Trying to reinstall an old laptop, losing my hair trying to find a boot driver.

[[GSV]Lemming]

Hi all, hoping you can help me with an old laptop I have.

Its a 2014 HP Zbook 17, first generation, model D5D93AV. It came installed originally with windows 7, was upgraded to windows 8.

Its a big beast, i7 with an SSD and sata HDD and room for a further SSD. The powersupply weighs more than most modern laptops but its a great desktop replacement, it also has no optical drive.

I have tried to run a win10 install bit it stops at boot from USB asking for a driver, I searched the HP support website and it doesn't list it as win10 compliant and had no drivers.
Out of interest I tried win8.1 as well with the same result even though I have drivers. I have been through the support website and downloaded all the win8 drivers, they actually had a 700MB rollup pack which made it easy, and have browsed them all with zero success as it does not find any new driver when trying to run the install.

This leaves me a little stuck as I assumed it was a chipset or sata driver I needed so I can reinstall but I have tried all I can find.

I know its a longshot, but does anyone know what I could be missing here as its driving me insane to the point I will probably just go and buy a new machine.

 

[VonScar]

Why don't you reinstall Windows 7 and see if you can upgrade within the OS, to Windows 10? I assume you have a back-up disk for your Windows 7 laptop.

I had issues installing Windows 10 on a blank disk hard drive, however, it was eventually easier to install Windows 7 and upgrade from within Windows 7, from recollection.

At least then you can identify what the driver issue is or it will install and you can can use compatibility mode for the driver for Windows 10 (I think programs have that from memory).

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Have you tried using the USB2 ports to install, instead of the USB3 (or vice versa)? I wasn't sure from your post if it was actually getting into the installer, or if it failed to launch that.
If it gets into the installer, maybe check in the BIOS what your SATA mode is set as.
Aside from that, is the Windows install media definitely good?

 

[edscdk]

Put the ssd into a different machine install windows then put the ssd back into the laptop?

I do this all the time.... With w10 it rarely fails

 

[Toughnoodle]

I'm guessing you're stuck at the Windows installation storage driver screen too. It must be in AHCI or RAID mode.

Looked up the model and it's 4th generation Intel and with this chipset: Intel QM87 Chipset Product Specifications
Going by the HP Support website it's this RST driver (14.8.1.1043): Driver - HP ZBook 17 Base Model Mobile Workstation | HP® Customer Support
Unpack the .exe with something like WinRAR and it's in the directory: sp74389\Drivers\x64
Or there's a newer driver (f6flpy-x64.zip)on the Intel website (14.8.16.1063): Download Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) User Interface and Driver

 

[watercooledman]

Put the ssd into a different machine install windows then put the ssd back into the laptop?

I do this all the time.... With w10 it rarely fails

exactly this, install win 10 on another pc or laptop then bang it in the laptop, it will work 100%.

 

[fdgh]

I had a similar problem once when trying to install windows on a Samsung Series 9 ultrabook.
As the Intel CPU that it was using didn't yet have native support for USB 3, the machine needed a separate USB 3 controller chip.
It was this chip that needed a specific driver to allow the use of USB 3 while installing windows.
The solution in that case was to use a USB 2 drive in a USB 2 port. Sure, it does take longer, but it worked the first time. Windows update then downloaded the correct driver for the USB 3 controller.

 

[Quartz]

I have tried to run a win10 install bit it stops at boot from USB asking for a driver,

Are you plugging in to a USB 3 port?

Have you tried using the USB2 ports to install,

This.

 

[[GSV]Lemming]

Thanks for all the comments all.

I tried installing multiple OS's from all usb ports with no difference, I compared bios settings line by line with a colleague who had an identical machine issued at the same time, he had no issues and mine continued to fail asking for a driver. I upgraded the bios to latest and no change.
In the end I changed drive settings in bios from ahci to legacy and it went straight through and installed.

I tried lots of ahci drivers as suggested, I assumed this was the problem, I still don't know why it was a problem and none of them worked, but I am just relieved.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.