Installing Win 7 Pro Inspiron 15R 5537

Hi Mike

Congratulations on your new computer. Not to worry please go ahead and disable the secure boot in bios, you should be able to install windows 7 without any issues. For steps on how to install windows 7 please refer to this link below. Reply with your findings.

http://dell.to/Qe7jyP

I had already disabled the security, however the install just hangs. I am going to try a usb stick...or a win 8 pro upgrade

Hi Mike

Thanks for the update. Is it happening on both the systems or only on one system? I would suggest you to run Diagnostics (F12 during startup) just to make sure the hardware is fine.

Haven t started on the second system yet. Hardware Diagnostic found no problems.

Both systems are the same, and i cant boot from USB either. I think i am going to have to resort to paying Microsoft more money, why you cant stipulate the OS you want on the machine before you purchase is not very good.

When booting from the installation DVD it goes through the first screen (grey bar at the bottom) and then moves onto the installing windows screen (the windows colors are swirling about). At this point it just locks up (graphics stop moving) and the machine needs to be hard reset. I don't get any errors etc and i dont get to the point were the user has to input installation information.

I have actually just upgraded the machines to windows 8 pro so the problem has been solved with that.

Windows 7 is fully supported by Dell on this model.  When you say "crashes", what exactly is it doing?  Message?  Blue screen?

You might need to disable USB 3.0  functionality (Windows 7 media doesn't support it and USB 3.0 ports will crash the installer).

In addition you will likely need to load SATA drivers during the installation;

Hi Mike - I believe the problem stems from the hard drive partitions being originally formatted as GPT for Windows 8. 

I was able to install Win7 by:

1. Go into setup (F2 or F12) and set the boot method to Legacy.
2. Boot to Windows 7 Setup by selecting the DVD as the boot device at startup.
3. Select Custom Installation rather than Upgrade.
4. Delete ALL existing partitions.
5. This will allow Windows 7 an entirely partition-free drive to install to.

It worked for me - now I'm searching for the Windows 7 drivers!

Hi surbeck,

Please share the exact system model and version (32Bit or 64Bit) of Windows 7 installed. I'll be happy to assist you in finding the drivers for your system. Also, please share the screenshot of the Device Manager with the devices expanded which has yellow bang on them for me to identify the devices and search for drivers. Here are the steps:

• Press the key combination of 'Windows Logo' key + 'R' key to open 'Run' dialog box.
• Type in 'devmgmt.msc' and click 'OK'.
• The 'Device Manager' windows will appear.

Also, share the Hardware Ids of the device which has a bang in the Device Manager, this will assist me to identify device and its drivers. Here are the steps:

• Open Device Manager.
• Select your device and right click on it.
• Click Properties from the drop down list.
• Click Details and then click Device description button to select Hardware Ids.
• Share the Hardware Ids mentioned under Value.

Please reply back with the information, I'll be happy to assist.

Hi Saharsh,

Please send me the drivers link for Dell inspiron 15R 5537 with service tag <ADMIN NOTE: Service tag removed per privacy policy>

for windows 7.

Much appreciated.

Will there ever be official Dell drivers for this Dell laptop for win7?

Seems kind of odd. It's not like we're asking for drivers for Windows XP or something like that.

Please, help us use our machines. :/

For now, I think I have made it work with Windows 8.1, but I have bookmarked your comment, if I ever decide to go back to Windows 7, which I prefer over Windows 8.x.

Thank you for this work-around, thank you very much. 

Will there ever be official Dell drivers for this Dell laptop for win7? Seems kind of odd. It's not like we're asking for drivers for Windows XP or something like that. Please, help us use our machines. :/

Kinda

Most of the hardware for the Inspiron 3537/5537 is the same as the Latitude 3540 which is a business model and so has Windows 7 drivers. So therefore install the following:

Intel Lynx Point-LP Chipset: http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01645351M/1/3540_Chipset_Driver_9MW60_WN_9.4.0.1017_A00.EXE

Intel Management Engine Interface Driver: http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01779921M/2/iMEI_Intel_W74_X00_A01_Setup-68C64_ZPE.exe

Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver: http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01641686M/5/AHCI_Intel_W7_X02_A00_Setup-PFN0K_ZPE.exe

Hopefully this should also cover the USB 3.0 devices as they are coming up as Intel for the hardware ID.

Realtek RTS5179 Card Reader: http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01645515M/1/3540_System-Utilities_Driver_C8G17_WN_6.2.9200.39042_A00.EXE

Realtek LAN RTL8106E Ethernet Controller Driver: http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01694422M/2/Realtek_LAN_W7_X01_A00_Setup-4TD2X_ZPE.exe (try this its from RTL8111G)

Dell Wireless 1705: Driver 7×86, 7×64: http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER01502231M/2/DW1703_DW1705_W7_A00_Setup-GMW8T_ZPE.exe

Realtek ALC3223: http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01641808M/5/Audio_Realtek_W74_X01_A00_Setup-CFG0Y_ZPE.exe

Synaptics Touchpad Driver: http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01641925M/5/Synaptic_TP_W74_X01_A00_Setup-YKT9W_ZPE.exe

Intel HD Graphics Driver: http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01641524M/5/Video_Intel_W74_X03_A00_Setup-JJ211_ZPE.exe

AMD Radeon HD8850M Driver: http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01680554M/5/Video_AMD_W74_X00_A00_Setup-CF44D_ZPE.exe

Dell Quickset (might be incompatible): http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01643605M/5/APP_Quickset_W74_X00_A00_Setup-3VK3W_ZPE.exe 

Dell Quickset (Windows 8.1 version, may install): http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01504074M/1/Application_RY0G4_WN_10.15.018_A00.EXE 

A few others have got these to work.

hi all,

I also have a Dell Inspiron R15, I've changed the security settings of the BIOS and when it starts to read the installation DVD of Windows 7 Professional, only the Windows logo appears and does not go ahead .... Can you help me with this?

Thank you.