Fatal1ty Z77 Professional - Win10 compatible?

Dear customer,

alexandrebr wrote: Latest BIOS version, of course (2.90). I haven't used W8 and never cared about fast startup. BIOS is set to default values, apart from the XMP profile and some minor adjustments (keyboard power on and fan speeds). I know there's an option in BIOS called fast boot but have never changed the value because my main drive is a SSD; I don't know if it's something needed to work with Windows Fast Startup as well.  Anyway, I haven't also claimed users should buy another brand and I know Intel is responsible for the drivers to the developed chipsets. But, considering Intel provides chips for board manufacturers, I think there should be some effort from Asrock or from any other brand towards W10 drivers implementation by Intel. At least a word from Asrock about the subject.

I was not referring to you about buying another brand of mother board, that has been done by others in this and other threads. I was not only replying (more of a reaction on my part than a reply) to you, but to some of the other people having problems with Windows 10.

I'm sorry if I seemed (was) rude, it's frustrating for me to be unable to solve some of the Windows 10 issues people have. While Microsoft seems to want all of their user base to move to Windows 10, how can that happen if three year old hardware is not completely supported?

I agree a Z77 board is not old, I have two myself. There is all kinds of older hardware that is still in use.

But if full support via drivers is not available now, that does not mean it will never be. Windows 10 Update no longer gives us the option to install updates, it just does it on its own. So an update might happen one day that fixes something, and we may not know why it happened.

When I was using Windows 10 Technical Preview versions, I used drivers for Win 8.1. I still suggest that to anyone that cannot get a Windows 10 version for their board. I had great results using Win 8.1 drivers.

Every time a new version of Windows is released, we have issues like this. Every time a new version of Windows is released, MS does it differently. We survived the previous releases, and we'll survive this one too.

The Fast Boot option in the UEFI/BIOS is not related to the Windows Fast Startup feature at all. Each works independent of the other. There are no UEFI/BIOS settings that affect Fast Startup.

alexandrebr wrote: I have the Z77 Extreme4 as well and, just like you, I think the board isn't that old. Concerning Windows 10, I've upgraded and everything seemed to be fine until my system stopped waking up from sleep correctly. Indeed, randomly, after putting Windows to sleep, when I press any keyboard key or mouse button, the fans spin, lights go on but suddenly the system shuts down. Pressing the mouse or keyboard again will restart Windows as if I had turned off the system. I thought it could be an issue caused by Kaspersky 2016 and uninstalled it but that haven't solved the problem. In fact the system began not to loading the Windows in the first attempt. I decided to try another PSU but the issue still happened. Since the upgrade to Windows 10 I noticed the bios function "Power on by mouse or keyboard" wasn't working. Everytime I turned off the system, as soon as I pressed any mouse button or keyboard key, the mouse had its light on but the system didn't start. Later, after the wake up issue began and because of the Windows loading twice problem (restart when loading for the first time), I found out that this was linked to the FAST BOOT function brought by W10. So I disabled the fast boot and, after some erros while loading Windows (seemed disk error), the power on by keyboard/mouse started working and the problem when loading W10 was solved. Anyway, from time to time the system keeps not waking up correctly and I guess this is a software problem. You can see another victim of it here: http://www.tenforums.com/general-discussion/11121-windows-shuts-down-after-waking-up-sleep.html I've registered here to find out if Asrock will release drivers and bios for Z77 boards. But it seems I'll be forced to use Windows 7 in the case MS doesn't fix the problem on "older" systems.

I'm beginning to understand why mother board manufactures seem to not publish explanations about various things. Even if they did, a significant amount of people would not read them, or simply ignore or dismiss it.

This just happened with my explanation about drivers that I posted three posts above the one I quoted. That was:

Mother board manufactures do not create/write driver programs for the AMD, Intel, ASMedia, ATI, VIA, Nvidia, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Etron, etc chips used on their boards. Those drivers are supplied solely by the manufacture of the chipsets/chips. If the manufacture of a chip or chipset does not provide drivers or software that is compatible with a new version of an OS (for whatever reason), the mother board manufactures cannot do anything about it.

How a mother board manufacture is supposed to provide/create replacement drivers for other manufacture's hardware that can be compatible with the manufacture's earlier products, when the manufacture themselves does not provide that capability, is beyond me. Not to mention the copyright infringement that would occur by publishing replacement drivers with the same basic purpose as the original.

Threatening to purchase another manufactures product if ones requests are not met will not change anything. The other manufacture also cannot provide what is being asked for by the user of the earlier product, but that is never considered. The user may purchase the new product from the other manufacture, that works (of course) with Win 10, and occasionally posts bad experience stories about the original manufacture in forums, implying or stating the new manufacture does not have these problems. Not at all a valid comparison of course, but without details in the story, impossible to know.

alexandrebr,  the Windows Fast Startup feature (what you called the FAST BOOT function) was first released in Windows 8, not Windows 10. The Z77 Extreme4 board has BIOS updates for Windows 8 that would apply to this feature in Windows 10. What BIOS version are you using?

That is an example of the saying, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." Yes Windows 10 also uses the Windows 8 Fast Startup feature, unchanged and without any need for a BIOS update to work with it. But if the Windows 8 BIOS updates that allow Fast Startup to work correctly are not applied before changing to Windows 10, whose fault is that?

I have Z77 Extreme4 and I'am with same boat as you...

Thinking that Windows 10 will be "last" Windows and they ignore releasing new drivers is frustrating.

Board isnt that old people will keep using them because you can use Sandy and Ivy bridge on these ones, and upgrading to newer processors doesnt give you much benefits.

So for the love of your customers please ASrock do something for this.

I don't feel downgrading back to windows 7 or buying new motherboard and processor at any time soon.

Regards
Your loyal customer...

Elixx wrote: Sorry, Asrock dont really care about this. People been posting since win10 hit. Buy another brand imo.

Posts like this are frustrating, simply ignorance and hate, with nothing to support "another brand" would make a difference.

If Microsoft knew BIOS/UEFI updates were required for any PC platform, they haven't informed the users of their products, or mother board manufactures. Microsoft has simply offered free updates to Windows 7/8/8.1 users, with little or no warnings about potential failures when Windows 10 is used with specific platforms. Seems that they don't think there should be any problems. Think of all the PC users out there that have no idea what hardware their PC has, or what a BIOS or BIOS update is.

We did see BIOS/UEFI updates for Windows 8/8.1, due to changes in Windows 8 such as the Fast Start feature, and the shutdown state needed for that feature to work correctly. Windows 10 has the same fast startup feature as Windows 8, so the BIOS/UEFI updates for Windows 8 should work with Windows 10.

Windows 10 Technical Preview was available for months and must have been used on all kinds of PCs. I used it on Intel 8 and 9 series chipset boards, and it worked fine for the most part, the main issue I had was with advanced networking features that the Intel drivers would not work with Windows 10.

Let's assume for the moment that the ASRock microsite with the list of compatible boards is absolutely correct and all inclusive, and only the boards listed there are Windows 10 compatible. Why then would anyone attempt to update to Windows 10 with a board not in the list?

I've worked with ASRock board users that had issues with Windows 10, including the inability to boot. That one turned out to be fixed by selecting the correct drive in the boot order list.

DevillEars, did you try clearing the CMOS/BIOS, and checked the boot order? Did you change any of the drives in your PC or anything else after the Windows 10 update? Or just prior to the Windows 10 update?

Drivers are another important topic. Before I start, one important fact:

Mother board manufactures do not create/write driver programs for the AMD, Intel, ASMedia, ATI, VIA, Nvidia, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Etron, etc chips used on their boards. Those drivers are supplied solely by the manufacture of the chipsets/chips. If the manufacture of a chip or chipset does not provide drivers or software that is compatible with a new version of an OS (for whatever reason), the mother board manufactures cannot do anything about it.

ASRock provides software and drivers only for their specialized features, like the AXTU or A-Tuning utilities, XFastRAM or HDD Saver features.

The latest Intel Chipset Software installation program (10.0.27) directly from Intel for use with Windows 10 includes support for processors back to the 2nd and 3rd Generation Core family processors, which would be those used with a Z77 board. But it does not include (stated) support for Intel chipsets earlier than the 9 series, except for the X79 chipset, which is from the 2nd generation Core era.

ASRock is supply a slightly more current version for the Intel 8 series chipset boards, version 10.1.1.8, but Intel does not have information regarding the extent of its chipset support, at least publicly. Other chip manufactures have no new drivers for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 being the latest OS supported.

How does a mother board manufacture deal with all this? Or how do we users deal with all of this?

Do some driver "harvesting" of our own. Take Intel Windows 10 drivers from Z87 and Z97 boards, and run the installer program. If it decides your chipset is not compatible, the program will simply quit without changing anything, and no harm done. But if it works, great.

My point is, if we build our own PCs, we need to be responsible for maintaining them through major updates like a new OS version. PC component manufactures tend to create lists of what works with something else, not lists of what does not work.