No operating system working

[RyanTF]

Hi I am having trouble with a new computer; Intel i5 6600, asus z170a motherboard, Corsair Vengeance DDR4 2x8gb 3000MHz, M.2 Kingston 240gb ssd (ssd second hand). I cant install any OS. I have tried Windows (7) and linux (ubuntu). Windows keeps telling me "a required CD/DVD driver is missing" and linux keeps saying "the grub-efi-amd64-signed package failed to install. I have spent the last 5 days and around 20 hours trying to install either. (I just want a working computer) I have tried burning DVDs and USBs and everything on every google page on the topic to no avail. I am starting to think there is a problem with the hardware but i am still new to all this. Please HELP

 

[COLGeek]

Check your motherboard's BIOS settings. Confirm that your SATA mode is set to AHCI (preferred mode) or IDE (most compatible, but slow). Do not use RAID mode.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Being a z170 board I would think that the Windows 7 problem is lack of USB 3.0 support. The Linux issue could be that secure boot is enabled.

 

[weberdarren97]

I can't remember where, but I read somewhere that Intel made their Skylake CPUs to only be compatible with Windows 10. I'm not sure about Linux, but the article specifically said that any previous versions would not be supported on Skylake CPUs.

But that was before Skylake was made public and I can't guarantee that the information is accurate. Therefore, I ask: Does anyone else know if Skylake supports Windows 7?

 

[weberdarren97]

Being a z170 board I would think that the Windows 7 problem is lack of USB 3.0 support. The Linux issue could be that secure boot is enabled.

I disagree with the part about USB 3.0... As far as I'm aware, Windows will just ignore any parts of the system that it lacks drivers for, unless said parts are mandatory for a successful boot. I don't think USB 3.0 is necessary for a successful boot and therefore I don't think it's the problem here.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

The Windows 7 installer does not support USB 3.0 at all, and Skylake has no native USB 2.0 support. If one is trying to install from a USB device the installer will throw the missing device message and both the keyboard and mouse will cease to function. Installation requires either an internal CD/DVD drive or the use of a USB stick with USB 3.0 drivers slipstreamed.

As far as Windows 7 on Skylake: http://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2016/08/12/microsoft-massive-backtrack-extends-windows-7-and-8-1-intel-skylake-support/#75e05dc37781

 

[weberdarren97]

The Windows 7 installer does not support USB 3.0 at all, and Skylake has no native USB 2.0 support. If one is trying to install from a USB device the installer will throw the missing device message and both the keyboard and mouse will cease to function. Installation requires either an internal CD/DVD drive or the use of a USB stick with USB 3.0 drivers slipstreamed.

As far as Windows 7 on Skylake: http://www.forbes.com/sites/antonyleather/2016/08/12/microsoft-massive-backtrack-extends-windows-7-and-8-1-intel-skylake-support/#75e05dc37781

Okay, I did not know that Skylake does not natively support USB 2.0... In my opinion, that seems like an obvious design flaw.