Windows 8 Installation Hell

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glugglug

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2002
5,340
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I just built my first Windows 8 system (still in the process of formatting drives to go into a StableBit pool, installing software, etc).


I could not believe what a pain in the ass it was! Really, it's quite insane.

The biggest problem is that until the motherboard drivers were installed, the USB ports were practically unusable. This means I practically couldn't type during the installation (USB Keyboard), mouse movement was incredibly jerky, and most clicks wouldn't get picked up.

Maybe one in 10 key presses got picked up, and about a quarter of the key up events got missed as well, making keys repeat once it sees them. Entering the product key took 40 minutes. I therefore didn't even try to enter a password in the initial setup, instead saving that for after motherboard drivers were installed.


I tried all available USB ports on the motherboard (Asus Z87 Pro). USB 2 ports, Intel USB3 ports, and AsMedia USB3 ports. I tried various BIOS settings, turning off quick boot options for Full USB Initialization, EHCI support etc. to no avail. Most combinations of BIOS settings resulted in NO keypresses or mouse movement getting picked up after the first reboot in the install instead of 1 in 10, so you have to cut the power, reformat, and try again.


I can't imagine how bad it would be if I tried to install from SD card instead of DVD!!! Is there something I am missing on how this should be done if I ever have to do it again? Am I going to need to have a PS2 keyboard handy?


My other gripe with the installation process is that it is a lot less flexible than previous versions of Windows in how the drives can be formatted during install. I really wanted to have 16KB clusters to match the page size of the Corsair Neutron. But the Win8 installer gives you no choice other than the 4KB default. I suppose I could have used some other boot CD or my other PC for the initial partitioning. Any convenient way to change this after the fact?
 
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glugglug

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2002
5,340
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I installed them after installing Windows.

The problem is that the installation itself took all night because of the lack of USB usability. Can't install the drivers before Windows itself finishes installing. Or is there a trick I am missing for that. Can the drivers be slipstreamed into a Windows DVD?
 
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bbhaag

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
7,392
3,021
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There is an option before Windows installs to load drivers first. You should have been able to swap in the cd/dvd you MB came with load the drivers then swap back in the Windows dvd and continue with the install.
My wife has an older Core Duo laptop and every time I've had to re-install Windows I need to load the Sata drivers first or Windows won't recognize the drive.
 
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RU482

Lifer
Apr 9, 2000
12,689
3
81
that lack of USB function....something's not right there. I've installed 8 on much older and just as new hardware and not had any USB issues, 2.0 or 3.0
 
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glugglug

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2002
5,340
1
81
bbhaag said:
There is an option before Windows installs to load drivers first. You should have been able to swap in the cd/dvd you MB came with load the drivers then swap back in the Windows dvd and continue with the install.
Click to expand...

I tried this, it said it couldn't find any signed drivers on the Asus Driver CD. I think that is only for Storage/RAID drivers, not keyboard and mouse. Also, the mouse was so erratic it took several minutes to get to each possibly relevant folder on the CD.

You would think there would be some generic drivers loaded at install time to at least have a keyboard that works fine in DOS continue to work.

I guess I could try unzipping this to a CD and see if it can pick it up from there.
 
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Mem

Mem

Lifer
Apr 23, 2000
21,476
13
81
glugglug said:
I tried this, it said it couldn't find any signed drivers on the Asus Driver CD. I think that is only for Storage/RAID drivers, not keyboard and mouse. Also, the mouse was so erratic it took several minutes to get to each possibly relevant folder on the CD.

You would think there would be some generic drivers loaded at install time to at least have a keyboard that works fine in DOS continue to work.

I guess I could try unzipping this to a CD and see if it can pick it up from there.
Click to expand...


I get all my drivers from Intel's website and Nvidia,never bothered with Asus ones since always out of date,Intel has a nice little checker program that scans your PC and tells what drivers you need.

Btw USB 3.0 wise I use Win8 native USB 3.0 drivers in Win8.

Intel® Driver Update Utility

Automatically scan your system for up-to-date drivers and install them quickly.
Click to expand...
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Default.aspx?lang=eng




I would also run Memtest86 as well to rule out any memory issues,I had a stick of ram go faulty on my Win8 Sunday gave me corrupted files, crashes etc(Win8 never stated any issues with my ram)...anyway Memtest86 only found 65000+ errors on one stick lol,got it replaced and its now running fine but I need to do a clean install probably with Win8.1 at some point soon.

Nice little detective work by me rather then blaming Win8 ;) faulty ram gets us all sooner or later.

:)
 
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smakme7757

smakme7757

Golden Member
Nov 20, 2010
1,487
1
81
RU482 said:
that lack of USB function....something's not right there. I've installed 8 on much older and just as new hardware and not had any USB issues, 2.0 or 3.0
Click to expand...
Same here. It does sound strange.

Have you tried a BIOS update for your motherboard?
Z87 is very new. It should most definitely be supported.
 
A

amenx

Diamond Member
Dec 17, 2004
4,536
2,876
136
WIndows 8 install was smooth and uneventful for me. Everything functioned perfectly. All necessary drivers will be installed automatically in the process. Something was clearly amiss in your case and wasnt a Windows 8 problem. You shouldnt have to look for external sources for drivers during installation. After installation you can update the drivers.
 
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darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
8,152
1
81
I actually installed Win8 off USB and it picked up my wireless usb kb/m instantly, can't say I experienced anything like what you did. Is this brand new hardware or have you used it previously and been able to confirm that it's in good working order?
 
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glugglug

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2002
5,340
1
81
Solved!:

My BIOS was dated 2013-05-06. Which means it predated the H87 release and the "1st Release BIOS" on Asus site by over a month.

The driver DVD came with the same version on it.

Flashing from the BIOS, it refused to recognize a newer one from both HDD and USB -- the only way to flash it was to burn the new one to another CD. I have to say that is the scariest flashing process I've ever seen. The system actually shuts down and restarts 4 times in the flashing process, with the shutdown being for a few seconds each time. Only after the 2nd automated shutdown and restart there is a message on the screen saying not to turn it off or reset it yourself!

Also, even stranger, there seems to be an incompatibility with the high resolution setting on my mouse until USB drivers are installed.
 
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RU482

Lifer
Apr 9, 2000
12,689
3
81
glugglug said:
I have to say that is the scariest flashing process I've ever seen. The system actually shuts down and restarts 4 times in the flashing process, with the shutdown being for a few seconds each time.
Click to expand...

It's probably updating BIOS, EC, and ME. I've seen this behavior on x77 boards, not totally uncommon
 
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escrow4

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2013
3,339
122
106
Haswell (and Win 8) is so new that its CRITICAL to always have the latest BIOS, and the latest chipset drivers. You don't need the Management Interface, unless you really need those features (or want to get rid of the bang in Device Manager).
 
bbhaag

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
7,392
3,021
146
It's cool to see got it figured out. OS installs always seem to be hit and miss no matter what you choose(Linux, OSX,Windows, ect). In the end you solved the problem and that's what matters.:thumbsup:
 
ViRGE

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
167
106
glugglug said:
Solved!:

My BIOS was dated 2013-05-06. Which means it predated the H87 release and the "1st Release BIOS" on Asus site by over a month.
Click to expand...
Somehow I'm not surprised. The initial Haswell BIOSes have been awful. And since the root cause is bugs in the reference modules from Intel, really this is Intel turning out some of their worst BIOSes in ages. I'm thinking getting rid of their mobo division is going to have some bigger ramifications than we expected.:|
 
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glugglug

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2002
5,340
1
81
ViRGE said:
Somehow I'm not surprised. The initial Haswell BIOSes have been awful. And since the root cause is bugs in the reference modules from Intel, really this is Intel turning out some of their worst BIOSes in ages. I'm thinking getting rid of their mobo division is going to have some bigger ramifications than we expected.:|
Click to expand...

Yeah. I've been building PCs almost 20 years and have never seen a BIOS anywhere close to this confusing. Are all the UEFI BIOSes this bad to navigate? My machine hung sometime today, and upon rebooting it could not see the InfiniTV. Tried rebooting again, tried reseating the card, tried reinstalling InfiniTV drivers, tried changing to BIOS defaults in case I forgot to after flashing to get that instability... it refused to see the card until I put it in a different PCIex1 slot. Anyone know what would do that? I know there is a BIOS setting for how wide the main PCIex16 slot is at the expense of other slots, but I have this on auto and am using integrated graphics, so all slots should work no?

Another surprise was that the BIOS defaults, even with all the ASUS overclocking stuff, run the DDR3 2400 memory at DDR3 1600 speeds. I am especially surprised to have this bad an experience with an ASUS board.
 
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stlcardinals

Senior member
Sep 15, 2005
729
0
76
owensdj said:
You should avoid using USB 3 ports for keyboard and mouse during the install.
Click to expand...

That's more of a problem with trying to install Widows 7 off of USB flash plugged into a USB 3 port as the Windows 7 setup did not have native USB 3 drivers. Windows 8 has native USB 3 drivers baked in to the install.
 
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