Z97 Extreme6 running Windows 10 Pro x64 freezes

This really bugs me. I found the solution. ASRock needs to update their page for the Windows 10 drivers. At least for Windows 10 Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.218). The solution to my problem was installing the drivers listed for Windows 8.1 x64. I had to install both the ASMedia USB 3.0 and SATA3 drivers. Now everything is running fine. 

Edit: Quite some time later and no more crashes. This is quite a serious issue.

gniblack wrote: This really bugs me. I found the solution. ASRock needs to update their page for the Windows 10 drivers. At least for Windows 10 Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.218). The solution to my problem was installing the drivers listed for Windows 8.1 x64. I had to install both the ASMedia USB 3.0 and SATA3 drivers. Now everything is running fine.

Thank you SO MUCH.  I will update if it crashes again, but finally this affected both the Z87 Extreme6 in this machine and my newer Z97 Extreme6 as well.

What's worse is for the Z87 Extreme6 I do not even see the ASMedia SATA3 drivers on their page!  I downloaded from the Z97 page from the Windows 8.1 64 bit section and installed successfully for my older motherboard too!

Device Manager still does crash when searching for new devices, however it no longer seems to take the whole machine into a frozen state.  I will update if it's not fixed, but THANK YOU assuming this has worked!  This computer has been crashing every day once for my sister for ages, unless I unplugged the optical drives.

It's the SATA3 drivers in particular here, at least for the older motherboard.  In fact, when the USB 3.0 driver installer tried to search for the device it froze as usual.  After installing the SATA drivers first, then rebooting, it just told me it didn't find the USB controller on this motherboard.

It's serious that they don't list the drivers for Windows 10 for the newer board, but the fact they aren't listed AT ALL for the Z87 is concerning.

I wonder if many of their other motherboards are affected by this too, with certain optical drives.

parsec wrote: I'm glad you fixed your issue, although I'm surprised the ASMedia SATA driver seemed to get your optical drive working. Some mother board manufactures don't recommend using optical drives on the ASMedia SATA ports. Not sure why, but that's what I seen. It's strange that the Microsoft AHCI driver included with Windows 10, storahci, did not work well with your optical drive. That driver should be very generic, and is what is installed on SATA controllers by default, if we don't install a specific SATA driver. That driver should have been installed automatically when you installed Windows 10. You won't find an ASMedia SATA driver included on the download page of any ASRock Intel chipset board for Windows 10 newer than the Intel 7 series chipset (Z77, etc.) Is it possible that ASRock could make the mistake of not including that driver on all of those boards for Windows 10? While anything is possible, the probable reason you won't see the ASMedia SATA driver included in the Windows 10 download page of yours and other boards is because ASMedia does not, or has not had their driver certified by Microsoft for use with Windows 10. Drivers that are not known to be completely compatible with Windows 10 are not included for downloading. For example, I have seen indications that the ASMedia SATA driver does not support the TRIM command with SSDs with Windows 10. So while the ASMedia driver works fine with your optical drive, if it does not work correctly with other types of drives, chipsets, or versions of Windows, then IMO the responsible thing to do is not include it in the download list. Regarding the USB 3.0 driver, you also won't find those drivers for Windows 10 for most if not all USB 3.0 chips. As we no longer install specific USB 2.0 drivers, Windows 10 marks the transition of the same thing for USB 3.0 drivers, at least for Intel platforms newer than the 7 series chipsets. Intel no longer provides a Windows 10 specific USB 3.0 driver for their USB 3.0 support on their download site.

The thing is, the optical drives work. It's just when Windows scans for new hardware the motherboard/computer outright freezes.  It's like a screenshot and the only way is to hold the power button or unplug it.  Anything that scans for hardware triggers the issue, when an optical drive is plugged in without the drivers installed.  Logitech's Gaming Software does this too, because it scans for hardware.  I heard of this issue in the past for ASRock motherboards, but I gave up trying to fix it.  I just unplugged the drive for months until I needed it.  If this solves it, it's a very serious issue in my opinion that the drivers are not properly supported.  I think (but am not sure) Windows 8 froze the exact same way too.

It would make sense, since the drivers are completely unlisted for the SATA controller on the Z87 Extreme6 page.

Edit:
Ah ha!
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z87%20Extreme6/?cat=Download&os=Win864

There they are for the older one. It seems the SATA3 drivers are only listed up to Windows 8 and not 8.1 or 10 for that one.  The newer drivers on the Z97 Extreme6's page installed for my older board, but there they are for the Z87 too under an older OS.

Now I have to wonder if the Device Manager taking a while to load and crashing if I manually scan for hardware is another missing driver.  At least it's no longer taking the computer down with it though.

What makes this issue so terrible is there is NO error message; no record of what Windows did to crash.  It's like you take a screenshot and it sits, with the computer totally frozen.  It was on a Logitech topic that I first saw the workaround unplugging the optical drive(s), and only here now searching over a year later did I find the actual solution.


Edited by BWis - 30 Jul 2016 at 7:33pm