Manual - Installing Windows 7 on G3-572

sri369

Installing Windows 7 x 64 on G3-572

Backup and download the network drivers:

Take a backup of documents and whatever you feel necessary to save. This process involves formatting the entire hard disk.
I used Macrium Reflect free version to take a clone of my existing hard disk, in case i ever wanted to revert back to Windows 10.
Copy the back up into a different hard disk, preferably an external one (even if you have a secondary installed, as a fail safe backup).
Go to the site https://drp.su/en/laptops/acer/predator-g3-572 and download the wireless and LAN drivers. And save these to the secondary hard disk/usb drive.

Prepare Windows 7 installer USB drive:

Prepare your USB with Windows 7 ISO (not detailing this process here). Make sure to make the USB bootable.
Ensure that the USB drive is 16 GB or less. It failed multiple times when I used 64 GB one. I finally ended up using a 8 GB one.
Update the prepared Windows 7 installer USB with the needed USB drivers. I used the Gigabyte Windows USB tool to inject the necessary USB drivers into the installation media.

Preparing Bios:

After making sure you have the above two segments complete, and when totally ready to take the plunge, go further.
Turn on Legacy mode under Bios settings.
Reboot, and get back to bios, and enable the F12 boot menu.
Set the touchpad to Basic, instead of Advanced.

Installing:

Insert the USB into a USB 2 port (not the USB 3 port).
Power up the laptop, and hit F12 (multiple times) to bring up the boot menu.
Select USB in the options, and hit Enter.
If it stop as load driver screen, don't panic. Reboot, set to UEFI, get back to Windows 10, and prepare the USB again using Gigabyte tool. (I did this process a few times before I could get it going, and countless videos on how to rectify this issue.)
Continue on until you come to the partition selection screen.
Most important step comes here. Double check yourself that your primary hard disk is all cloned and that is in a safe place. We are going to wipe the primary disk here.
Delete ALL partitions on primary hard disk. Yes... you read it correct... ALL THE PARTITIONS. Only after this you would be able to create a new one in non GPT mode.
You could set the size of this to about 200 GB. I have a 512 GB primary, so set this to 210 GB. Don't bother about the rest of the partitions. If windows setup says it needs to create more necessary ones, let it do that.
Continue with installation.

Post Install:

Let windows boot up.
At this time no drivers would have been loaded. Don't panic. Go the place where you had earlier downloaded the network drivers and install it. It would ask if you want only network drivers or all. Stick to network drivers only.
Connect to network.
Run the program again, and this time let it select all the drivers. This program is very nifty, and does a very good job of installing all proper drivers.
Reboot.
Go to windows update, and install all updates.
After you install all, at some point, the update will error out saying you are using a 7 series chip and so no security fixes are available.
To fix this issue, search google for "windows 7 update fix for intel 7 series". Also here is the github link for the patch. Make sure to read it well. I used it, and it installed all the fixes until a few days ago. I disabled the update service after installing all the updates. https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc/tree/micro/src/setup_bat

That's it folks. I hope I was being detailed enough. Let me know if you need any more info.

@mods: Would be nice if you could pin this post.

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sri369

Below is the screenshot.

I zipped the PredatorSense from my Windows 10 install, and unzipped it and used it. Initially it did not show the GPU. I then edited the registry to set my laptop to G3-572 to display the options.

Create a new file - enablepredator.bat, and save it with the below contents. And then run it as administrator. Restart predator sense.
@echo off
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\OEM\PredatorSense" /v "Model_Name_1st" /t REG_SZ /d "predator g3-572" /f
pause

Bear in mind... the graphics card always sticks to OC mode, irrespective of what you select.
The windows and menu were not working for me, until i enabled them in this app. That's a weird setting by Acer.
The fans and their speeds can be managed via this app. You might need to add the predator services manually to services, and set them to start automatically. All needed files are present in the PredatorSense folder.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/8m/m9jeqfxvd1il.png

AJBAJA

Hi, how would you go about if you hadn't saved a flash from previous Windows?? I'm stuck with a wiped HHD after a couple unsuccessful Linux partitions..My boot up memory consists solely on CD or USB Live boot, and BIOS v.P03-A2, only shows CD USB Live boot ...appreciate in advance any light you can shed this way.
Me:Aspire Z3770 v.1.06
BIOS: American Megatrend v. P03-A2

AJBAJA

Actual BIOS...

sri369

AJBAJA said:

Hi, how would you go about if you hadn't saved a flash from previous Windows?? I'm stuck with a wiped HHD after a couple unsuccessful Linux partitions..My boot up memory consists solely on CD or USB Live boot, and BIOS v.P03-A2, only shows CD USB Live boot ...appreciate in advance any light you can shed this way.
Me:Aspire Z3770 v.1.06
BIOS: American Megatrend v. P03-A2

Sorry about the delayed response, I access this site only when home and not at work.

Regarding this, the only option you have is to make a USB boot up disk for windows 10. You could windows 7 too, but for that you would need to follow steps in the first post of load usb drivers.

During the process of install, since you already messed up your hard disk, simply delete all partitions, and make a 120-150 GB size for windows, and allow windows create any system partitions as needed.

AJBAJA

Thank you....I will try this out. Indeed the hard disk is already messed up.

Will come back with results.!!

JackE

@sri369 Might be useful to post this in the software Win7 community section too. Did you get any resistance, snags or otherwise a "hard time" from Microsoft yet about activating and supporting the Win7 upgrade since the machine originally shipped with Win10? Jack E/NJ

sri369

JackE said:

@sri369 Might be useful to post this in the software Win7 community section too. Did you get any resistance, snags or otherwise a "hard time" from Microsoft yet about activating and supporting the Win7 upgrade since the machine originally shipped with Win10? Jack E/NJ

No. I used my standalone key. As long as you have a valid key, its all a breeze.

sri369

JackE said:

@sri369 Might be useful to post this in the software Win7 community section too. Did you get any resistance, snags or otherwise a "hard time" from Microsoft yet about activating and supporting the Win7 upgrade since the machine originally shipped with Win10? Jack E/NJ

@JackE Jack, noticed the other part of your post just now... where is this community you mentioned above?

Red-Sand

I'd be skeptical about installing an OS that was released before my hardware.

Any glitches or cons so far @sri369?

sri369

Red-Sand said:

I'd be skeptical about installing an OS that was released before my hardware.

Any glitches or cons so far @sri369?

Nope. 0 - ZERO - :-) Infact it is working much better than Windows 10. Plus my system is lot more cooler without any aids like laptop pad n such.

Only thing is that Acer apps like Predator Sense don't work, but that's never been an issue to me cos I can gather all that info from ThrottleStop and MSI Afterburner.

Infact look at my benchmark results - http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/10977437
Overall Status --> Overall this PC is performing way above expectations (92nd percentile). This means that out of 100 PCs with exactly the same components, 8 performed better. The overall PC percentile is the average of each of its individual components. This PC is likely operated by a technical master!

JackE

@sri369 >>>[Win7] is working much better than Windows 10>>>
I thought everybody is who anybody knew this!

@sri369 >>>where is this [Win7] community
https://community.acer.com/en/categories/win7

Jack E/NJ

sri369

@JackE Done! https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/551754/manual-installing-windows-7-on-g3-572

Red-Sand

@sri369 Lol not really 0 - zero if Predator Sense doesn't work 😏 (since its the only means for fan control)
Also you mentioned Acer app"s" not working.
Does apps like Acer Care, Quick Acess work?

@JackE Well everybody who is anybody would know DX12 also doesn't work on Windows 7.. not a sacrifice a gamer who plays up to date titles would make.

Nice work though! I can see the benefit if you use your computer as a work station. 😀

JackE

Minor issues @Red-Sand. @sri369 's next job will probably be to show that Win7 can run under UEFI-only since Intel threatens to soon drop legacy support. Maybe even on a GPT drive. Microsoft will then release DX12.1 to correct the error of their Win10 ways and be forced to go back to the future or get eaten alive by some Linux distro. And ACER will have just follow suit with all their nifty fan-control & quickaccess bloatware. We don't play games here when it comes to playing games.

Jack E/NJ

https://forums.windowssecrets.com/showthread.php/170141-Does-Win7-support-UEFI
https://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-were-ending-all-legacy-bios-support-by-2020/

Red-Sand

JackE said:

Minor issues @Red-Sand. @sri369 's next job will probably be to show that Win7 can run under UEFI-only since Intel threatens to soon drop legacy support. Maybe even on a GPT drive. Microsoft will then release DX12.1 to correct the error of their Win10 ways and be forced to go back to the future or get eaten alive by some Linux distro. And ACER will have just follow suit with all their nifty fan-control & quickaccess bloatware. We don't play games here when it comes to playing games. Jack E/NJ

https://forums.windowssecrets.com/showthread.php/170141-Does-Win7-support-UEFI
https://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-were-ending-all-legacy-bios-support-by-2020/

JackE said:

Minor issues @Red-Sand. @sri369 's next job will probably be to show that Win7 can run under UEFI-only since Intel threatens to soon drop legacy support. Maybe even on a GPT drive. Microsoft will then release DX12.1 to correct the error of their Win10 ways and be forced to go back to the future or get eaten alive by some Linux distro. And ACER will have just follow suit with all their nifty fan-control & quickaccess bloatware. We don't play games here when it comes to playing games. Jack E/NJ

https://forums.windowssecrets.com/showthread.php/170141-Does-Win7-support-UEFI
https://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-were-ending-all-legacy-bios-support-by-2020/

I wasn't aware fan control or the ability to keep a usb port enabled or disabled while your laptop is off would be considered "bloatware".
Also some quick access options (On P15 for example) enabled coolboost.
Perhaps when you get a gaming rig of your own you'll learn to understand these features properly.
Good talk. 😂

JackE

I call it bloatware simply because there are other ways to achieve many of these settings thru the operating system itself. Jack E/NJ

Red-Sand

JackE said:

I call it bloatware simply because there are other ways to achieve many of these settings thru the operating system itself. Jack E/NJ

I would normally agree.. but unfortunately things like fan control are locked from third party applications.. I've tried many (all of them lol).

I am considering trying a linux distro with my unlocked BIOs which has fan control and see if its locked via software etc.

@sri369 Can you do me a favor and see if fan control can be established using Argus Monitor tool?

Ive heard it can be used on older Predator models to bypass P Sense's controls.

sri369

Red-Sand said:

@sri369 Lol not really 0 - zero if Predator Sense doesn't work 😏 (since its the only means for fan control)
Also you mentioned Acer app"s" not working.
Does apps like Acer Care, Quick Acess work?

@JackE Well everybody who is anybody would know DX12 also doesn't work on Windows 7.. not a sacrifice a gamer who plays up to date titles would make.

Nice work though! I can see the benefit if you use your computer as a work station. 😀

Acer Care works! Quick Access partial.

I do not really see the need for fan control - fans are starting and revving as needed based on load. Over 3 hours of intense gaming session with no usb fan or anything, and the CPU never crossed 71 and GPU never crossed 70. Windows 7 default fan control is pretty rock solid!
And at this time, literally all the games work well on Windows 7. I didn't come across any game that I play that said "windows 7 is not supported"./

sri369

Red-Sand said:

@sri369 Can you do me a favor and see if fan control can be established using Argus Monitor tool?

Ive heard it can be used on older Predator models to bypass P Sense's controls.