Installing Win 8.1 on G75VW - key embedded in BIOS?

[JorisS]

Hi all,

when I bought my laptop 2nd hand, it had an SSD installed in it - the first owner installed it and had, as per his saying, to do some tricks to make it all work and have the OS on the SSD.
All worked fine, until the free Win 8.1 updates started rolling out at which point I opted to go for it, but following the installation I was left with a black screen. Despite a lot of googling and testing I never managed to get that solved. Unfortunately, the recovery partition/process was somehow messed up in
the whole process of either 8.1 upgrade or SSD installation, as it wouldn't work.

I ended up installing Win 7 since I had a key for that but didn't know how to get Win 8 back on as there's no key on the laptop.
Now I've been reading around and apparently it's embedded in the BIOS?

So if I want to revert to Win 8.1, can I simply create a 8.1 media from Microsoft homepage and will that work and register the key? What
happens during a BIOS upgrade? It won't touch the part where the key is embedded?

And lastly - I've been trying to figure out which version of Windows 8 was installed on this laptop from the start - am I correct that it must have
been "Windows 8" with no further additions? My model number is G75VW-T1351H.
Also, can I indeed install Windows 8.1 directly or would I somehow need to first install 8, then upgrade?
And did I understand correctly that Windows 8.1 users can get a free upgrade to Windows 10 when it is released?


I could ofcourse simply try, but would rather avoid formatting the drive only to find out it won't work and then having to recover all again.

Thanks for any advice!

[C4RN1]

It should be in your bios, when you reload windows 8 it will not ask for the key.

Create your windows 8.1 iso here.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

Use rufus to make a bootable usb drive

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Boot to the usb, and go through the install process. Delete all of your partitions (this will delete all of your data) and install windows to your hard drive. The windows installer will automatically partition the hard drive for windows.

When windows boots do not connect to a network (this will allow you to make a local account instead of using a Microsoft account). When you finally get to the main screen finish installing drivers from the asus support page. Keep in mind that drivers listed for windows 8 will work with windows 8.1 and vise versa.

http://www.asus.com/us/ROG_ROG/G75VW/HelpDesk_Download/

Let us know if you hit any snags along the way.

[Pandur]

If your computer is like my G55VW, it came with Windows 8 (no Pro or Home or anything).

This complicates a fresh install of Windows 8.1 slightly, since Microsoft in it's infinite wisdom made it so that Windows 8.1 install media won't recognise a Windows 8 key embedded in the uefi firmware.

You'll have to use a install key (you can find these directly from Microsoft by googling), which will allow you to install Windows 8.1 fresh. And once this is done, your new Windows 8.1 install will use your embedded key to activate properly.

I'm unsure if the forum rules permits me to link to this key so I won't, but they're something Microsoft have released as an official workaround for this blunder so google should be able to help out.

There're also programs out there capable of reading your key from the uefi. But this won't help either since the problem is that the W8 license key is not valid in the W8.1 installer. Only works after installation for activation. And the skip license input button in the installer was removed after W7 hehe.

[Clintlgm]

Yes your Window 8 core embedded key will be reconised by by an 8.1 update install.
About dirvers most win 8 driver will work on the VW however Bluetooth and most importantly Wi-Fi have 8.1 drivers that are needed.

Are you sure that you have an embedded key? most VW do not. At the end of the cycle before the VX came out a few were upgraded from 7 to 8 core on MB that did not embed the key. A few were sold with embedded key also.

I'm goin to link you to eight forum there you will find how to extract your key if you have one. If you don't you will have to buy a key. I can't link to the Visual Basic tool they use over there in that forum. anyway there guides are great http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/?filter[2]=Installation%20and%20Setup

I assumed that you know where to get your Asus Drivers

[JorisS]

Clintlgm wrote:

I'm goin to link you to eight forum there you will find how to extract your key if you have one. If you don't you will have to buy a key. I can't link to the Visual Basic tool they use over there in that forum. anyway there guides are great http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/?filter[2]=Installation%20and%20Setup

Had a look but don't know what tool it is you refer to?

[JorisS]

Thanks all. I'm fairly well at home with PC's in general and laptops too, so drivers and all that is not an issue; in fact, I've recently replaced the WiFi card in my VW and am about to do so again so will look for 8.1 drivers for the Intel card I'll be putting in.

My main concern is whether or not I can get Win 8 installed. The laptop came with everything and has a sticker on the bottom saying win 8, but no key there.
If the only thing permitting buyers of these machines to run a legal copy of Win 8 is by sticking with what's installed at purchase and/or recovery partition, that would
be quite lame. Just give us a darn key if it isn't embedded... so I'm hoping it is.

I'll have a look at the eightforums link, but keep in mind I'm running Win 7 Ultimate with a key that has nothing to do with this laptop or the Win 8 that was on it previously; this is a separate Win 7 license I'm running.
Not sure I can retrieve anything Win 8 related?

I'll give it a go 🙂

[Clintlgm]

This thread look for http://www.eightforums.com/windows-updates-activation/48516-window-8-pro-not-activate.html Showkey v1.3.vbs That will get your 8 embedded key, the new ISO MS is providing will install 8.1 using embedded 8 key. If not I'll give you the Generic Keys but they only allow installation not activation.

[Pandur]

I'm sorry but Clint is wrong in this case.

You do not have to extract your key from uefi to install W8. I've gone back and forth between W7 and W8/8.1 several times on my G55VW and if you install plain old W8 it will automatically read the key from your uefi during install. If you want to install W8.1 directly, instead of going through the lenghty and buggy upgrade process from W8, you will have to use a generic key for the install to work. And when W8.1 is finished installing it will read your embedded key directly from uefi and activate just fine.

Since we're linking to eightforums here, look at this guide. Take note of section 4.

Bottomline is: it's possible to do a fresh install of W8.1 with an embedded W8 license. You just have to work around the problems.

And lastly, I've extracted the embedded key from my G55VW before hoping it would make things easier for me. But the extracted key is still not valid for installing W8.1 so it's pointless doing it for this purpose.

[Clintlgm]

Check out this thread lots of information on upgrading downgrading driver install etc.
Your working with Windows 8.1 the eightforum has the most information and Step by step Tutorials after all it's dedicated to Window 8 issues and Installations.

[GottiBoi55]

This will show you your OEM product key, using this "command prompt".

Note: you can only use your product key on the windows version that came installed from the factory.
(G75VW had two Operating systems installed, the first roll out of the VW had Windows 7, and the second roll out had Windows 8 not 8.1)
*You will need to install Windows 8, then upgrade to Windows 8.1*

1. Open command prompt as administrator.
2. Copy and paste the command below, then hit enter.

powershell "(Get-WmiObject -query ‘select * from SoftwareLicensingService’).OA3xOriginalProductKey"

Hope this helps you my friend?