Motherboard Will Not Let Me Install Windows 64-Bit?

[Prince Xaine]

Specifications:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R

Processor: Xeon X5470

Memory: Corsair Dominator CM2X2048-8500C5D 8 GB (4 x 2) @1066 MHz 

Graphics: Sapphire Nitro R9 Fury 4G

Storage: Samsung 850 Evo 500GB

Storage: Western Digital Blue (WD10EZEX) 1 TB

Power: Rosewill Glacier 750W 80+ Bronze

Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

 

1. So basically, I built this machine for fun. Windows 64-bit crashes upon the logo hitting the screen. Whether it is pre-installed or a setup, 64-bit always crashes.
2. I have tried both KMS activated iso files and official windows iso files with the same results.
3. All of the hardware listed above works fine in another machine - with the only part not allowing windows 7/10 64-Bit to install being the Gigabyte motherboard. 

 

Attempts:

• Memory passed diagnostics, and I have tried other memory modules with no success.
• 32-Bit editions of Windows install, 64-Bit editions of Windows crash
• I updated BIOS to latest version, and reset CMOS battery.
• Re-seated all hardware devices.
• Changed just about every setting and tried under-clocking memory and processor (in case of stability issues)
• Changed the processor to a Q6700 with same issue.
• Motherboard webpage confirms 64-Bit editions of Windows are compatible.
• Samsung drive has pre-installed windows - crashes.
• Tried windows to go via Rufus - crashes.
• Tried CD-ROM booting - crashes.
• Tried both MBR and GPT for the hell of it - crashes.

 

The only other things I can think of is to manually modify the motherboard BIOS to fix the crash, but I would have no idea on how to do so.

 

Hope someone can help me fix this - first time I haven't been able to install windows 10 on any machine (I even installed windows 10 on a Windows XP compaq laptop).

[Skiiwee29]

Try removing your RAM sticks and run with only 2 sticks, could be a faulty RAM slot on the board causing errors and the crash. 

[Prince Xaine]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Try removing your RAM sticks and run with only 2 sticks, could be a faulty RAM slot on the board causing errors and the crash. 

Sorry - I actually did try that. I forgot to mention it. I tried with one memory module in each slot, then I tried each memory stick - BIOS posted each time. You think I should try booting Windows 64-Bit each time to be sure?

[Skiiwee29]

1 minute ago, Prince Xaine said:

Sorry - I actually did try that. I forgot to mention it. I tried with one memory module in each slot, then I tried each memory stick - BIOS posted each time. You think I should try booting Windows 64-Bit each time to be sure?

Yes. You can also go get Memtest86 and run it and see if you get errors as well. 

[Prince Xaine]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Yes. You can also go get Memtest86 and run it and see if you get errors as well. 

Alright thank you I will try.

[Prince Xaine]

9 minutes ago, Prince Xaine said:

Alright thank you I will try.

Didn't work with any of my owned modules in any slot. The corsair Dominator memory is listed as supported on the webpage and already passed Memtest86

[PlayStation 2]

My only guess would be to make a custom ISO with all of the motherboard's drivers.

Probably a long shot but it'll never kill ye.

[Prince Xaine]

Alright - so I got windows 7 64-bit working with it. So this makes me feel better about the stability of the machine overall. I ran a few benchmarks and no issues - except one. No DirectX12 on Windows 7. This is an issue for me as I use some applications and benchmarks that require it.

 

So other things I have tried:

 

• Getintopc .iso files - I tried Lite, AIO solutions, OEM solutions, KMS Activated, Black, Redstone and so on and so forth - no luck.
• Windows 7 setup did not work, I actually had to pre-install it on another computer to get it up running.
• Tried aligning partitions, Windows to Go and some other options via Rufus - no luck.

I do not know how to make a custom ISO file, and sounds like a waste of time at the rate I am going. I may try pre-installing some of the other versions, but the first time I tried, I got the same crash as before.

 

EDIT: I placed a fully installed 1 TB Samsung 850 Evo with Windows 10 home 64-Bit on it into the machine - Stuck at logo.

 

Maybe I need to install a driver into the OS before it will boot? Maybe it's something Windows 10 can't grab on it's own? I have read around and other people seem to have gotten it to work on their board of the same model, so I can't really see what the issue is. Maybe I shall try without expansion cards.

[TheDelphiDude]

22 hours ago, Prince Xaine said:

Maybe I need to install a driver into the OS before it will boot?

If you have access to another working computer running Windows 10, you can try the following steps:

1. Create a Windows 10 USB flash drive using Microsoft's media creation tool
2. Using DISM from the command line with admin rights, do the following:
  2a. List the contents of the install.esd file (in the sources directory, or x64\sources directory)

  2b. Export the version (Pro, Home etc.) of Windows you want to install to a new image file

  2c. Mount the image file

  2d. Add drivers (I'd recommend at the bare minimum the chipset and storage ones) to the image
  2e. Unmount the image file, committing the changes

3. Rename the install.esd file to something like install.esd.org

4. Copy the altered image file to the same directory as the old install.esd file

5. Rename the image file to install.esd

Try installing Windows 10 again.

[AbydosOne]

On 4/20/2019 at 1:12 AM, Prince Xaine said:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R

Processor: Xeon X5470

I have the (almost) exact same configuration in my old machine. Win10 would never do the auto-upgrade from Win7 (something about instruction sets not being supported), and I built a new one not too soon after that. This makes me want to go and try putting Win10 on it just to see if I can help.

[Prince Xaine]

It runs pretty good on Windows 7, it's just annoying that there are a bunch of applications that just will not run, which I didn't even know was an issue with Windows 7 until now.

 

I have it overclocked to 4.5 GHz, and it runs most titles at around 60 FPS with it's current configuration. But some titles won't start or just run slow. The Xeon X5470 is compatible with Windows 10. All of the LGA775 processors will run Windows 10. I have made many builds with these processors. It has to do with the board, but I have no idea why.

[Prince Xaine]

Okay - figured it out.

 

Apparently the motherboard processor microcode was so outdated that Windows 10 could not run. Believe me, when I say I updated the bios to the latest revision, even tried a processor on the supported processor list and ended up with the windows 10 crashes.

 

So I manually installed the X5470 microcode into the machine and put it back in there. I will post once more after this, once windows 10 finishes installing, with my final benchmarks at 4.7 GHz on the processor. Spoiler alert: It performs much better than you think it does!

[Prince Xaine]

So here are the first waves of benchmarks via userbenchmark and Cinebench. It took me a bit to get Windows updated, all drivers installed and the settings the way I like them.

 

Notes:

 

- The processor frequency is actually 4.7 GHz. Windows does not see the multiplier at 10.5x (courtesy of the motherboard) and thinks it is at 10.

 

- I had to remove the Corsair Dominator memory modules. Not because it wasn't performing well, but because 8 GB of memory wasn't enough - and DDR2 is slow as it is. The page file was destroying the speed of the system courtesy of SATA II interface and DDR2 memory speed.

 

- Games coming soon.