The TouchSmart is the all-in-one kind of computer. Apparently HP made customized video drivers for this computer which has an NVidia video display. The computer came with Windows 7 and worked great. When Windows 8 came out, I purchased an update license when they had the $15.99 special. I installed Windows 8 but when it was all done, nothing but a black screen. A check of the HP web site revealed that HP would not be supporting this computer into the Windows 8 era due to its age. I downloaded the latest NVidia driver but it would not work (it wasn't customized). Somebody out there created a customized version of Windows 8 with drivers that did work. I found it on-line and downloaded it. It did install OK and the video drivers contained in the .iso worked properly. Now I would like to upgrade to 8.1 and 8.1 2014 Springtime. So I'm wondering if anybody here has had any experience with this computer and found a way to install Windows 8.1 on it? Any suggestions would be appreciated very much.
I have installed Windows 8.1 (Pro) on a TouchSmart 310 without issues. Where I'm curious is WHY would an nVidia GPU of recent vintage require a custom driver - nVidia has used the SAME driver (Forceware) for every GPU since the GTX4xxx (desktop and server OSes) - my refurbished GTX550Ti uses the same driver in 8.1 ProWMC and Server 2012R2. (Not merely a similar driver, but the same driver.) Could it be that pesky overlay? (There were issue with the overlay with some hardware in Windows 8; those issues were fixed in 8.1.)
I was able to get it to install without modifications. I used the windows 8 disc, and once the screen goes black, use the sleep button on the keyboard to turn it off and turn it back on. You have to guess where the mouse is but you can see it every time it comes back awake. Once you get the main install complete this way, plug it up to an ethernet port and wait about 5 hours. The driver will auto-update itself and then it will work as normal.