Cannot boot Windows 7 without Legacy ROM

[MaXimus]

I have an Alienware 18 laptop that came pre-installed with Windows 8.1

I formatted my system, disabled Secure Boot, disabled Fast boot in the BIOS

But if I don't enable the Loag Legacy ROM option in the BIOS, the setup installer of Windows 7 Pro SP1 would not even load it will hang on the splash screen.

That is not my main issue as I can later on disable Legacy ROM after I have installed Windows 7.

When I do that, Windows 7 will only complete the boot when I am using my Intel HD Grahpics 4600. but when I switch to my Dual nVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M GPUs, Windows won't load it will just hang on the splash scree. I do hear the Windows startup sound and I notice the activity LED on my external HDDs working, so Windows does boot, but I am unable to see anything but the splash screen.

I tried using Alienware's nVIDIA Drive 332.44 and also the latest nVIDIA Drive 335.23 but same thing,

Then a member on Notebook Review forums suggested that I run this command in DOS (admin):

"BCDEdit /set {current} novesa yes"

The command completed successfully although I don't know what the heck it does, but still, that didn't help

any way to get this UEFI boot with no Legacy ROM for Windows 7 on my laptop or am I stuck to the crappy legacy boot which slows down my boot time drastically?

 

[MaXimus]

PS: If you are thinking where I got the ISO? It is a Windows 7 Professional System Builders Edition DVD that I bought from a local store sealed so no question about the authenticity of the install disc

 

[Shintaro]

Welcome to the W7Forums.

I was wondering about that myself as I haven't caught up with UEFI yet. But from what I understand you need the EFI partition. Did you make the Dell recovery CD/DVD/USB?

My HP ENVY M6 disk decided that it didn't want to boot windows 8 no matter what I tried yesterday, so I am backing it up via SATA to USB.
I have a few thing to try before I blitz the drive completely like you did. But none-the-less I will do that anyway as an experiment.

 

[MaXimus]

yes man, when I am in the Windows 7 setup, I hit Shift + F10, then I go to Diskpart, clean / then convert GPT

Then when I create the partition, it automatically creates that EFI partition

that isn't the problem, the laptop WOULD boot fine when I am using the Intel HD Graphics 4600, but once I switch to the nVIDIA Dual GeForce GTX 770M, then it wouldn't boot until I enable Legacy ROM

That is the reason I went back to Windows 8.1

I know it may sound stupid, but it just bugs the living heck out of me to be using a yestertech legacy BIOS to boot rather than the all new shiny UEFI

What's more strange is, in Windows 8.1, it would boot just fine using both graphics cards, so it shouldn't be a problem with the nVIDIA GeForce GTX770M not being able to boot into UEFI mode

 

[Shintaro]

Mate,

I don't have an answer, I'm still messing with my HP laptop.

 

[MaXimus]

Mate,

I don't have an answer, I'm still messing with my HP laptop.

what graphics chipset do you have on your HP laptop mate? if you have an Intel HD Graphics it should work fine without legacy ROM