Stepped Windows 8 back to 7 and now all drivers are gone

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mitchwhitaker

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Dec 18, 2013
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Like the title says. Bought a new PC and knowing how god-awful Windows 8 is, I intended to install 7 before anything else. I followed the most authoritative instructions I could find to the letter. Modifying the UEFI settings and what not. This laptop (HP ENVY Elite Quad) has not optical drive, though it wouldn't function if it did have one anyway. It installed and loaded Windows 7, but I noticed that Aero wouldn't load, which I naturally assumed was due to the graphics card having an issue, so I checked display settings, and instead of the Radeon HD 8550 it was SUPPOSED to have, it said something like "primary VGA adapter". Having seen that, I opened Device Manager and clicked to expand the section that would have all of the components listed, and my pulse froze when I saw the little yellow exclamation mark of death, indicating "No driver found". So since I am unable to connect anything to the machine to put the drivers ON the machine, I have no clue where to go from here. Is it as simple as replacing the hard drive with a new one? <- Can that be done?
 
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ahh dude almost luffed at ur post sorry

new hdd wont fix your problem you need to get drivers that came with your laptop if you dont have the disc go to your manufacture website and download from there hope this helps
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Luthango

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Dec 18, 2013
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ahh dude almost luffed at ur post sorry

new hdd wont fix your problem you need to get drivers that came with your laptop if you dont have the disc go to your manufacture website and download from there hope this helps
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Sep 27, 2012
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Have you tried windows 8? I'm just asking, because it really isn't god-awful at all - there are a few people who don't want to be bothered with changing a few settings and don't realize that you don't have to use metro apps, who then go raise cain because they want to put up a fuss.

It's actually a perfectly usable OS - windows 7 with a UI you should hide, but improved task manager, file manager, and search.

The reason I'm saying this is that your issues would be solved if you put windows 8 back on it and came to realize that if you can press the windows button instead of the start button, there's no reason to whine.

That being said, I'm confused - why can't you download the drivers from a different computer, put them on a USB stick, and install them that way?
 
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mitchwhitaker

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Dec 18, 2013
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It's a little saddening that people aren't reading this clearly. THE USB PORTS ARE NONFUCNTIONAL. Their drivers are all. gone. And I have used Windows 8 plenty, namely at my workplace, and it is the most terrible OS I have ever witnessed. I prefer Vista. Even OS X. I hate. Windows 8. That's not going to change. It disgusts me. And the core of the matter: I cannot put anything back on the machine because the card reader, and USB ports are out. And their is not optical drive. Network access is also nonexistent--the drivers for all hardware but the keyboard, touch pad, and screen, are all. gone.
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Sep 27, 2012
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Before you insult us, please go read what you posted again - at no point in your original post, which is what I was going off of as when I was typing your second post wasn't written yet, did you state that the device drivers that weren't working were your USB drivers.

As for the OS, that's fine, no need to rage; I was asking if you had tried it, not telling you you had to use it.

At this point, since the thing is brand new, I would send it back to the manufacturer explaining the problem.

EDIT: Just had a thought. One thing that might work is taking the hard drive out of the system, installing it in another computer, booting into that, and attempting to install the drivers there. No idea if it would work, but it's worth a shot.
 
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Luthango

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Dec 18, 2013
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oh dude if you cant install drivers from a disk or usb you have to reinstall windows 8 and see if that fixes your problem

if you able to connect to an internet connection go to your manufacture website and download drivers from there if its 32bit you download 32bit drivers if 64bit you download 64 bit drivers...

if nothing works you will have to access your hdd and run recovery to partition
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Sep 27, 2012
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Mitchwhitaker, in context, I took that as talking about the fact that it didn't have a CD drive, rather than non-functional USB ports. I get that you're frustrated about this, I was just asking you to not take it out on those of us trying to help you out.

Luthango, I was about to point out that he has no working USB ports, but you have a very good point there - it's not that the USB ports don't work, it's that windows 7 doesn't have drivers for them. So you could easily reinstall windows 8.
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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Sep 27, 2012
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Yep. Same way you installed windows 7 the first time - you make a bootable USB install disk, plug it into the laptop, and boot off of it.

It's not that the USB ports are broken, simply that windows doesn't have drivers for them... but you don't need to get into windows to boot from USB.
 
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Luthango

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Dec 18, 2013
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my new hp laptop and old asus laptop have something called a recovery partition which comes from the factory with the laptop yours should have one too.

when you boot into laptop while at post you hit a key usually f10 0r f12 but the key to access recovery partition is different for each laptop you just have to find the one yours came with. no need for windows cd i pray you did not delete the partition which contains the recovery cause if you did you gonna need that disc
 
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