HP Pavilion 15-n252sq - Can not install Windows 7 over Free Dos

[prophet4see]

Hello all,

I've recently bought a HP Pavilion 15-n252sq laptop, with Free Dos - unfortunately i can't install Windows 7 over it, due to the following error i keep receiveing in the Installation screen:

"Select the driver to be installed" - and regardless of the paths i have and the available folders, i can not seem to proceed wtih the W7 installation.

Please notice that, i've tried to use both a W7 DVD and also a bootable USB drive (and yes, connected in the USB 2.0 port and not USB 3.0 ) - but i always get to the same point where i have to select drivers.

Please also notice that the BIOS doesn't allow me to make any modifications except for some minor ones (like select boot priority, or enable USB 3.0), as the rest of the MAIN features are greyed out .

Can anyone please help me with this issue?

Regards,
Adrian

[patio]

Sounds like one of those budget laptops that were locked down to the OS it shipped with...
I believe however they will take any Linux Distro as an install, but you're out of luck when it comes to Windows.

[prophet4see]

Would it help for this particular model to try installing Windows XP and then after that Windows 7?

[camerongray]

In the BIOS do you get any option such as "SATA Mode" with values such as AHCI, IDE and RAID?  If so, what is that set to?

If the machine isn't happy installing 7, I can't see it handling XP any better.

[prophet4see]

In BIOS most of the features are greyed out and can't be modified. I can set some minor stuff like boot priority, enabling USB 3.0 and some other minor things. I've searched for this RAID/ AHCI feature but i can't find it... maybe the BIOS is not completely "installed" or "unlocked" - i've also tried to upgrade the BIOS, using the drivers from the HP site, but the Windows doesn't recognize them and won't install.

[patio]

It either came with Linux installed...or possible the Chrome OS.

[Geek-9pm]

The OP said:

I've recently bought a HP Pavilion 15-n252sq laptop, with Free Dos

What? Where? How?
Hard to believe!

Can anybody clarify this? Curious minds need to know.

EDIT: Never mind. It was also posted on the HP forum.
Found with Google 'HP Pavilion 15-n252sq'

[camerongray]

The OP said:What? Where? How?
Hard to believe!

Can anybody clarify this? Curious minds need to know.

EDIT: Never mind. It was also posted on the HP forum.
Found with Google 'HP Pavilion 15-n252sq'

There's some stupid thing (law?) that states that all PCs sold from a big company like HP must ship with some sort of OS preinstalled.  Therefore on cheaper systems that don't come with a Windows licence they tend to install FreeDOS.  It's purely there to satisfy this law(?) - They don't expect people to actually run FreeDOS, the expect everyone to just remove it and put on their OS of choice.  That said, I'd never bother buying a system without a Windows licence (despite being almost entirely a Linux user myself) - There is a saving but it's very small, and not having a Windows licence can make the system much more difficult to sell on down the line.

[Geek-9pm]

camerongray,
You are right on! A stupid law is like havering no law.
One would think that the vendor would  have to use a OS that is suitable to the hardware. If FreeDOS does not support dual-core, then it is not suitable for the hardware.

[prophet4see]

Hey guys,

I've managed to solve the windows issue ... it seems that this particular system (and most likely all the newest HP laptops) are Windows 8.1 compatible.. and ONLY windows 8.1 . But now, after installing windows, i can't install the nVidia video card... it's returns an error that it can't find the video adapter. I've installed first the Intel HD video adapter, rebooted, but then it still doesn't recognize the nvidia one.

Any thoughts on this?

[patio]

Well you're on your own...

As you have circumvented the manuf. liscense for that PC we can no longer assist.

    Topic Closed.