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    Downgrading to Windows 7 Ultimate - should I expect any issues?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by Alienowner, Jan 14, 2013.

  1. Alienowner

    Alienowner Notebook Geek

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    After dealing with tons of driver issues I finally decided to downgrade to Windows 7 - I have a license available which I was saving for my desktop but I decided I can't take Win8 anymore with the soundcard and graphixcard issues I'm having with my new M17XR4.

    My question is - is this going to be a tedious process to downgrade? I'll remove the RAID0 configured HD's and install a single 512GB SSD - but other than that, is Alienware driver support good enough so I can download all the latest drivers and be on my merry way in less than 2 hours with a fresh clean install?
     
    Alienowner, Jan 14, 2013
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  2. ehau

    ehau Newbie

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    It should be fine but make a recovery usb/dvd before installing windows 7 if you care about recovering it to windows 8 later on via recovery partition.
     
    ehau, Jan 14, 2013
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  3. radji

    radji Farewell, Solenya...

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    Only issue I can think of is to not be surprised when your system starts working like it should again. ;)
     
    radji, Jan 14, 2013
    #3
  4. Alienowner

    Alienowner Notebook Geek

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    Oh how I wish you are right :)
     
    Alienowner, Jan 14, 2013
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  5. tommyvlaming

    tommyvlaming Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have the same system and went from windows 7 to windows 8 because driver issues
    now i have 0 problems

    what problems do you encounter ?
     
    tommyvlaming, Jan 15, 2013
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  6. Alienowner

    Alienowner Notebook Geek

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    My sound card (randomly) and graphics card (at every initial start) stop working and need a restart to get them running again.
     
    Alienowner, Jan 15, 2013
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  7. LinkRS

    LinkRS Notebook Consultant

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    Hi Alienowner,

    My M17x R4 shipped with Windows 7 Ultimate on it in July of last year. I did an in-place upgrade to Windows 8 Pro in October. The laptop worked fantastic with Windows 7, just make sure that you download all of the drivers, which you can get from the Dell support site. I had some major issues with video drivers and my Wireless Killer N 1103 initially in Windows 8, but they have since stabilized. Of course there hasn't been a driver update for the video card that I can uses since then though.... Good luck!

    Rich S.
     
    LinkRS, Jan 15, 2013
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