Z890 motherboards are having instability issues with Windows 11 24H2 — BIOS updates or disable iGPUd required to update Windows

Core Ultra 200S CPU
(Image credit: Intel)

Reports recently emerged that a significant portion of Intel Z890 motherboards were impacted by severe Windows 11 24H2 update issues. The first major report was posted by Spanish PC hardware site El Chapuzas Informatico, citing an Asus tech support response.

This issue has been narrowed down to users of Intel Core Ultra 200S series CPUs since those CPUs still have integrated Iris Xe-LPG graphics that are apparently playing badly with this update. While desktop users are less likely to rely on integrated graphics than laptop users, it's still problematic for Intel to have such a major issue with its integrated graphics plaguing customers during Arrow Lake launch week.

To apply the Windows 11 24H2 Update without issues on an Intel Z890 chipset-equipped motherboard, the iGPU must be disabled within BIOS, or the BIOS of your Intel Z890 motherboard must be updated ahead of time. Fortunately, all major vendors (Asus, ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI) know this issue and should already have it patched for your board...but mainly, if you intend to use your Intel iGPU, a BIOS update is critical. Specific instructions for entering and updating your BIOS will vary depending on your board. Still, the ability to download and apply updates within BIOS is common enough these days that you shouldn't have much of an issue getting the update applied.

Of course, while many are giving Intel justified flak for this issue, let's not ignore the elephant in the room: this is just one of many issues plaguing the rollout of Windows 11 24H2. Other problems with the launch of Windows 11 24H2, aka "the Windows 11 2024 Update", have included BSODs for Western Digital NVMe drive users, a strange 8.63 GB cache error, and even some Easy Anti-Cheat compatibility problems, rendering titles like Asphalt 8 unplayable.

This isn't to say it's all doom and gloom for Windows 11 users. The actual update process has been optimized as of 24H2, and features like improved gamepad keyboard input have been popping up in newer Windows 11 Previews as well. However, it is fair for users to expect someone at Microsoft or Intel to have seen and fixed this fundamental iGPU compatibility issue before the Arrow Lake launch.

Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

  • PixelAkami
    Windows moment
    Reply
  • bolweval
    Being an early adopter has its drawbacks. I’ve always found waiting a few months after new releases for the bugs to get worked out has it’s advantages..
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    Only thing good on this new generation... the old generation becomes cheap... will try find a cheap z790 ddr5 board :) with no hassle...
    Reply
  • dimar
    Totally disappointed by Intel. Will see if I can get 14900KS second hand, if Ryzen 9 9550X3D disappoints too.
    Also, what's the deal with motherboards not having PCI Express slots?? Why are all motherboard manufacturers copy each other?? You can always use adapters for M.2 SSDs, but with M.2 slots all over, it's way too hard to get PCI Express slots.
    Reply
  • YSCCC
    dimar said:
    Totally disappointed by Intel. Will see if I can get 14900KS second hand, if Ryzen 9 9550X3D disappoints too.
    Also, what's the deal with motherboards not having PCI Express slots?? Why are all motherboard manufacturers copy each other?? You can always use adapters for M.2 SSDs, but with M.2 slots all over, it's way too hard to get PCI Express slots.
    14900KS second hand sounds like one of the worst option... highly likely degraded if it's real cheap
    Reply
  • Elusive Ruse
    dimar said:
    Totally disappointed by Intel. Will see if I can get 14900KS second hand, if Ryzen 9 9550X3D disappoints too.
    Also, what's the deal with motherboards not having PCI Express slots?? Why are all motherboard manufacturers copy each other?? You can always use adapters for M.2 SSDs, but with M.2 slots all over, it's way too hard to get PCI Express slots.
    Let’s see, 7950X3D was a winner, AMD also revamped how they place the cache that probably helps with thermals and power. If like its predecessor it is within striking distance of its non-3D brother in productivity while being as good or even better in gaming than the 9800X3D then it will be no brainer for anyone upgrading from a couple generations back.
    Reply
  • leoscott
    I have a laptop (I9-12900HX) and desktop (I9-10900KF). On both of them after installing 24H2 Brave browser got glitchy. Rolling them back to 23H2 fixed it. I went through the cycle 2x. There are more than motherboard issues with this update.
    Reply
  • dwd999
    I was surprised when Windows forced the 24H2 update on one of my computers, perhaps because its the only one connected by ethernet. Its a Z590 11900K system. And I got really mad when it somehow prevented me from playing aac pcm format sound. Strange that Dolby and DTS sound played normally but no pcm from either mp4 files or websites. Fortunately I had a backup which I promptly restored and I turned off Windows updates for the 5 week maximum. So I won't be considering any more 24H2 updates until after New Years.
    Reply
  • Mama Changa
    I get the anger with the release and AMD's Zen 5 was no better, and this is not much different to Alder Lake, but I do believe Arrow Lake will be a decent cpu in a few months. I couldn't care less about its gaming performance as it hasn;t been tested on 24H2 and it's still light years faster than my 5800X and that's even 245K. Losing SMT was always going to hurt some benchmarks, but I don't spend all day unzipping files. In a lot of the productivity I do there are some great improvements over Raptor Lake and power usage is way down. The e cores no longer suck, the main issue is the swo ring bus and high latency which has negated IPC gains by the P cores and that kills gaming.

    Now I probably will skip Arrow lake especially if Panther Lake does appear on desktop and fixes issues with the latency and ring bus as is already being leaked, but if I have to wait for Nova Lake so be it, 9800X3D is shaping up to be great, although I'd like to move to 12 cores, but unless AMD is really putting v-cache on both ccd's or god forbid offers 16 core ccd like Epyc, I'd probably stick to 9800X3D. Don't want 995X3D/X and would prefer something like 265K if it improves.
    Reply