- Jul 19, 2016
- 2,042
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- 6,960
Hey all
So this laptop has been through hell and back, I got it three(?) years ago as a Christmas present, had Windows 8, got the 8.1 and 10 upgrades as they came out, then the hard drive got trashed so I picked up an SSD and an extra 4GB stick of RAM for cheap and put Linux Mint on it (I'd like to go back to Windows so I can actually run things without an emulator). I came across an old, unused Windows 7 key so I loaded it up and was instantly reminded why old PC stuff is a pain in the arse. It has no network controller driver.
I'm almost positive the laptop is an HP Pavilion 17-e037CL. It has a socket FS1 motherboard, if that helps. Now, I don't know how to find the right driver in general, but I have reason to believe that maybe this controller wasn't made in the age of Windows 7 and there might NOT be a driver.
So there's one way to solve ; how do I find the exact name of the unit I'm looking for a driver for?
My boss also revealed to me that Windows doesn't have a way to tell what version of Windows the key actually is, and that I could just use the 7 key for a fresh copy of Windows 10. Is this breaking any ToS stuff?
My boss ALSO reminded me that from Windows 8 onward, the key is stored in the BIOS. I guess I'd have to ask, is there any way to extract that 8 key and use that? He made it sound like I could load up a windows installation and it'd automatically find the key but that didn't happen, probaby because I was installing 7.
Any solution would work. Thanks guys!
**UPDATE** - Silly me didn't check support site before asking, I found some drivers, but for some reason they're all Windows 8, 8.1, or 10 only.
So this laptop has been through hell and back, I got it three(?) years ago as a Christmas present, had Windows 8, got the 8.1 and 10 upgrades as they came out, then the hard drive got trashed so I picked up an SSD and an extra 4GB stick of RAM for cheap and put Linux Mint on it (I'd like to go back to Windows so I can actually run things without an emulator). I came across an old, unused Windows 7 key so I loaded it up and was instantly reminded why old PC stuff is a pain in the arse. It has no network controller driver.
I'm almost positive the laptop is an HP Pavilion 17-e037CL. It has a socket FS1 motherboard, if that helps. Now, I don't know how to find the right driver in general, but I have reason to believe that maybe this controller wasn't made in the age of Windows 7 and there might NOT be a driver.
So there's one way to solve ; how do I find the exact name of the unit I'm looking for a driver for?
My boss also revealed to me that Windows doesn't have a way to tell what version of Windows the key actually is, and that I could just use the 7 key for a fresh copy of Windows 10. Is this breaking any ToS stuff?
My boss ALSO reminded me that from Windows 8 onward, the key is stored in the BIOS. I guess I'd have to ask, is there any way to extract that 8 key and use that? He made it sound like I could load up a windows installation and it'd automatically find the key but that didn't happen, probaby because I was installing 7.
Any solution would work. Thanks guys!
**UPDATE** - Silly me didn't check support site before asking, I found some drivers, but for some reason they're all Windows 8, 8.1, or 10 only.
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