My experience of getting Windows 7 working on modern hardware (MSI B550 motherboard and AMD CPU)

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metalbanana
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My experience of getting Windows 7 working on modern hardware (MSI B550 motherboard and AMD CPU)

Unread post by metalbanana »

TL;DR at bottom

A few days ago my faithful Intel/X99-based PC died and I was left with the difficult decision of spending hundreds to replace my old hardware with used equivalents from eBay, or spend the same (or less) to acquire brand new AMD hardware. I chose the latter, but it was not without headaches.

The hardware I chose was:

• MSI MAG B550m Mortar motherboard
• AMD Ryzen 9 5600X CPU
• Samsung M.2/NVMe SSD drive

FIRST ATTEMPT (HUGE FAILURE):

The first thing I did was to take my old drive from the Intel/X99 system and plug it into the new hardware. Surprisingly, it booted my Windows 7 installation straight away. This really surprised me. However, two crucial caveats - there was no USB or PS/2 support and no ethernet connection. This meant I was pretty screwed as I had a visible Windows 7 install but couldn't touch it.

At this stage, it's possible that buying a USB/PCIE card would have enabled me to control the computer, but I chose the difficult route instead and tried to get ethernet working so I could use Remote Desktop to control the machine and attempt to install AMD USB drivers.

To install drivers without a keyboard/mouse was a challenge, but actually pretty easy in the end. I downloaded the driver installer package and then created a small batch file which would silently install it. I hooked up my drive to a second, working computer (via a USB enclosure) and placed the batch file in the "Startup" folder so it would run as soon as the non-working computer booted up.

Detailed steps to do this:

On a working computer...
1. Download the relevant drivers (for the MSI B550m it's Realtek RTL8125B installer)
2. Prepare the driver package for automatic installation: run it with the "record" switch to record your clicks like this: `C:\installer.msi /r /f1"C:\myrecordingfile.iss"` and then run through installation of the drivers (clicking Next etc.)
3. Now you have a recording file which lets you use the silent installation switch, `/s`
4. Create a batch file containing the line `C:\installer.msi /s /f1"C:\myrecordingfile.iss"`
5. Now copy everything to your broken PC - place the batch file in the Startup folder (`C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup`) and the installer/.iss file in C:\
6. Reboot the broken PC and it should launch the installer and install your drivers automatically without interaction

After having done that I had control of the broken PC via Remote Desktop. If you hadn't set up Remote Desktop or VNC prior to breaking your PC, then you're probably screwed unless you can write a script to enable it via the Startup folder at boot again.

My challenge was now to fix the non-functioning USB ports. Ultimately this failed, but I gave it a good shot. User R3n was kind enough to send me a few drivers to try via the forum Discord channel - huge thanks to the people there for helping.

Eventually I ended up getting every device on the system working except for the USB ports. I used the two driver packages from the first post of this thread: https://www.win-raid.com/t4960f52-Solution-Win-Drivers-for-USB-Controllers-of-new-AMD-Chipset-Systems.html

However the USB ports still didn't work, so it was on to the second attempt...

SECOND ATTEMPT (SUCCESS)

Far more straightfoward this time, I followed the guide on this very forum to install a fresh copy of W7:
https://forum.eclipse.cx/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=79

R3n's ISO, slipstreamed with the latest drivers, enabled me to install W7 almost effortlessly.

There was just one problem: the Windows 7 installation was getting stuck (frozen) at the "Starting Windows..." screen with the animated Windows logo.

Again I went to this forum's Discord channel where R3n immediately suggested "Update to the latest BIOS". I headed to MSI's website and got the latest (beta) BIOS which for me was 7C94v166.

I flashed this and then Windows was able to start.

I used AMD's own chipset drivers - the X470 version for W7x64, which works with this B550 board.

I finally had a fully-functioning Windows 7 PC on modern hardware.

A massive thanks to R3n and the guys on the Discord - couldn't have done it without them!

TL;DR Use R3n's Windows 7 ISO and do a fresh install. Update your BIOS first. Use the official AMD X470 chipset drivers.

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