Nephew's computer:
Acer Aspire 5742Z-4601
Originally running win 7 - unknown as to which win 7 as the COA sticker is totally unreadable
Computer was upgraded to windows 10 under the free offer.
Apparently the computer has major issues with 10 that they have never been able to resolve. He wants to go back to win 7 but did not get any discs with the computer. My thought was to get recovery disks from acer but they are no longer available. Any suggestions?
Ron
Hi Ron,
according to Cnet,
its W7 Home premium 64 bit.
here is a link for you to download it from
W7 SP1 x64 English
https://software-download.microsoft....31c9501ce81596
Link only valid for 24Hrs.
Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
NOTE
AS you cannot read the COA, with the back-up key, DO NOT (skip) enter product key
Hopefully it will read the original on the motherboard.
i assume the factory reset option is no longer available
Once installed go to the home page for that model and ONLY use the updater program.
Roy
I have a Windows Home Premium 64 bit sp1 iso in my files that should work and yes, factory reset us gone.
"AS you cannot read the COA, with the back-up key, DO NOT enter product key.Hopefully it will read the original on the motherboard."
Would the coa on the motherboard be the original or would the win 10 upgrade have changed it?
Hi Ron,
OEM self activation only requires the slic table entries to be present on the motherboard/Bios.
(short and sweet explanation but covers your situation)
W10 does it differently and fortunately does NOT over-right it
As a further check BEFORE downgrading the comp run this tool,
it will report the current W10 and previous OS product keys
https://github.com/Superfly-Inc/Wind...ostic.Tool.exe
Its from our sister W10 site, read the 1st post
Activation troubleshooting - Windows 10 Forums
AFTER clean install
You can very quickly test this by running this MS tool
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=52012
run it on your W7 comp as well, and compare them
they will be slightly different details, but the major lines should be the same
Cached Online Validation Code: 0x0
AND
Windows Activation Technologies-->
HrOffline: 0x00000000
HrOnline: 0x00000000
HealthStatus: 0x0000000000000000
Event Time Stamp: 2:6:2016 17:03
ActiveX: Registered, Version: 7.1.7600.16395
Roy
Admin Service: Registered, Version: 7.1.7600.16395
Well, win 10 his win 10 has crashed again and will no longer boot i.e. "critical process died"
Have to resolve this issue before attempting to fix the above
If the factory recover and system partitions hasn't been erased, you probably can launch the factory recover from BIOS.
Hi Anaron,
Mega - been there not available!.
Anaron once a comp has been upgraded to 10 you can ALLWAYS go back to it.
You could try a straight clean W7 install, that error will only be on the 10 side of things.
Roy
Roy, how can he activate a clean install if he doesn't have the COA key?
@Megahertz07,
Only OEM's can self activate, theres a SLIC table introduced into/between Motherboard and Bios during assembly.
its still there unless the Bios is corrupted.
Thats why ShowkeyPlus can pull up old OS product keys.
Roy
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