Question Gigabyte Z370M-D3H and Windows 8.1.

[frank-in]

Hi everyone, my first post ever here . English is not my native language, so be good.
I'd like to know if Windows 8.1 has all the drivers for my motherboard Gigabyte Z370M-D3H.
The Gigabyte website have only Windows 10 and Windows 7 drivers (I also have the original dvd of drivers).
Is Windows 8.1 uefi compatible?
My CPU is a Coffee Lake one.

 

[boju]

8.1 is there, what site are you looking at?

https://www.gigabyte.com/au/Motherboard/Z370M-D3H-rev-10#support-dl

Both Win7 & 8.1 are uefi compatible.

 

[frank-in]

8.1 is there, what site are you looking at?

https://www.gigabyte.com/au/Motherboard/Z370M-D3H-rev-10#support-dl

Both Win7 & 8.1 are uefi compatible.

There are only two entries:

1. Intel Management Engine Interface
2. sata drivers (with dotnet)

Instead, the drivers for Windows 10 are many more (lan, audio, etc.).

 

[boju]

Oh i see what you mean. Yeah that is odd.

Plan B. Install 8.1 then upgrade to Win 10. It's still free afaik. No harm in trying anyway. If successful then that's it, you own Win10.

 

[frank-in]

Oh i see what you mean. Yeah that is odd.

Plan B. Install 8.1 then upgrade to Win 10. It's still free afaik. No harm in trying anyway. If successful then that's it, you own Win10.

Ok, but I'm asking questions about Windows 8.1.

 

[boju]

Not sure. Windows updates probably will install drivers for the motherboard's chipsets. Try it and see.

 

[frank-in]

Not sure. Windows updates probably will install drivers for the motherboard's chipsets. Try it and see.

Probably, but I haven't installed it yet.

 

[boju]

After installing Win 8.1 and updates, if device manager is plagued with explanation marks and upgrade OS still works, you've saved yourself about 100 bucks.

 

[frank-in]

After installing Win 8.1 and updates, if device manager is plagued with explanation marks and upgrade OS still works, you've saved yourself about 100 bucks.

How can my PC be useful with no lan, no audio, no usb-c port (and other such things)?

 

[boju]

Your right, it'll be pretty useless. It's possible to get drivers though from original chip makers for the board.

Lan:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23071

Audio:
https://www.realtek.com/en/componen...-codecs-high-definition-audio-codecs-software

Usbc im not sure about. If you're able to get lan/internet working then yeah i'd try upgrade Win10 and use media creation tool to create yourself a copy on a usb stick for a fresh install.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[frank-in]

Your right, it'll be pretty useless. It's possible to get drivers though from original chip makers for the board.

Lan:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23071

Audio:
https://www.realtek.com/en/componen...-codecs-high-definition-audio-codecs-software

Usbc im not sure about. If you're able to get lan/internet working then yeah i'd try upgrade Win10 and use media creation tool to create yourself a copy on a usb stick for a fresh install.

Thank you very much.
I've just downloaded the chipset driver for Windows 7 , unzipped it and read the mup.xml file. Well, Windows 8.1 seems supported by this chipset driver. Maybe the usb-c support is included in this driver.
Another question is if all the features of my CPU will also be supported.

 

[boju]

Possibly, people are still running older os's but 10 is recommended though. Usbc i think is included with the chipset driver, could be wrong.

 

[frank-in]

After installing Win 8.1 and updates, if device manager is plagued with explanation marks and upgrade OS still works, you've saved yourself about 100 bucks.

No, not for money, only for personal reasons .

 

[boju]

If for aethstetics, Microsoft ruined a good thing.

Im still on 7 but know I'll eventually have to move. I tried Win10 when the upgrades rolled out, didn't completely hate it but had a problem with that my Win7 licence would be invalidated for Win7 after 30days. Lucky because MS introduced forced driver and MS updates not long after causing corruptions and loss of personal data with creators and anniversary updates.

New hardware would be a different situation, Win10 has better support without the effort of installing work arounds.