, open the dvd/cd drawer and shut down the laptop while the drawer is still open.  Put your W7 disc in and close the drawer. Upon boot up start hitting the "f9" key for boot options. Choose to boot from internal DVD/CD ROM drive. Push enter to do this.

 That should get it started.

 Here is a nice tutorial from Cheryl on how to perform a clean install W7 :

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/windows-7-clean-install-part-1.htm

[Rakhmad]

@jericho68

Have you tried using windows7 retail version? Beta version may have some bugs.

BTW, I noticed you have Nvidia 8400M GS please make sure the GPU temp are normal, around 60C when idle.

Dying GPU also maybe the source of your problem. Do the notebook running well with XP?

[Roadrunner100]

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HaggisCat wrote:

After many tries of upgrading I found the best thing to do was to do a clean install. There were so many problems to do with the hot keys not working. Most other things went well.

Thanks for interceding, I came to the same conclusion as you.  

Personally I like to do clean installs. Save all your personal stuff and delete everything on the drive and reinstall all the drivers after the clean install.

This is what I ended up attempting. The resultant HW issues and mismatches were a real pain, your links provided insight as well as solutions.

However, I must say that the two upgrade disk solution provided by HP are an appalling mess. Running them as an Upgrade produces a device which is pathetically slow, buggy and will hang randomly. My particular HDX18, had no additional SW installed on it other than the Stock Supplied applications, utilities and updates.

In providing this procedure, without a clean install (format) option, the upgrade utility disk is useless - even though it contains all necessary Win7 drivers and HP SW.

HP should have either published a workaround patch, or an installation procedure to solve this issue without having their customers spend days and countless hours sifting through forums and testing solutions.

Rant over.

Thanks guys/gals for your excellent support.