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Windows 7 on Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi

L

letmepicyou

Banned
Howdy folks. Been doing this quite a while (my first pc was an 8088) so when I get a problem I can't seem to fix...I come talk to folks that know more than me!
So I had an i7 4790k system that started acting wonky on me, so after troubleshooting down to a failing clock on my old board and deciding it was time to upgrade, I sprung for a new CPU (i7 9700k) and board (Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi) (and ram of course). I got everything assembled and whatnot, put my Samsung 950 Pro NVMe in one of the M2 slots and fired it up. Having had success moving OS drives to upgraded motherboards running similar chipsets from the same maker, I was of course pleased to see Windows 7 start screen instead of a BSOD.

Aside from the fact that it won't see my on-board wifi, bluetooth, and some part of the USB sub-system, it works great. I just can't seem to find Windows 7 drivers for 2 items in DM (Network Controller and Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller.
I was hoping to stay on 7 Ultimate until they stop supporting it. No 7 drivers can be found on Gigabyte's site for this board, only Windows 10 is listed. Attempting to use Windows Update has also failed. Is anyone aware of a workaround, or something I can do? Or is simply "Sorry, you're out of luck." and I have to go buy Windows 10. Buying 10 is no problem, to be certain, if that's my only option, so be it. Just wondering if there are any other ideas. Thanks in advance!
 
I don't know if there are USB3.0/3.1/XHCI controller drivers available for Windows 7 64-bit for the Z390 chipset. I'm sorry. You won't be able to use any USB-ish things on that platform with Windows 7 64-bit without them, which is severely limiting.

Unless you have specific technical reasons why you need to stay on Windows 7, then I would strongly recommend moving to Windows 10. Run SHUTUP10 (from O&O Software) after installing, and select "Recommended Settings", to disable Win10's built-in spyware (at least, as best that you can, using settings).
 
killster1 , that's the ethernet drive, the USB needs an XHCI driver. I suppose, if your mobo had PS/2 ports, you could use that for keyboard and mouse, and install an NEC/Renesys USB3.0 controller PCI-E card.
 
VirtualLarry said:
killster1 , that's the ethernet drive, the USB needs an XHCI driver. I suppose, if your mobo had PS/2 ports, you could use that for keyboard and mouse, and install an NEC/Renesys USB3.0 controller PCI-E card.
Click to expand...


here is what he said "Aside from the fact that it won't see my on-board wifi, bluetooth, and some part of the USB sub-system, it works great. I just can't seem to find Windows 7 drivers for 2 items in DM (Network Controller and Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller. "

So i know i didnt look for USB i only looked for the network controller driver.

sounds like you thought of a good work around pretty sure it has keyboard input.
 
Well, sorry, I didn't see that he was also looking for the Network controller drivers. Good call.

And if he's got USB keyboard / mouse already working, then it sounds like he's part-way there. I had heard that Z390 didn't have Win7 64-bit USB XHCI drivers for that particular chipset's native XHCI controller. If the board has multiple controllers for USB3.0/3.1, though, there's the possibility of loading drivers for the third-party chipset, and using a USB3.0 hub.
 
I followed this thread with great interest. Here is my problem: I've been operating WIndows 7 on an ASUS P6X58-E motherboard with Intel i7-980 chip since 2011. I loved it. Never saw a need to upgrade or change and would stick with it for the foreseeable future had it not been for the impeding shutoff date for Windows 7 (Jan 2020). So after doing some research and discovering my mobo and CPU would not support Windows 10 (debatable, but at least not support it very well), I invested in a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Pro with an Intel i7-9700K. My problem: When I boot up Windows 7, I can't enter my password or move my mouse pointer. Apparently all the USB ports are dead to me since there are no W7 USB drivers for this MOBO. There are no PS2 ports either. What can I do to upgrade my system to Windows 10?
 
No, I tried that. When I select Upgrade, the installer says that since I have a version of Windows already installed on the computer (I do, Windows 7), then I have to boot from that system and then run the Get Windows 10 tool. However the Get Windows 10 tool is no longer available, so Catch 22. It seems like a fresh install is the only option available to me.
 
You may have to shell out for Windows 10 on this one. You could try to upgrade from your old setup, even though it doesn't officially work, but it still might tell you that you need to buy after the mobo and CPU swap.
 
Last edited:
Here's what I would do:
  • Put your drive back in your old system.
  • Boot to win7.
  • Enable Remote Desktop.
  • Shutdown.
  • Move drive to new system.
  • Use another system to RDP into your system.
  • Go under control panel and device manager and find the PCI hardware ID.
  • Search for these hardware IDs online and see if you can find a suitable driver.
  • Try such driver.
  • Repeat last 2 steps as needed.
I've used this methodology to get a lot of servers working as desktops as drivers usually wouldn't exist for desktop OSes except from the device manufacturers. Good luck and enjoy your new system!
 
Windows 10 will run fine on an X58 board. You need to use the media creation tool to download the correct ISO, and then run it in windows so that you can do an upgrade. As long as you windows 7 install is healthy, it should be fine to upgrade and a clean install would not be needed.

As for Z390, I would lean towards just using Windows 10 on that. Also a fresh install would be optimal there. If you want try getting drivers for windows 7 on it though, you could try using snappy driver installer. It is great at finding drivers for all sorts of hardware, so worth a shot.

Snappy Driver Installer Origin – The original driver installation tool for Windows.

www.snappy-driver-installer.org www.snappy-driver-installer.org
 
Pacman45 said:
I followed this thread with great interest. Here is my problem: I've been operating WIndows 7 on an ASUS P6X58-E motherboard with Intel i7-980 chip since 2011. I loved it. Never saw a need to upgrade or change and would stick with it for the foreseeable future had it not been for the impeding shutoff date for Windows 7 (Jan 2020).
Click to expand...

You still don't have a need to upgrade. Win7 will work just as well after the cutoff as it does now.

There are legit reasons to get on the Win10 bandwagon, but that's just not one of them in a home environment.
 
Just to add to the ideas in this thread. While they are quite rare, pci-e USB 2.0 cards DO exist and would need no drivers to work with Windows 7. If you have PCI they're easy to find, but if you have PCI-e only they're pretty expensive for what they are.

If you have serial headers on your mainboard (these remain pretty common it seems) you could probably use a serial mouse with an adapter, LOL. Even I'm not crazy enough to have tried that though.
 
^ USB3 not 2? A few years back I picked up a used Vantec PCIe USB3 card with a 3.5" front panel extension for $13 delivered. I wanted the front ports so I went that route but today you can get a PCIe USB3 card for ~$9 new on ebay.
 
mindless1 said:
^ USB3 not 2? A few years back I picked up a used Vantec PCIe USB3 card with a 3.5" front panel extension for $13 delivered. I wanted the front ports so I went that route but today you can get a PCIe USB3 card for ~$9 new on ebay.
Click to expand...

USB 3.0 cards with PCI-e connections are cheap and common.
USB 2.0 cards with PCI connections are cheap and common.
But USB 2.0 cards with PCI-e connections aren't particularly cheap and certainly aren't common.
 
Why would you need a USB2 card when USB3 is backwards compatible, and there are Win7 drivers? If USB stops working once booted into windows, slipstream the driver.
 
mindless1 said:
Why would you need a USB2 card when USB3 is backwards compatible, and there are Win7 drivers? If USB stops working once booted into windows, slipstream the driver.
Click to expand...

If you're already booted and have the drivers are installed you're good. I was thinking of how to avoid slipstreaming the driver or if you're dealing with an existing Windows install that now boots up with no way to use the keyboard to login.
 
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