Problems installing Windows 7 on Z370 motherboard and Coffee Lake CPU.

[U6b36ef]

I am trying to install Windows 7 on a new Asus TUF Z370 Pro - Gaming motherboard. However I am hitting problem after problem.

The first and most important problem, is that Windows 7 will only update so far, then stop. The OS is still showing at Service Pack 1, although I have managed to update since installing SP1 Win7. .. The updates stopped due to error that the Coffee Lake CPU is not supported by Windows 7. I assume that all Coffee lake CPUs will be the same.

Secondly drivers are a problem. I have two items missing in Device manager.
1. USB Controller - driver
2. High definition Audio device (Apparently a Microsoft product).
(Although the Realtek HD Audio driver installed, when I installed the Asus provided audio drivers.)

Since I can't update Windows 7, I won't know if the Win 7 drivers are going to fix this. The USB driver not being installed is a bad problem, and means my USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports do not work. Luckily I can use BIOS 'mouse and keyboard simulator', to run M+KB on my USB 2.0 ports. Then use the USB 3.1 ports to do other things.


I have done a lot of driver hunting.
1. I have some Win 7 drivers from the Asus product support page. (However it is shocking that there are only four drivers there are on the motherboard Asus support page.)
2. Some of the Win 10 drivers installed from the CD that came with the motherboard, work.
3. I think an odd driver installed from the support page Win 10 drivers. (Can't remember now, from when I tried it.)

Two drivers from the Asus Support Windows 10 drivers that won't install are:
1. SATA drivers
2. Chipset drivers

I don't know if chipset drivers will fix the USB issue. However I can not find Z370 chipset drivers on the Intel website.

At the moment, the only way I can get this PC running fully, is by using Windows 10. However I would prefer Windows 7, and my reasons are:
1. I am very familiar with Win 7, and Win 10 is a nightmare to get used to.
2. Windows 10 updates make my model of external DAC sound device, not work. It gets fixed but still, not good.
3. I can use Classic Shell, but it doesn't quite make Win 10 look like Win 7
4. I tried Windows 10 as an upgrade over Win 7 once before. With two BSOD in one month, I went back to Win 7.
5. I like using Windows Easy Transfer, for moving from one PC to another. (Or re-installing.) Easy Transfer is not available in Win 10.
There are alternatives to Windows Easy transfer: PC Mover, and Z Install Easy Transfer. However I can't be 100% sure they will copy everything like Easy Transfer does, because I don't know the programs. .. (I wouldn't mind paying for these programs though, as long as they worked.)

It looks like I am stuck with Windows 10 though.

 

[mcconkeymike]

Bottom line is, you are stuck with Windows 10, unless you want to downgrade to a Z170 mobo and CPU. The issues you said you were having are every bit what has been described as what will happen if you try to install Win 7 on a newer chipset. Both Intel and AMD have made their newer stuff Win 10 only, so like I said, you either need to get used to Win 10 or stick with older hardware. Sorry.

 

[Snipergod87]

That is correct MS is blocking updates to Kaby-lake and newer processors on Windows 7, 8.1.
Driver support as you found may be spotty as why would the manufacturers release drivers for a system that microsoft isnt even supporting, and is end of support completely in 2020.
Chipset driver will fix the USB issue as the USB ports are done through the chipset.

 

[SkyNetRising]

You can use wufuc to circumvent disabled win7 updates for newer hardware.
https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc/releases/tag/v1.0.0.191

But yes - with z370 chipset windows 7 support is very limited.

 

[U6b36ef]

Thank you for speedy answers.

I actually managed to get the chipset drivers to install. I saw a suggestion to use Run as Admin of the drivers install. It did install because I can see the 300 family chipset drivers under system in Device Manager > System devices.


However it hasn't fixed the USB controller driver problem. (@SniperGod87) I would have thought it might do, and I was hoping anyway.

I suppose it's up to me now, and if I want to go ahead and use 'wufuc', that SkyNetRising mentioned. Then carry on with Win 7 updates, and see if it will install the USB Controller driver.

If it did, at that point, I would decide whether to stay with Win 7 which would be easy. However with no support for the processor, I would not necessarily be protected with Spectre and Meltdown. I don't know what else no processor support affects. The Windows 7 OS is running fine. People who use 'wufuc' say their gaming rigs are going fine.

Or just go with Win 10. I heard Win 10 sometimes breaks stuff with new updates. ... Also I am not sure if these programs that transfer everything over to new PC, really cover everything. ...... Like Windows Easy Transfer puts all your desktop icons in place. (Voila.) It's so simple to use.


I was just looking over PCMover, but there is no list of specifically what it does. http://pcmover-10.laplink.com/ Only that it's recommended by Windows. Secondly I just looked up a video of it, and it does it by a cable transfer. Meaning I need to find out of I can do it by Hard drive. Or find out what cable I need. ... Nightmare. Why couldn't Microsoft just keep Easy transfer?


I think in the end though, Win 10 would be slightly more secure overall. Since Windows 7 only rolls out updates quite rarely now. I don't know it Win 7 updates are less regular than Win 10 though, However it seems like updates are rarer on 7 than they used to be.

I think it's right what you said mconkeymike, I might be stuck with Win 10. & is just so good though, and I would have paid for continued support. I think they will support it after 2020 though, as they did with XP.

 

[Snipergod87]

They didn't support XP after the end of support unless you include the 2-3 patches they released after the end of support (some for vulnerabilities that were documented before the end of support)

 

[U6b36ef]

They didn't support XP after the end of support unless you include the 2-3 patches they released after the end of support (some for vulnerabilities that were documented before the end of support)

I thought they continued support for XP for quite a lengthy time. Must have misunderstood or remembered it wrong.

Very sad to see the upcoming end of Windows 7 though. Apart from its buggy start, and screens of death early on, it soon became brilliant. For me it was a life saver because I hung on to Vista for quite a while. Moving to 7 was liberating, and I am still happy to 7 boot up. 7 even still feels relatively new to me. Sort of fresh, stable, and shiny.

I couldn't really do as Home Brew suggested, by going for a Kaby Lake. I already opened the Coffee Lake CPU. Also the Kaby Lake would be little faster than my 4790K. Kaby Lake would only allow me much faster RAM than I have with my 4790k though, which is part of my reason for upgrade.

My 4790K is fast enough for everything that I play. Only once did it gaming fractionally dip under 60 FPS by CPU performance. (I might even have been pushing the CPU with background tasks too.

However my system has another bottleneck that I can't identify. In gaming at 1080p all is fine. When I switch to 1440p, some games bottleneck without the CPU or GPU maxing out. No idea what it is, but I suspect system RAM, as my motherboard is locked at 1600Mhz.

It usually happens in games that are open world, and lot going on, and large. Like The Rise of the Tomb Raider. However it happened in The Evil Within 2, even in more mundane inside areas. FPS would dip to low forties in some games, therefor making gaming choppy. (Even with g-sync. People thought that was game engine stutter.)

 

[U6b36ef]

Just thought. I should probably have re-installed my current PC to see if it gave me a gaming speed boost. Installation is at least two years old.

 

[Gaurav_40]

Here's the solution,

8'th gen intel Coffeelake Processors doesn't support windows 7, 8, 8.1
You need to download windows 10 and install windows 10 on your PC using an bootable USB flash drive.
You can download windows 10 from the below:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

As you are not familiar windows 10, i recommend you to install a windows 7 theme on your windows 10. it will be much familiar.

Thanks for reading my answer, hope it helps! (sorry for my bad english)