Can't install Windows 7 on E5440

Question

I've got a Latitude E5440 that was donated to us 'not working' Turns out the laptop had some sort of total hard drive failure -- wouldn't even recognize that the hard drive was installed. I had a 1TB drive available (intended for another project). I installed the drive and the laptop recognizes the drive.  So far so good. I have a Dell Windows 7 'reinstallation disk' (not a recovery disk) so I tried to install Windows 7 on the empty drive.  The installation went along fine until Windows reported that it couldn't configure to work with the hardware and to restart the installation. If I let it restart from the hard drive it comes back to the screen saying it needs to run setup again and will restart, but it just keeps doing that.If I have it start from the Dell Windows 7 reinstall disk, it does the Windows installation normally until it gets to the same point where right after it said installation complete it says that setup cannot configure windows to run on this computer hardware. I ran the diagnostics and all the tests passed. I know the E5440 originally had a 500GB drive so I thought the 1TB drive might be the problem.  I tried partitioning it to keep the partition sizes under 500GB.  Partitioning works but Windows setup still stops at exactly the same point with exactly the same error message. I contacted Dell to see if I could buy a Dell recovery disk for the E5440.  They don't have recovery disks any longer but Sales referred me to Tech Support.  Tech Support referred me to the Dell OS Recovery Tool which is supposed to be able to restore the original configuration. I followed the directions to download and run the Dell OS Recovery Tool.  You put in the Service Tag for the computer and the tool downloads files from Dell then it is supposed to create a bootable USB drive that you can use to boot and restore the computer with that service tag. The Dell OS Recovery Tool accepts the service tag.  It looks up the data from Dell and correctly recognizes that the laptop is a Latitude E5440 that came with Windows 7 Pro, then it downloads the files, verifies the image, and writes to the USB drive. I used the Dell OS Recovery Tool to create the USB flash drive but when I follow the directions and start the laptop from the USB drive the laptop reports 'Invalid Partition Table!' I tried the process again using another USB flash drive -- same error. Those two USB flash drives happened to be identical 16GB flash drives, so I tried it one more time using a USB hard drive.  Each time the Dell OS Recovery Tool downloads and installs the files and formats the USB drive without any errors or problems, but when I try to use it to start the laptop, the laptop reports the same 'Invalid Partition Table!' error. I've even tried using a different USB port, but the results are exactly the same. Everything about this Dell Latitude E5440 seems to work just fine, but I cannot get the operating system to install and run. Does anyone have any suggestions?

n4aof · Answer

So according to you I should just trash the Dell Latitude E5440 because it originally came with Windows 7 and therefore magically turns into a pumpkin next month??

I wasn't expecting a troll response quite this quickly.

Mary G · Answer

This might save you the time and trouble-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-windows-7-support

nyc10036 · Answer

Perhaps when you were partitioning the hard drives, you were creating GPT vs MBR.  Don't know. Can't see what you are doing.   Also, you should be able to use the Windows 7 key to activate Windows 10.

n4aof · Answer

I can't use the Windows 7 key to activate Windows 10 without getting one or the other installed on the laptop first.

The Invalid Partition Table error message comes when the laptop tries to boot from the USB Drive that was created by the Dell OS Recovery Tool. Apparently either the tool itself is or the image that Dell has on file for this express tag is bad.

If I have time tomorrow I will try downloading the Dell OS Recovery Tool onto another computer and creating another USB Drive image to see if that helps (I can't think of any reason why it should, but nothing about this problem makes any sense so I'm just trying different combinations hoping that something makes some progress).

U2CAMEB4ME · Answer

Welcome to the Dell Community @n4aof

Yes W7 ends next month so you better buy a new laptop

With that said.

You may want to reformat the USB drive.

I like using MiniAid to format USB drives."FAT32"

https://download.cnet.com/MiniAide-Fat32-Formatter/3000-2094_4-75701815.html

Best regards,

U2

DELL-Cares · Answer

Hi @N4AOF,

please download the drivers on another system from https://dell.to/34yn3Y4 and use a USB key to install it on the E5440 system.

Adding another article https://dell.to/2EAeEJd which lists the order in which the drivers need to be installed for the Latitude E5440.

Please private message us the service tag of the system if any help is needed regarding the drivers.

-Akshatha

n4aof · Answer

I did that will both USB flash drives and one USB disk drive. ALL had the same problem. It turns out that for some reason the Dell OS Recovery Tool would always create a corrupt image when run on my (non-Dell) desktop computer. My new Dell Inspiron finally arrived and I was able to download the Dell OS Recovery Tool to it (not as easy as you think because Dell refuses to let you search for the tool, you have to beg support to give you the URL). When I ran the Dell OS Recovery Tool on my Inspiron and input the express tag for my Latitude, it created a good image on the same USB flash drive that I had used the first time.

With a good recovery image I was finally able to get Windows 7 to install and run on the Latitude. Which brings me to the next brick wall....

The Dell OS Recovery Tool image installed Windows 7 Pro on the laptop (that is what was originally on it). The problem now is that it installed Windows but absolutely nothing else. Specifically it does not include any Dell drivers for anything (Silly me, I thought that was the whole point of the Dell tool creating a unique image file based on the service tag that tells it exactly what hardware the laptop has).

Now I have a Dell Latitude e5440 running Windows 7 Pro in basic VGA resolution because it has no graphics drivers, and neither Ethernet nor Wi-Fi work because there are no drivers for either network adapter so there is no way to connect the Latitude to my network or to the Internet.

Now comes Catch 22.... The only way to download drivers from Dell is by using Dell SupportAssist. But Dell SupportAssist has to be running on the computer that needs the drivers. And Dell SupportAssist cannot be installed on the computer that needs the drivers because Dell SupportAssist only comes as a Launcher file that won't run without an Internet connection.

So the only way to get the network drivers is by running software that requires you to already have the network drivers.

The funny thing is that I think the people at Dell who I have talked to really do want to help but the entire Dell process is set up in a way that just presents a series of obstacles that have to be overcome one at a time.

U2CAMEB4ME · Answer

@n4aof  You do not need to use 'SupportAssist' to download drivers. In-fact you should download and install the drivers yourself, SA is unreliable!!! https://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukdhs1/product-support/product/latitude-e5440-laptop/drivers For 'Unknown Devices' use the hardware ID to help find the Device and then the driver.  https://m.wikihow.com/Find-Hardware-ID Product support for Latitude E5440: http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/latitude-e5440-laptop.html Regards, U2

DELL-Cares · Answer

Hi @N4AOF, glad to hear that system is working fine now. Regarding the fingerprint reader you can check https://dell.to/34LxiZi on steps to enroll your fingerprint to be used as added security for the system.

This link https://dell.to/2sPufla will also help you with the installation all the necessary drivers to have it completely set-up.

-Akshatha

n4aof · Answer

Thanks, Akshatha,

^AM had given me a link to that page too. Unfortunately that page describes the drivers only in terms of which folder they are in on a Dell Resource Disc - which isn't available. Meanwhile those descriptions don't match the descriptions on the Drivers & Downloads page -- and neither set of descriptions match up with the filenames of the actual driver files that you download from the Drivers & Downloads page.

I did manage to get all the necessary drivers downloaded and installed (with a lot of help - thanks everyone). So the latitude is working now.

n4aof · Answer

Thanks to everyone who has helped. I had just typed a lengthy reply explaining the solutions and how ^AM took the time to help me through messenger from the Dell Facebook page -- but when I tried to post the reply the forum gave some strange error and everything was gone. Bottom line, with a lot of help from people at Dell, and people here, and especially from ^AM, I now have the Latitude working...  Maybe not quite 100% but close enough for what we need. The one thing I'm still curious about would be what is the 'fingerprint reader' supposed to do and how do you get it to do anything.  I installed the driver for it, but I have no idea how to make it do whatever it is supposed to do.

U2CAMEB4ME · Answer

@n4aof  These should help: Fingerprint Reader Installation Guide: https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln155141/fingerprint-reader-installation-guide?lang=en How to Configure Windows Hello in Windows 10 for Biometric Scanners: https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln303175/how-to-configure-windows-hello-in-windows-10-for-biometric-scanners?lang=en Regards, U2

Latitude

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