Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

I don't know about Windows 11...

Personally I'm struggling to install Windows 10... I got my hands on 2 brand new Samsung SSD and want to install Windows 10 so that I'll be able to upgrade my TB18DC dock's firmware (I've been waiting 3 years for that).
Windows installer complains about a missing media driver. Which one? I don't know. Stupid Windows.
I downloaded Dell Precision 7530 driver pack and tried to install every single driver it contains. Waste of time.
Any help would be appreciated,
thanks.

 

From your description I assume you installed Windows 10 using Microsoft's install media?
I recently reinstalled Windows on my 7530 before transferring the machine to a relative. I replaced the original SSD with a 2TB Samsung drive as soon as I received the machine from Dell. I installed using the Windows 10 recovery image I downloaded from Dell and encountered no issues during or after the reinstall. As far as I know everything works without installing any additional drivers.

 

The last time I installed Windows 10 on my 7730 I used the Microsoft installer and had no issues. After the OS installer finished, I downloaded and installed the Dell drivers that matched my system. I have 4 x Samsung M.2 SSDs installed.

Have you looked at Device Manager to see what the issue is?

You could also try Dell Command Update. https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-ca/000177325/dell-command-update

 

Yes I used Microsoft install media.
I'm not eligible to Dell's Windows 10 recovery image because I bought my laptop without Windows installed.
No Windows installed -> no Device Manager. And I can't get further info because the installer is not verbose enough...

 

Have you Googled whatever error messages you're receiving?

 

Yes, of course. Actually I spent quite a lot of time looking for solutions.
It could be a missing driver, or anything related to: BIOS, USB key, etc. I tried pretty much everything I could think or read about.
To my knowledge BIOS settings are supposed to be fine.
I tried 2 different USB 2 keys. I've seen that it could be related to using USB 3 ports (but Precision 7530 only has USB 3 ports, so...).
Maybe my Windows image is too old... Maybe I shouldn't be creating the bootable media with Linux (alas I have no alternative)...
I'll try to re-download a Windows image, and burn it on a DVD. That's basically all I can think about right now.

 

I've done many Windows installs with the stock Microsoft image and never had any trouble with the installer itself complaining about a missing driver (other than the Intel RST / disk controller driver, if RAID mode is turned on).

You can grab an up-to-date Windows 10 ISO from https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php (Actual downloads come from MS web servers.)
Not sure how to "burn" the ISO to USB media from Linux. I generally use Rufus or the official Microsoft tool (both run on Windows). Burning the ISO to DVD should be pretty hard to mess up though.

 

No RAID here.
Thanks for the link, but is it safe? (looks like warez to me...)
Yes, my thought exactly regarding DVD instead of USB key. We'll see.
Thanks all 3 of you.

 

It's safe. Check the download URL once you have an ISO download going, everything comes from software-download.microsoft.com. This is a front-end to avoid registration/hoops that you have to jump through to get images from MS.

 

Since you're getting a different outcome (errors) than the rest of us (no errors), something in your process seems to be problematic.

Yep, it should be that straight forward, even with a flash drive.