Since you're using flash stick installer just delete ei.cfg from the Sources folder.
Now you should have a menu at boot to choose your licensed version.
Follow the steps in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to get and keep a perfect install.
OK. For some reason it would not work with the Win 7 Home Premium ISO, but did work with the Win 7 Ultimate ISO. But then I did three other things differently too:
1. unpacked the ISO with 7Zip, deleted ei.cfg and repacked with ImgBurn (even though there was no sign of ei.cfg on the USB stick after using the eicfg tool.
2. removed the Samsung partition on the laptop and reformatted the system partition
3. removed the U3 launcher software from the Sandisk Cruzer USB key I was using.
So not sure what made the difference (no doubt someone here will!), but I got Win 7 Starter installed, finally. I have also installed all the device drivers and some of the Samsung software that seemed useful.
So thanks to everyone who has chipped in to help me solve this. This is a great forum!
Last edited by pachmarhi; 10 Jul 2013 at 17:44.
Which Samsung software do you find useful?
Most all factory crapware has a better version built into Win7 and conflicts and causes problems. Would you keep us posted on how it works and any advantages/disadvantages of the Samsung utilities so I can add it to the tutorial?
We've had mixed results with Samsung, including the only disastrous failure out of tens of thousands of Clean Reinstalls. So all intelligence we get on it will help many others.
OK. I installed:
Battery Life Extender: I understand this simply prevents battery from charging to 100%, thus helping to extend battery life.
Easy Display Manager: I seemed to need this to get the proper screenresolution
Samsung Fast Start: I like being able to shut the lid and have the netbook automatically sleep.
The rest were just drivers. Do you see an issue with any of these?
Seems to be working fine now. The other thing I noted was when installing Puran defragger (as suggested in the tutorial) it tried to install some malware (detected on install by Eset A/V). So I cleaned the infection and did not install Puran.
As long as you followed the steps given clearly in tutorial to get all drivers first by running all rounds of Important and Optional Windows Updates, after enabling Automatically deliver drivers via Windows Update (Step 3), then only supplied drivers missing in Device Manager after all rounds of Updates were completed.
The Win7 Power Options work perfectly fine to set PC to sleep when you close the Lid, time out perfectly to Sleep and Hibernate when you set them. Power management crapware from OEM's interferes and doesn't add any value that I've ever seen.
The battery tender may be the only one of value. Others partly defeat the purpose of a Clean Reinstall, but i am a purist who insists on no interference whatsoever with Win7's native performance which is perfect in almost every way - Samsung and other OEM's, not so much.
OK. I'll try removing Faststart and Display Manager and see what happens. I can always reinstall if there is an issue. Yes, I have Windows set up automatically update.
Didn't need Fast Start; the Windows Power Management options will do what it did. Did need Easy Display Manager; uninstalling it disables the extra features on the function keys etc (adjust brightness/volume, wifi & bluetooth on/off, num lock, Home, End, etc). So I have reinstalled that.
That jogged my memory that there is in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 a
Is this anything like what you experienced?Special Note for Samsung Owners:
Software which enables Fkey functions and illumination may be labeled Easy Display Manager and may require special handling as per Dinesh:
The Easy Settings software didn't work directly. Once downloaded the software (zip) from here, I had to extract all files and rename setup.exe to setup2.exe. Only then it allowed me to install the software on Win8.
No. Installed it without a problem.
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