How to install Windows 7 on G750JS, G750JM and G750JZ

[Hegemon]

Just bought the midrange G750JS on April 7th and had some pretty difficult 10 hours installing Win 7 and having all drivers to work and all so wanted to share it with you guys. The good news is that you can make it all work just perfectly fine. I've been playing a lot of games and doing video editing on win 7.

I am a fan of clean installs – new installation on a freshly formatted PC. That’s what I did to my very first generation RoG (was it the G63?) that I bought back in 2010 and still runs perfectly with no need to format for 4 years and no firewalls/antivirus crap on it.

First of all installing a clean Win 7 will most likely wipe everything INCLUDING THE RECOVERY PARTITION and I will explain why later, so I recommend using the ASUS Backtracker to get your recovery partition off your hard drive and onto a USB drive. For some reason ASUS put the recovery on the SSD drive where every GB counts. This way you’ll free up 20GB there and it is worth it anyway.
ASUS Backtracker: http://www.asus.com/supportonly/ASUS_Backtracker/

BIOS settings:

1. Restart your computer, hit F2 and enter BIOS.

2. Go to your Security tab, go the Secure Boot and DISABLE it.
3. GO back to the Boot tab and ENABLE both Launch CSM and Launch PXE OpROM.
4. Exit and Save settings and upon restart hit F2 to enter bios again.
5. Under the Boot tab you will now see the options to select to boot from the DVD Rom or other devices. Use the + / - to change the boot priority. If you want to boot from a USB, plug it in your computer and restart again and you will see it there as well.

Installing Win 7

1. You might think this is trivial but with the new UEFI bioses it is not as easy as it used to be.
2. If you try to install it the regular way, upon selecting a partition you’ll get the following message: “Windows cannot be installed to this disk the selected disk is of the GPT partition style.”
3. Hit cancel and go back in the Windows installer (or restart the PC and start anew) to the screen where you get to hit the “Install Now” in the middle of the screen.
4. Hit F10 and you’ll go to the console.
5. Type “DISKPART”
6. Type “LIST”
7. Type “SELECT DISK 0”
8. Type “CLEAN”
9. Type “CONVERT MBR”
10. This will clean up the drive of all partitions including the Recovery partition. It will delete everything. Converting to MBR is really important especially if you’ll need to activate windows later (activators won’t work if you don’t do that).
11. YOU NEED TO REPEAT THE OPERATION FOR ALL HARD DRIVES INSTALLED OR WIN 7 FREAKS OUT AND WON”T INSTALL.
12. Type “DISKPART” again
13. Type “LIST”
14. Type “SELECT DISK 1” to select the second hard drive
15. Type “CLEAN”
16. Proceed to install Win 7 as usual. After you have cleaned up the drives you can partition them as you please.
17. This video helps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQf9YqbD8WI

Installing Drivers

1. Alright so we are sitting in Win 7 and are excited that it works and all but it cannot recognize a single device in the Device Manager including the wireless card
2. If you go to the ASUS driver website you will see that there is no support for Win7 at all. Only a few Windows 8 drivers from the Asus website won't work on Win 7 and those are the wireless card, NVIDIA and USB 3 controller.

3. Installing the network adapter:

[INDENT=2]a. Win7 does not install any drivers for that particular adaptor so you won’t be able to hook up to the internet right away.
b. Download the following driver (google DR_PCE_AC66_6309526_Win7 and you’ll find a download spot)
c. Open device manager and go to your network device
d. Press the update driver and point to the location of this driver on your hard drive.

4. The following drivers from the ASUS website work with Win7 so just download them and install them:

[INDENT=2]a. Intel Chipset, ATK, Audio, LAN, Card Reader, Touchpad, Bluetooth, most of the Utilities (Thunderbolt, USB charger), Intel Management Interface and others
b. Get them at the official website: https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_ROG_G750JS/HelpDesk_Download/

5. Install the video card drivers

[INDENT=2]a. You will not be able to install the video card driver before you have installed 2 things:

[INDENT=3]i. The Intel chipset driver so make sure you install the Intel driver first (from step 4)
[INDENT=3]ii. The Intel 4600 VGA driver which you will get from windows updates. Open windows updates and in the optional updates you will find the Intel VGA update.
I also found the latest Intel driver here:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=23714〈=eng&OSVersion=Windows 7 (64-bit)*&DownloadType=Drivers
[INDENT=2]b. Go to nvidia and search for the GTX870M or whatever your card is.
c. As of May'14 there is an official driver 337.88 which is working perfectly.

6. Installing the USB 3 controller

[INDENT=2]a. Win 7 does not have native USB 3 support so if you don’t install any drivers you’ll be stuck with USB 2.
b. Just google the following driver and install it from Intel: USB 3.0 Driver: Intel® USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver for Intel® 8 Series/C220 Chipset Family
c. If your controller is from a different C2** family get that. For example it might be from the C216 family. You’ll see the exact name in your device manager before you download the driver.
d. You’ll know you have USB 3 support by seeing the Intel USB 3 extensible host controller in your device manager under the Universal Serial Bus Controllers. You will not be seeing any USB 3 controllers there before you install the drivers and your ports will be operating under USB 2. Download the USBTreeView program to verify the USB 3 functionality after you install the drivers if you want to.

[Caustic]

This guide should likely be redone then, because it was the first thing I found when looking to install 7 on the laptop, since it has all the links to the drivers.

How do I know if I was GPT mode versus MBR Mode?

[Hegemon]

Caustic wrote:
This guide should likely be redone then, because it was the first thing I found when looking to install 7 on the laptop, since it has all the links to the drivers.

How do I know if I was GPT mode versus MBR Mode?

If you didn't specifically convert the drive to MBR the G750s ship in GPT mode. I still hold that I need mine specifically in MBR mode for other reasons (look into that line in the guide) so I think we better leave it like that for now and give people the option to convert to MBR in the console if need be.

The disk clean up still has to be performed even in GPT mode - you just need to erase all partitions and create new ones which is what the cleanup command does. Unless you specifically convert to MBR the disk will stay in GPT even after the cleanup.

[Tchail]

Thanks for posting this Hedgemon! It was invaluable!

I just received my G750JS yesterday and successfully completed installing Windows 7. I have a few things to add to this guide.

1. In order to access the console prompt when you're installing Windows 7, you need to hit SHIFT-F10.

2. The site https://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_ROG_G750JS/HelpDesk_Download/ contained all of the files I needed to successfully get Windows 7 working.

3. After installing Windows 7, but before installing any drivers, you will need to update the BIOS. The latest version is 208. Download this file, unzip it, and place the file on the C:/ drive. Reboot and enter into the BIOS, then select the update option.

4. Once the BIOS is updated, you will need to follow Hedgemon's directions regarding disabling secure boot, and Launch CSM as well as Launch PXE OpRom.

5. Install the Wireless card using the Broadcom Wireless Lan Driver and Application on the Asus site listed above.

6. Install all of the drivers except for the video driver. Then run Windows Update and allow it to finish.

7. There's no need to install any drivers for the SD Card reader. Simply put a MicroSD card into the slot and the drivers will install automatically.

8. I don't own any Thunderbolt devices, so I ended up uninstalling the Thunderbolt software.

9. Once all your drivers have been installed and Windows Update has fully completed, then you can install the NVidia video card drivers.

10. You will need to manually set a partition for the 1TB drive.

It took a great deal of time and patience, but on the whole it was a pretty painless experience.

Best of luck to everyone!

[johdragon46]

Now I see this is for those of you who have the JS model and I have just bought the JM as it was superseded and a lot cheaper I bought it being better specs all round then my old trusty Toshiba L550. The one thing I am having problems with is after the seller who installed 7 Pro as an option onto a SSD I installed I find I cannot get drivers for 7 without a BIOS update. Now I am very wary of touching BIOS settings although on my Asus based Ivy Bridge it went without mishap but I thought being easy to replace the board if things went south not so much of a risk but with this laptop I am not so sure.
It would be nice if the BIOS were back datable as it were if things do go wrong so I have come here to ask for advice from those who have been using these machine for years - just what is my best plan of action because although the ports work ok (in 2.0 mode I suspect) the GPU is not recognized and I cannot install the driver for it because of that.
Any advice most appreciated.
John

[johdragon46]

johdragon46 wrote:
Now I see this is for those of you who have the JS model and I have just bought the JM as it was superseded and a lot cheaper I bought it being better specs all round then my old trusty Toshiba L550. The one thing I am having problems with is after the seller who installed 7 Pro as an option onto a SSD I installed I find I cannot get drivers for 7 without a BIOS update. Now I am very wary of touching BIOS settings although on my Asus based Ivy Bridge it went without mishap but I thought being easy to replace the board if things went south not so much of a risk but with this laptop I am not so sure.
It would be nice if the BIOS were back datable as it were if things do go wrong so I have come here to ask for advice from those who have been using these machine for years - just what is my best plan of action because although the ports work ok (in 2.0 mode I suspect) the GPU is not recognized and I cannot install the driver for it because of that.
Any advice most appreciated.
John

Since I last posted this I have got the BIOS and boot up problems sorted what I cannot get is the NVidia driver to install because it constantly tells me there is no such device as the GTX 860M in the machine.
Have tried endlessly to get an answer out of Asus support but I think I am fighting a losing battle so what does anyone think I should try as I am at a loss as where to look and ask.

[killreskullz]

As of Monday, 5/26/2014, it seems that NVIDIA has an official driver out for the cards (at least for 860M). It is listed as version 337.88 and is available for download.

[Hegemon]

killreskullz wrote:
As of Monday, 5/26/2014, it seems that NVIDIA has an official driver out for the cards (at least for 860M). It is listed as version 337.88 and is available for download.

Thanks, I just updated the guide.

[manyhere99]

Hey,I have those missing drivers also on my JM and mine doesn't have 3D Video Controller(i think that's what it's called) Driver.Where can I get that from?

[Tindrael]

Any idea how to get ASUS GPU Tweak (the laptop version) to work on Win7 64bit? It is working until I install an NVidia driver (does not matter which one), but after that, it will not start anymore, it crashes ... what is the problem ?

[hmscott]

Tindrael wrote:
Any idea how to get ASUS GPU Tweak (the laptop version) to work on Win7 64bit? It is working until I install an NVidia driver (does not matter which one), but after that, it will not start anymore, it crashes ... what is the problem ?

Tindrael, you don't say which G750 you have, there are 2 different versions of GPU Tweak:
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?45644-Asus-GPU-Tweak-for-Laptops-vs-Asus-GPU-Tweak-for-Grap...

The G750JW/JX/JH Asus GPU Tweak for Graphics cards lists Windows 7 versions, but the new JM/JS/JZ Asus GPU Tweak for Laptops only has Windows 8.1 versions.