Unable to install Windows 7 on BRAND NEW Asus X540s laptop-BSOD Error

[7Freedom]

Hello, I have recently bought my daughter her first laptop as a gift and have been racking my brains as to why Windows 7 won't install. We get an error message of which I attach a screenshot (well a photo of the screen).
I am well versed with PC's, after all I am able to get the USB Flash drive recognized and started. It isn't until just after "Starting Windows" does the screen go blue with said verbage.

Now to put things into context my daughter wanted a computer like mine, which is Asus X75VC, of which I have no issues running Windows 7.
Her new Asus X540s struggles with Win10, regardless, we don't want Win 10, but will keep it as the main C partition for now. Am also waiting on Linux Mint 18, but today I need Windows 7 so please help!

Have spent the past few days scouring these forums, but have yet to find a solution to this "modern" problem. Computers these days seem to be going backwards, with less customizeability freely available at our disposal.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Have you attempted to completely wipe the drive, including anything related to Windows 10, and start from scratch?

Describe your Windows 7 installation media--disc? USB stick? bought in a store? burned from an ISO? what ISO? etc, etc.

Did this machine come with Windows 10 already installed?

 

[torchwood]

dual boot tutorial, from our sister W10 site
https://www.google.com/url?q=http:/...374000&usg=AFQjCNGurBUVoz655_4gE21cKpnj6f0E_Q

note you will need a valid product key for each, (1 key per OS).

Roy

 

[7Freedom]

Thanks for your reply. I'll study the provided link in depth asap.
And if absolutely necessary you recommend wiping the Hard Drive? I did this on my Asus x75vc, but if I do this on my daughter's X540s will everything that came pre-installed be lost forever?

It is an ISO burned with Rufus to USB, if all goes well I will activate it.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Thanks for your reply. I'll study the provided link in depth asap.
And if absolutely necessary you recommend wiping the Hard Drive? I did this on my Asus x75vc, but if I do this on my daughter's X540s will everything that came pre-installed be lost forever?

It is an ISO burned with Rufus to USB, if all goes well I will activate it.

If you wipe the drive, everything will be lost unless you make an image of the drive beforehand.

We don't know where you got the ISO, so it could be bogus in some way.

Or it might be a good ISO, but you burned it with the wrong settings in Rufus. Or you may have used the right settings, and there was nonetheless an error in the burning process. It's hard to say.

You could try burning to a DVD. Or re-downloading the ISO.

Weird things can happen--I had an install fail 3 weeks ago, using Rufus and a known good ISO.

I had to make my own ISO from a previously burned DVD install disk, and then use that ISO with Rufus. It worked, where the known good ISO download did not. I have no idea why.

 

[7Freedom]

Well hey, that worked. Simply burned to DVD, and immediately upon closing the tray was asked, "Run setup.exe"
No need to reboot even!
Thank you so much for all the suggestions, if necessary will keep you posted…

 

[7Freedom]

Ooops!! Spoke too soon, the installation was expanding files and forewarning of several reboots. Upon first reboot Windows Boot gave the 2 options of "Setup" and "Windows 10". Before I could even select "Setup" it automatically went through, screen turned black temporarily and the up came the same BSOD with exact error messages.

P.S. I should mention that with the DVD installer, while still in Win 10 was able to select newly created Partition, something I was unable to achieve via USB

 

[7Freedom]

I have since tried using a genuine Windows 7 DVD Install Disk and am still getting the BSOD.
I tried loading it in Safe Mode, it lists drivers up to disk.sys and then the same BSOD.
Is it possible this hardware will just not run Windows 7.
Shall I take the Laptop back to PC World for a refund?

 

[Ztruker]

See here: How to Install Windows 7 Using the "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)

 

[7Freedom]

This is insane, tried installing Kubuntu (Linux) and Fedora (Linux) and Mint (Linux) ALL of which gave me errors!
I had previously used diskpart to clean and convert to mbr and back to gpt and now mbr, trying all possible combinations

As a last ditch attempt I am now running DBAN ( as per this thread: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=81637 )

This is so time consuming, considering. Non of these issues ever occurred on my own ASUS X75VC, what gives, brand new ASUS X540S

 

[pbcopter]

Are you trying to install Windows 7 from inside Windows 10?

I don't believe that will work if you are. You should boot to the install DVD. However, this will require that you create a new partition, if dual booting is desired.

Not wanting to disturb the original drive, when I purchased a new laptop, I replaced the existing disk drive with a unused one.

 

[AddRAM]

x 5

It`s best to pull the drive and install a new ssd to install Windows 7 on.

It is not worth the risk of ruining the laptop over, Windows 10 is just an operating system, once you learn it, it`s a snap, only the interface is different, it`s still windows

And what do you mean her new Asus struggles with 10, if you have an issue with it, return it.

And I have not yet read once where you have called Asus about it and told them what you wanted to do.