- Oct 18, 2009
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After reading about Bill Gates spending most of a day trying and failing to upgrade a Win 8 install to 8.1, I have to commiserate with him....and rant about the same thing.
I recently acquired two HP Envy 17 laptops, one Ivy Bridge-based (3230m processor) and one Haswell-based (4200m processor) and one Asus X75 laptop, Sandy Bridge-based (2370m). Unfortunately, all were running Win 8.
I reset both HP's via the HP restore function to original factory setup. Then updated both completely. Then both "recommended" that I upgrade to Win 8.1.
I fell for it on the "little" Envy, with the 3230m processor. Damned upgrade essentially hosed the laptop to the point that even re-using the HP restore function barely got the laptop functional, much less back to what it was prior to the "upgrade".
After spending a few hours trying damned near everything I found on the web to correct the problem without getting positive results, I eventually gave up and loaded Win 7 Ultimate onto it....and that was just opening another can of worms. Can't find drivers...HP only lists Win 8 drivers for it. Had to google every darned hardware ID to find and download enough drivers to get it online so I could use update to sort of finish getting the rest of the hardware to load drivers.
Now trying to get the esoteric crap to work....card reader, Beats audio, etc.
I hate Win 8 and HP's refusal to put up Win 7 drivers for laptops that have drivers that can and do work on them, although they're hidden away here and there. (I've ended up having to use some of HP's ProBook drivers to get the LAN and WLAN to work---thankfully, the ProBook line is almost identical to the Envy line, in most cases.)
Interestingly, Asus has both Win 7 and Win 8 drivers for the X75A laptop. While the Win 8 install is working well, about to put Win 7 Pro on it just for the sake of simplicity and greater acceptance-ability for it.
Such is my little rant. I know it's pitiful, but I'm just frustrated beyond belief.
I recently acquired two HP Envy 17 laptops, one Ivy Bridge-based (3230m processor) and one Haswell-based (4200m processor) and one Asus X75 laptop, Sandy Bridge-based (2370m). Unfortunately, all were running Win 8.
I reset both HP's via the HP restore function to original factory setup. Then updated both completely. Then both "recommended" that I upgrade to Win 8.1.
I fell for it on the "little" Envy, with the 3230m processor. Damned upgrade essentially hosed the laptop to the point that even re-using the HP restore function barely got the laptop functional, much less back to what it was prior to the "upgrade".
After spending a few hours trying damned near everything I found on the web to correct the problem without getting positive results, I eventually gave up and loaded Win 7 Ultimate onto it....and that was just opening another can of worms. Can't find drivers...HP only lists Win 8 drivers for it. Had to google every darned hardware ID to find and download enough drivers to get it online so I could use update to sort of finish getting the rest of the hardware to load drivers.
Now trying to get the esoteric crap to work....card reader, Beats audio, etc.
I hate Win 8 and HP's refusal to put up Win 7 drivers for laptops that have drivers that can and do work on them, although they're hidden away here and there. (I've ended up having to use some of HP's ProBook drivers to get the LAN and WLAN to work---thankfully, the ProBook line is almost identical to the Envy line, in most cases.)
Interestingly, Asus has both Win 7 and Win 8 drivers for the X75A laptop. While the Win 8 install is working well, about to put Win 7 Pro on it just for the sake of simplicity and greater acceptance-ability for it.
Such is my little rant. I know it's pitiful, but I'm just frustrated beyond belief.
