Azus Z87 Pro ... Blue Screen Of Deats - Windows

Thanks very much and that did work and the machine boots.

However, now another whole set of issues (sorry I bought this motherboard I think).

I can not turn on the LAN for Internet and I have a lot of unknown devices in system manager.
Windows (XP) sees the hardware and can not find a driver for it. The CD that came with the motherboard is ONLY for Win 7 & 8

I have looked thru the bios settings and do not see anything unusual and the manual is not helpful.

It also seems quite odd that Asus would not even mention setting the SATA to IDE

Problem with Win 7 or * is the loss of all my software. I have had most of my cad software for many years and I don't have all of my install disks and such. I keep 6 HDD's active to prevent any loss. I would switch other than that even though XP Pro is a very stable platform and does all I need.

I finally got the LAN to work by selecting different drivers and the Intel 82576NS Gigabit driver worked.

I cleared the USB problem by using the Microsoft generic USB driver .... lost my USB 3 port in the process.

I still have 4 issues which are:
Network controller
PCI Device
Unknown Device
Unknown Device

Additionally, I have no audio from the board or a driver to install. The board is supposed to have a Realtek chip that does AC1150 .... but the drivers are for Win 7 & 8

this is a real bummer. I have swapped motherboards before and it takes less than an hour with the HDD prepped. 2 days fooling with this one.

alexoiu you certainly are helpful and I sincerely thank you for taking the time to help.

The Realtek link worked and I installed to old drivers ... got audio now but not what the motherboard is capable of.

The graphics driver says my computer does not meet the requirements. It is a new Z87 Pro board with an Intel Core i7-4770K processor and 4 Gb of ram ... so I am stumped on that one.

Intel USB 3.0 controller will not install.

The ASmedia USB 3.0 installs then it shows an error in hardware manager.

I still have the 3 yellow ? I don't really know what the network controller is or should be.
Network controller
PCI Device
Unknown Device

Another question:

I read that you can do an upgrade to Vista and then to Win 7 which will not delete all of you existing applications and data. Is this true or just BS? I guess I would be willing to buy both if it would work and necessary. I bought the XP Pro and have my original disk.

I have plenty of HDD's ... LOL

All I am concerned with is retaining my current software which I though may be possible with a Vista and then Win 7 route. I have a lot of CAD stuff and electronic CAD programs, HVAC programs - expensive SW over the years. A clean install will wipe me out.

I can return this motherboard and buy something a little more friendly.

Recommendation? I've used Asus for decades it seems and have 3 other motherboards sitting in the closet! All are old back to the P5GD2 version

Yes ... the machine boots fine now, all my SW runs but not taking advantage of the features of this new motherboard sort of made it a waste of time (and money). Asus really did a poor job of describing that this is a Win 7-8 motherboard and not XP friendly at all.

I have no SATA 6 or USB 3 or the access point feature, etc.

I am going to try to migrate to Vista and then to Win 7 and see if things will stay in tact. The computer shop loaned me the disks and I will buy them if it works or return them if not. I can test it without activating them I think.

I am cloning 2 extra HDD's for the purpose. If that will work it will take care of all the issues. If not, then I will return the board and processor. I don't like the dual boot thing as all my SW is on my XP drive so not much purpose in having this motherboard if it will not function. I was looking for a bit more processing speed. The auto router for the circuit boards can be very slow to get 100% completion ... usually overnight as it tries a zillion placements.

I will report back in a day or two with some results.

Thanks again for the interest and assistance.

Update:

I was able to upgrade to Vista from XP Pro ... just a slow task. After I did this I checked and most of my applications worked OK.

HOWEVER .... the damn thing will not shut down and I have left it on for over an hour. It simply will not shut down. After a day of messing with this I went ahead and upgraded to Win 7, and it is current. Win 7 has the same problem so it has to do with the upgrade.

In safe mode w/or without networking the computer works great and runs fine an it shuts down as it should. In normal mode - no dice - it will not shut down and use of the reset or power button is required.

I spent 2 solid days messing with this trying to kill all the services, remove all the hardware and exploring most every thing I could read from Google searches. It seems this is a BIG issue for a LOT of folks but Microsoft seems silent on the subject.

As a test I simply did a clean install of Win 7 on another disk and it runs fine and shuts down fine so it is definitely related to the upgrade process but who know what or why???

I got an RMA from Amazon for the motherboard, processor and the memory so my only choice now is to return it. I simply do not need to spend $600++ on a system that can't run as well of what I want to replace. I have a few more days to make teh return so if there are any ideas out there I sure would be happy to give them a try.

Also, after you giving me a heads up about the issue of XP support with other motherboards I found that few actually support XP these days .... a real shame because for me it was/is an excellent OS and very stable. Vista is pure crap and I don't like the looks of Win 7 at all, especially explores and the file system.

Afternoon:

I will work on that first thing tomorrow and report back.

I sure will be pleased if this works!!

I re-did another disk and went through all of the upgrades. Same problem ... will not shut down.

I did not have the video card installed and used the generic VGA driver only. I am also using the 32 bit version as that is what my XP Pro version is.

Interestingly, when the upgrades are going on they shut the computer down several time for re-boot without issue.

I went to the site and obtained the hot fix for the 332 bit version. Tried to run it and all I can get is "this is not for your system" error and it terminates.

Here is the link they sent -----------------------------------------------------------
KB Article Number(s): 977307
Language: All (Global)
Platform: i386
Location: (http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Windows%207/WindowsServer%202008%20R2/sp1/Fix297411/7600/free/398315_intl_i386_zip.exe)

-----------------------------------------------------------
KB Article Number(s): 977307
Language: All (Global)
Platform: x64
Location: (http://hotfixv4.microsoft.com/Windows%207/WindowsServer%202008%20R2/sp1/Fix297411/7600/free/398317_intl_x64_zip.exe)

From this point I went to Microsoft and got all of the current updates. Some would install and then shutdown the system and reboot perfectly. At the end when "I" had to turn off the system - no dice - it will not shut down. Consequently it sets up a semi-loop because I have to use the reset button and then it asks how to restart the system since it was not a normal shutdown.

I have wasted an entire 9 hour day screwing with this thing again. I would guess I have at least 45 hours of wasted time and $600 all because Microsoft can't seem to have a fix. If you Google the shutdown issue you can find literally a thousand hits about it so I am in good company I suspect.

Unless there is some rocket science out there I am done with it and will just return the hardware. Truly a shame as it is very likely something quite simple. The event log is a mess and offers virtually no information unless you are at a programmers skill level perhaps. I've been around this stuff a long time and reasonable in the game but this is a bust.

Since it works fine from a clean install I can rule out the hardware and Windows 7 itself. There is a booger in the upgrade process that is not repairable if it can not be found. I will say that each shutdown there is a lot of disk activity and it continues forever while it sits at the shutting down screen.