Clevo clean install OS options

I have a Metabox Clevo P650RE - GTX 970M on the way without a pre-installed operating system & no optical drive. My initial thought was to do a clean install of Windows 7, due to the tracking in Windows 10. That said it is a brand new Skylake set-up and maybe 10 might be better with a few steps to sidestep the offline tracking. I'd be very keen to open the floor to and see what more experienced users think - also any advice on installing from USB3 on newer Clevo machines would be much appreciated.

My understanding is that the Win7 option is a bit of a mission because it doesn't have USB3 drivers included so booting from a USB is tricky - you have to manually update drivers in the mounted install. Also Clevo might not provide a comprehensive set of drivers for the components.
I've found this resource for installing from a bootable USB3 copy of Win: http://codeabitwiser.com/2014/03/how-to-install-windows-7-with-only-usb-3-0-ports/

Thought I'd post this prior to the machine arriving so I can learn in advance - know I'm going to be impatient to get it set-up and going!

 

I was thinking this very thing on the way to work today for my Clevo P650RG!
I was reading in the Clevo P75xDM "Batman 2.0" Lounge that they are still putting together Win7 drivers for that model. Not sure if it goes for all the new Clevo line models with Skylake or if I was even reading that right for that matter.. I was thinking of buying a cheap slim line externial dvd drive for like $20 (just to have) and install using the disc I have. I was never one for getting things to book properly off a thumb drive... Guess I was just being lazy.. However, if I plug the drive into the USB is that then technically the same as installing it as a thumb drive or does it come up as a bootable drive in the bios?

It comes with a 1tb HDD, but with the RG I was told that I may be able to fit a SSD in there was well so I have a 250gb SSD that I plan on using.. Technically it still even has Win7 on it from when I removed it from my desktop.. Doubt it would even boot that up with all those drivers on it..

Anyhow.. subbed for some intel ;-p

 

I don't think it'll work as my machine has only USB3 ports - and as far as I understand (always could be wrong) is that Windows 7 doesn't have the drivers included for the install pack - so you can't get the install to work through a USB 3 without including them manually - difficult to do on a DVD.

Lets see how we go - maybe can get info for the both of us.

 

I tried WIndows 7 didn't work
Trying to see if W10 works instead.. Kinda dissapointed tbh

 

Can you explain? Didn't work due to the usb ports?

 

Yeah basicly haha, drivers for it are missing.

 

I hope Sager straightens this out asap!

Honestly, I am not terribly sure how this is an issue.. So to get this straight the Motherboard only has USB 3.0 so it will recognize the thumb drive or an external cd drive, but the moment win7 finishes it won't recognize the USB 3.0 because it doesn't install 3.0 drivers and then Sager doesn't have a 3.0 driver for Win7 on their site for you to download?

 

How's W10 working? I really enjoy it, worlds better than 8 (not that hard to do)

 

That doesn't really help me as I don't have a copy of Win10.. and there wasn't much room in my budget to go out and buy a copy as I already had Win7..

Alex do you see some sort of work around?

 

Windows 10 is working as it's mean to, I just don't really enjoy it haha. Only using Windows for gaming and video editing anyway so it wont matter to much !

 

Do you not have an OS installed?

You could use another PC to create a bootable ISO on a USB drive, Check out rufus

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

 

I guess I am just blowing this out of proportion, but shouldn't Sager provide us with their own fix for this issue? As I wouldn't be 100% sure which driver I need for the fix...

From OP
"My understanding is that the Win7 option is a bit of a mission because it doesn't have USB3 drivers included so booting from a USB is tricky - you have to manually update drivers in the mounted install. Also Clevo might not provide a comprehensive set of drivers for the components.
I've found this resource for installing from a bootable USB3 copy of Win: http://codeabitwiser.com/2014/03/how-to-install-windows-7-with-only-usb-3-0-ports/ "

 

Just use a USB 2.0 flash drive

 

When I did an OS install (windows 7) with my USB 3.0 flash drive on my Clevo P650SG, everything was working fine for me.

 

USB 2.0 should still work, the 3.0 ports should be backwards compatible to 2.0 so everything should be fine.

 

If I'm reading the link in my OP right I need to mount a bootable Win7 ISO on a USB key and replace a couple files with the USB3 drivers here (which I didn't think were available tbh):
http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/e-services/download/ftpOut.asp?Lmodel=W150HRx/W170HR&ltype=9

Win 7 doesn't come with USB3 drivers in the install pack so it can't be installed at all - as far as I can make out.

 

According to this it only works if you go into the BIOS and disable the USB 3.0 so they are running legacy and boot from a USB 2.0 flash drive.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/49780-63-installing-windows-bootable-port

Would be interesting to know your thoughts on Win 10 vs Win 7 on this machine though - there seem to be a few resources out there for disabling or reducing the snooping W10 does. Still not mad about giving offline usage data to anyone just on principle - even though the reviews of the platform from a usability point of view are quite good.

 

Did you install from a new download only version of Windows or one of the older disks?

 

I am not sure what you meant by "new download only version", but I downloaded the official ISO file online for Windows 7 Home Premium (long before Microsoft decided to pull out the ISO direct download links), then I used rufus to create a bootable USB drive.

 

Good Link!

I know the snooping is annoying, however, I really like windows 10. Coming from a person who hated 8 i was skeptical of 10 before it came out, however it was the closest thing to 7 with some new features. When you get one of these beasts that supports DDR4 ram and higher speeds, you're really just kneecapping it with windows 7 on it. The UI of windows 10 is smooth and i like the forever search bar at the bottom, everything else reminds me of a traditional windows experience unlike 8.

 

Sorry yeah that's me trying to say official Win 7 ISO file - in that case it might be that they updated the ISO to include USB 3.0 drivers - which the older disk versions definitely lack. I'll look into it a bit more and thanks for clarifying.

 

I am not sure if the ISO that i downloaded is updated to include USB 3.0 drivers, since I downloaded the ISO like 2 years ago.

Sent from my potato running on Android 5.0.1

 

Thanks Alex - hmm definitely food for thought. Not much point paying for DDR4 and not being able to get the best out of it. Think I'm going to read a bit more about the snooping thing and will post if I find anything really interesting about working around it. Reviews for W10 are definitely uncharacteristically good for a Microsoft product.

 

Oh awesome - It appears that the decision has been somewhat made for me. Intel is apparently not (nudge & wink) working with Microsoft to make sure people upgrade by making it impossible to install W7 from a USB on Skylake processors.
http://wccftech.com/intel-skylake-remove-support-usb-based-windows-7-installation-platform-specs/

Great

 

Wow very interesting. I knew microsoft was pulling support for windows 7 which is why they wanted everyone on 10, but geesh.

However, the constant updates on windows 7 is killer, my PC at home needed 3 yesterday

 

Yeah it's pretty intense. So I've basically been forced to find the cheapest route to W10 - which I think will be to get/buy W8.1 (shudder) and then free upgrade. Then do whatever is possible to counteract W10 snooping.

 

Good luck man! Let me know how it works out!

 

Resurrecting a bit to provide an update. So - given the Skylake situation I did the following:

1. Created bootable USB using Microsoft's tool for Windows 8.1 Pro. Started computer with that on USB - Installed and then up and running.

2. Installed the Clevo Drivers supplied two weird things happened here:
a) After installing NVIDIA drivers the screen resolution dropped to 1024x768 whenver the machine was restarted. Changed the default on the NVIDIA control Panel and Intel integrated graphics - no change. Re-installed the GTX drivers and that seemed to sort it. Though resolution still sticks on the login screen, resolves itself once I hit enter to start.
b) Synaptics hardware (Mouse, touchpad and fingerprint scanner) drivers won't install - either from the disk supplied or generic download from the source. Weird but can't find any fixes at this stage. I use a different mouse most of the time anyway so not that fussed but will get round to it.

3. Discovered that SSDs are awesome!

Very happy with the end result - the thing is a beast.

 

Glad to hear you got it working!

can you update the Synaptics hardware from the device manager at all and see if windows can resolve it? Are you still planning on going up to 10?

 

You can put Windows 7 on Skylake if you want. You need to patch the USB install.
http://www.asrock.com/microsite/Win7Install/

 

Boom!

For the time being, USB install of W7 is what we do every time someone orders a PC with windows 7. We've figured everyone out so far, seen multiple skylakes come out of the vault with windows 7. Sometimes reading to much into what you see online will just get confusing over just actually doing it

W7+Skylake= Solved

 

This is why we have a Windows 10 Clean Install Guide that teaches the person how to disable all tracking and tame the OS :

NBR Windows 10 Clean Installation Guide

 

Doing it that way did not get a result. But I upgraded to Windows 10 yesterday and it seems to have installed the Synaptics drivers automatically. The touchpad was working prior to this - just no touch gestures, multi-finger scrolling etc. but now have full functionality, just not bothering with the fingerprint scanner at this stage.

Had a weird error where Outlook started collecting emails in the outbox and not sending. Did a system scan and fixed a couple corrupted files and now it's back working.

Not sure about W10 yet, though better than the few days of 8.1 required to get here! I liked the design of 7 more, and definitely the design of the older Office suites!

 

Indeed - there you go. Oh well, I can't see myself going back to 7 just yet and there is still the good point you raised regarding the DDR4.

Off to Matrix Leaders link!

Thanks Alex.

 

Thanks for this link and the really comprehensive guide. I skimmed it but will double back and give it more attention later - there's bunch of suggested changes there I'm going to make. Much appreciated!

 

My P651RE3 G-sync should arrive in next week and I will try to install 7 http://codeabitwiser.com/2014/03/how-to-install-windows-7-with-only-usb-3-0-ports/ + usb3.0 drivers from my returned msi ge72 (usb drivers is the same for all).
If my plan fail then i will be forced to install 8.1.

But one question do you know from where i can download win7 drivers package for this clevo?

 

Checkout this guide from bfishman! http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...an-nvme-ssd-from-a-usb-3-0-thumbdrive.783921/

 

thanks but i will have standard m2 ssd only (nvme are way too expensive now).

 

Ya i understand, gotta love new tech

 

Since the snooping isn't annoying here, but unacceptable, what is "kneecapped" wrt DDR4 RAM and Windows 7? The 32GB limit?

 

Correct, that's what i was referring to there mainly.