Sheridan Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 Has anyone bought a Samsung Ativ Book 9 (lite) recently? We bought one intending to use Windows 8 but need to downgrade to 7 for various reasons, but I can't find drivers anywhere for this model! Samsung seem to only support 8 on this, and don't offer driver downloads at all!
Sheridan Posted October 1, 2013 Author Posted October 1, 2013 Forget it - these damn things are locked to Windows 8 tight - no chance of installing Windows 7 past the UEFI!
sted Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 Forget it - these damn things are locked to Windows 8 tight - no chance of installing Windows 7 past the UEFI! could you just run windows 7 on hyperv as thats part of x64 win 8 pro and above?
Sheridan Posted October 1, 2013 Author Posted October 1, 2013 I don't think the end user would want that -they will be happier with a standard W7 install. I've managed to get W7 to install, albeit missing some vital drivers!
Arthur Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 I've managed to get W7 to install, albeit missing some vital drivers! You could download the relevant DriverPacks from here, extract the files to a folder and then tell Windows to search for drivers in that location. It might find some which are suitable.
Sheridan Posted October 1, 2013 Author Posted October 1, 2013 Samsung don't even provide all of the windows 8 drivers! I've managed to get the LAN and wireless as they're just standard Realtek stuff. I'll try driver packs and see what that comes up with. Looking at samsungs website I guess they really don't want you to downgrade!
Sheridan Posted October 10, 2013 Author Posted October 10, 2013 Argh - this laptop is going through the window! Installed Windows 7 using gparted to create a new volume. Eventually got 7 installed and all working fine. One week later Windows now won't boot and sticks at the Please Wait stage. Of course with the awful uefi Windows repair can't see the volume, so its completely shafted! Next time I buy a laptop I'll make sure it's got a propr bios on it, uefi seems like a step backwards!
sted Posted October 10, 2013 Posted October 10, 2013 Argh - this laptop is going through the window! Installed Windows 7 using gparted to create a new volume. Eventually got 7 installed and all working fine. One week later Windows now won't boot and sticks at the Please Wait stage. Of course with the awful uefi Windows repair can't see the volume, so its completely shafted! Next time I buy a laptop I'll make sure it's got a propr bios on it, uefi seems like a step backwards! you might find it hard i cant remember the last new laptop i saw that wasnt uawful instead of bios
Sheridan Posted October 10, 2013 Author Posted October 10, 2013 Sadly thats true - we're going to be lumbered with this and its awful when you're in a mixed environment of xp/7/8. Plus pxe boot is also knackered by most of them!
sted Posted October 10, 2013 Posted October 10, 2013 Sadly thats true - we're going to be lumbered with this and its awful when you're in a mixed environment of xp/7/8. Plus pxe boot is also knackered by most of them! the prevailing thinking seems to be enterprise computing is dead long live byod so these get whatever os they come with and never touched until they die. Someone at work got an asus silly laptop and it wouldnt even install a higher/fresh version of 8 from usb had to be from dvd to install.
ATestor Posted November 7, 2014 Posted November 7, 2014 (edited) Just cloned a running Win7 Samsung 900x disk (similar system, older, same size disk) using System Restore CD (but any old Slackware boot disk will do). Worked beautifully. I mainly needed to update the network and video drivers afterward, and that looks like all it needs. Essentially: - This link: LinuxQuestions.org - Samsung 13.3" ATIV Book 9 Lite 128GB SSD NP905S3G shows the BIOS settings that get you out of nanny-state mode to do some real system maintenance. - Boot Linux from external USB DVD drive , mount big external USB drive to source system. - cd to where you want your image to sit ... /mnt1/exthd1/images/ - dd if= of= - .... wait about 2-3 hours ... (My external drive is older, USB 2.0 so YMMV) - Because I didn't know how this was going to turn out, and because I mistakenly set up Win8 for the client before finding out he wanted Win 7 cloned, I saved a clone of Win8 just in case this didn't work. Another 2+ hours ... - Restored the Win7 clone to the new system. Another 2+ hours ... - Booted beautifully. Here are the net and vid driver links: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&FamilyId=1783&ProductID=3714&ProdId=3714 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=&ProductID=3720&ProdId=3720 Samsung's only driver link was for some piece of software that let you install drivers (ugh), so I just got them directly. Good luck and please post back if I'm missing anything. If you've ever used dd for cloning (of course there are many other choices), then this should be a breeze, save the long waits. Hopefully it'll help for a fresh Win7 or Linux install as well. Best wishes. -mz Edited November 7, 2014 by ATestor
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