OK, I activated windows just fine, I have been using the board for a little over a week now, but I am having a small issue with the sound. Upon shut down, the speakers make a buzzing noise that last about a second. I have tried different speakers and I even disabled the on board sound from the bios. Problem persisted even though the sound was disabled. I also tried the audio port on the front, issue persisted. Motherboard is a MSi p33 a55 board. On board audio is a realtek chip so I guess it's not that high quality. Is there a problem with the board or is it just because of the cheap sound card? The sound is fine everywhere else.