SOLVED ASUS Prime Z270-A Won't Accept Windows Install

cabbie19

I am trying to contact a friend just over in the next town, he often has parts kicking around, so am hoping i can find some parts for further testing.  
Otherwise i will set it up tomorrow and try the m.2 suggestions above.


UPDATE
Sadly he's working away all week  

DavidG1

Go to the BIOS and make sure SATA controller is set to AHCI

cabbie19

Done, see post #16. Thanks  

cabbie19

UPDATE
Bugger, tried instructions in link above re installing to m.2, still exactly the same result. Loading files bar completes, 1.5 - 2 revolutions of circling dots, then bsod, tried setting from AHCI to raid, got as far as choose language first time, then bsod. Further attempts result in bsod at normal, earlier point  
Oh, one thing has changed, m.2 no longer shows in bios.

cabbie19

Have just tried installing Ubuntu to the m.2, got to purple ubuntu loading screen, then sat there for several mins with dots going left to right, no further progress.
Also tried running ubuntu from flash drive with same result.

cabbie19

I think i'm going to have to buy another board to see what happens, as i'm fairly confident cpu and memory are ok, and m.2 is irrelevant from the point that i can't get Windows to install to any SATA drive either.
Both memory modules have passed multiple runs of memtest86, individually, in all memory slots on the board.
CPU's usually either work, or don't work, but either way, rarely fail, so i'm guessing it's ok.
As far as possible, i'm confident my install flash drive is good (used it to install windows on a 2.5" drive in my main rig).
And the HDD's have been thoroughly tested with HDTune.
Will update here when i have further news.
THANKYOU to all the great members who have taken the time to make suggestions here, i love the community spirit here.

Best regards
Jamie.

MA3STRO

With regards to the M2 drive, I believe it needs to be formatted and checked for errors. Either by putting it into another PC or laptop, or via USB with an M2 enclosure.

Did the seller confirm they formatted the drive before they sold it to you?

I think it has data on it. Ubunut worked fine from USB but crashed when that was connected. That suggests either the drive has failed, it has Windows or another OS installed on it, or both.

I wouldn't rush out and buy another board just yet. The motherboard always posts to the bios without any errors and there are no beeps or error codes delivered by the motherboard. I have used these boards a lot (bought 4 or 5 a year ago) and seen lots of error codes from things not being connected properly. The board posts ok and doesn't generate any errors and it works with Ubuntu. All this points towards the motherboard being ok.

I don't think it's correct to say that Windows doesn't let you install the SATA drive. It BSODs before any Windows installation screen appears; so we have not even had a chance to format any drive or start an installation. When you connected the 1TB drive with Ubuntu, the drive shows as connected, but I suspect it is formatted as NTFS so you cannot mount it. You may be able to mount it in Ubuntu using another application though. I've used similar apps on MacOS to connect NTFS drives.

Ubuntu is working fine from USB, so I personally don't think the board is the issue. Have you tried running Windows from a USB drive yet? Or tried another Linux OS?

We talked about booting to a Windows installation from the USB drive, but I don't think you have tried this yet. If Ubuntu works from the flash drive, then there's a good chance Windows will too.

I have had BSOD during a Windows installation before and fixed it by re-downloading the Windows installation tool to the USB drive. Perhaps you could redownload and install Windows on a USB drive or even an external USB 2.5" drive or something.

There's so many things that could be wrong. At this point I still think the hard drives are causing the problem, but it's hard to tell because all parts are used and you don't have parts to swap over.

I have most of the parts here to test the board apart from a CPU; which I sold, unfortunately. Though if I could get a CPU I could test it here and send it back if it was working. I'd rule out the hard drive issue before we do that though.

Let me know how you get on.

MA3STRO

Hi Jamie.

I spoke to my friend @malky78 there.

He said another thing to check is the type of M2 drive it is.

If it is NVME, set it to PCIE in the bios.

For a regular SATA SSD, set it to SATA.

Worth checking anyways

cabbie19

The M.2 drive is a Samsung PM951 NVME, i have tried it in both PCI-e x4 mode and Auto.
No change in behavior.
My Windows 10 Flash drive is a USB 3.0 Kingston Data Traveler 16GB. I rebuilt the install media with the latest build, using the Microsoft Tool, i have used it on a laptop yesterday and that is working fine. I also used it to install 10 on a 2.5 SATA drive in my main pc, that too performed perfectly.
I think we are getting hung up on the M.2 drive, don't forget i can't install 10 to 2 perfect, formatted SATA HDD's either.
The board doesn't have proper de-bug display to show fault codes, and none of the onboard fault led's are lit, i don't have a motherboard speaker connected, so wouldn't expect any fault beeps.  
I am happy to ship the motherboard back to you for testing if you would prefer that?

Best regards
Jamie.

MA3STRO

You don't need a speaker for the motherboard to beep

The motherboard does display errors and lights for debugging. You aren't getting any errors from the motherboard as it's posting fine and everything is connected ok. The BSOD messages you are seeing are all Windows installation errors.

Have you tried installing Windows directly to a USB flash drive or external drive?

I don't have a CPU to test so I would probably just return the board. I genuinely do not believe it's faulty though as it worked perfectly before I sent it, plus it's posting ok, but I have a ton of work on so can't spend a long time troubleshooting it myself. It's quicker for me to just return it.

Let me know what you want to do. If you think it's the motherboard and can return it with all original accessories and bags etc, I can return it to the shop I bought it or RMA it.