Question ASUS x540UB - Issues with drivers after trying to downgrade to Windows 7

Apr 29, 2019
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I recently tried to downgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 7 on my ASUS x540UB because I thought Windows 7 would be faster and less bloated. Unfortunately, when I booted up Windows 7, I noticed that there were a bunch of devices that didn't have drivers (the touchpad and wireless card included). I did some research and discovered that there were no drivers available for this hardware that would be compatible with Windows 7 so I made the decision to go back to Windows 10.

And this is where I am now:

After re-installing Windows 10, I seem to be having the same issues. The touchpad, wireless card and many other devices do not have drivers and I can't seem to install any for them. Using a different PC and USB, I've gone onto the ASUS website and downloaded this laptop's drivers and tried to install them but they don't seem to actually work, despite saying they've installed successfully. I've tried updating the BIOS but my Windows partition doesn't appear in EZ Flash 3 and so I can't navigate to the BIOS update. I've also tried doing a hard reset but, of course, it fails in an unspecified way at around 73%.

Interestingly, the touchpad seems to be working while in the BIOS but will stop when Windows starts. Also, for any device that does work, they each have generic Windows 10 drivers (and show up as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, Generic PnP Monitor, and so on). If I try to update them to an ASUS driver, they still show up as the generic driver.

I'm at a loss as to what to do from here so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much!

 
Last edited:
Apr 29, 2019
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When reverting to Win 10, have you booted from the USB drive, or clicked install while in Windows? If you started the install from Windows, I suggest reinstalling Windows, but this time booting from the USB drive with the Windows kit on it.

When downgrading to 7, I clicked install while in Windows but when reverting back to Windows 10, I did indeed boot from the USB. Thanks :)
 
Apr 29, 2019
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No problem. Have you tried updating the driver from Device Manager?
I have. After pointing device manager to the drivers using the 'update driver' function, device manager tells me (a) for devices that are working, that the generic driver is the best and it doesn't need a new driver or (b) for devices that aren't working, that it couldn't find an appropriate driver at all.
 
Apr 29, 2019
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Can you elaborate? Was this a fresh/clean install?

And is this where you're getting your drivers from: https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ASUS-Laptop-X540UB/HelpDesk_Download/

Yep, that's where I got my drivers from.

Also I guess it wasn't a clean install (?) because I didn't remove the existing partitions on my hard drive before installing windows 10.

In any case, I followed these instructions to the letter for clean install of Windows 10 and now my laptop is working fine! I think the difference may have been deleting all the existing partitions before installing. After that, all of my devices were working with generic drivers and I was able to download and install the ASUS ones without issue. Thanks heaps for the help guys.
 
Yep, that's where I got my drivers from.

Also I guess it wasn't a clean install (?) because I didn't remove the existing partitions on my hard drive before installing windows 10.

In any case, I followed these instructions to the letter for clean install of Windows 10 and now my laptop is working fine! I think the difference may have been deleting all the existing partitions before installing. After that, all of my devices were working with generic drivers and I was able to download and install the ASUS ones without issue. Thanks heaps for the help guys.
Good to hear! Probably some residual data was causing conflicts. Asus makes a pretty solid laptop - enjoy!