Maximus VII Formula - Freezes Trying to Install Drivers

[bond101]

I just built a new PC and I'm having some issues right away. I built it and installed Windows 8.1 Pro with minimal issues. I then tried to install the drivers from my mobo CD and the issues began. The Intel Chipset drivers installed no problem. When I tried to install the Intel LAN Drivers, it freezes every single time. I check the fans and temps and they are all operating normally (below 90 degrees). I even went to the website and downloaded the latest drivers and tried to install them via usb and the same thing happened.

I ran Memtest for one pass and it came through with no errors.

I'm at a loss at what to do here. I definitely think its a hardware issue, but what else could I do?

System:
Asus Maximus VIII Formula
Intel Core i7-4790K
EVGA GeForce GTX 960
Kingston HyperX Savage 16GB
Windows 8.1 Pro

[jb3451]

Make sure that you are using ONLY the Intel SATA connections for both your hard drive (SSD) AND CD or DVD!

[bond101]

What do you mean? "Intel" SATA connections?

Currently, I have Windows on a 512GB SSD, 2x 3TB hard drives, and 2x DVD Drives. Are you saying I should take out the SATA cables for my other 2 drives?

[jb3451]

The connectors for your drives... there are two different chip sets involved with these connectors Intel and Asmedia. DO not attach your cables to the Asmedia connectors for your CD/DVD because it with cause the exact problem you are having. The Intel connectors are all the way to the right.

Cheers!

[bond101]

So I did have all the hard drives in the Asmedia slots so I moved them to the Intel ones.

Well the first time I tried it, it got a little farther in the process, but still failed, and now its freezing again.

[bond101]

Now every time I try to run the driver Windows crashes. One step forward, two steps back.

[libremaster]

Hi, same here. For the LAN drivers what I did was extract them to a folder. And from device manager, look for the device not recognized. Right click, update drivers, look in my computer, specify location, chose where i extracted them and voila.

But still, after that I get all sort or freezes. When I enter the bios, trying to enter / exit a game, corsair link won’t even start, so far it's unusable. The worst thing is i did a fresh install with all stuff on optimize in the bios. Also, using lates bios version.

[Labanimal]

Hi from South Africa
Also have the Maximus VII Formula Watch Dogs edition board and experiencing the exact same issue.

On fresh install on SSD or hard drive, Wifi would work and can only run updates via this. When I use the disc and start installing the Intel Chipset Driver
all is fine. Secondly installing the Management Engine Interface this also goes well. But then system would crash installing LAN Driver. I've discovered
through trial and error reinstalling or repairing the Management Engine software would solve this issue. If I install the USB 3 drivers I cannot
install my webcam or detect my phone as it complains that the registry entries are corrupt and get a CODE 19 error. After avoiding installing the
USB drivers on a fresh install seems to resolve this, however the Freezing problem remains.

On my 4th install I managed to dodge the LAN freezing issue however now sit with the exact same issue installing my Asus 7950 card and X-Fi card.
My SSD and hard drives are all on the Intel SATA controller slots, however my DVD drives are all on the ASmedia slots. I install all my drivers from
Hard Drive as I've copied all this into a folder and execute this from there.
I will be moving my DVD drives to slots 2 and 3 and leave my SSD on slot 1 on the Intel SATA ports and move the remaining HDD's to the ASmedia ports.

I have flashed the firmware to Bios Version 2401 which has not helped. Also noted that updating windows completely seems to stabalize it but this
time around i'm still fighting just to get the sound card and video card drivers to install...

I'd give more details on the Corsair ram I have but for the life of me can't remember what they are except that they look pretty and have blue heat
sinks on them clocked at 1600 - LOL... - oh and Memtest just passed for the 4th time, no errors.

My build:

Windows 8.1 Pro
Intel 4790K
Corsair 4x4Gb 1600 - will look this up later.
Samsung Evo 850 250gb SSD
Asus HD7950-DC2T-3GD5-V2
Sound Blaster X-fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

I'm very reluctant to send this board back because I can't prove where the issue is, I do hope ASUS would come to the rescue and resolve this issue
as I don't seem to be alone on this... Very frustrating

[Labanimal]

More to add:
My system is setup within a HAF932 case which is housed inside my desk cabinet - which makes it mostly inaccessible which requires me to move several pieces of furniture to disconnect cables and to pull the case out for maintenance. I decided to pull a shortcut and disabled the ASmedia ports in bios. I've opted to not install the AMD 14.12 Omega 64bit drivers for my graphics card and picked the 14.9 64bit drivers instead and... it installed. I've run the uninstaller on my sound card and this for the first time did not hang on uninstall, and have now installed successfully.
This seems to point to the ASmedia controllers perhaps?

Just for the record (if this helps anybody else)
This is how my SATA ports are connected:

Intel SATA ports:
1 SSD 850 evo 250gb
2 HDD 1.5tb Seagate
3 HDD 3.0tb Seagate
4 1st DVD drive
Then ASmedia ports
5 2nd DVD drive

I'm going to re-enable and continue installing the rest of my software and see if another freeze occurs and again disable and repeat install...
I hope a fix is issued soon for this - I doubt any of us purchased ASUS to put up with constant hangs and endless touble shooting - should work first time, everytime!

[libremaster]

Hi,
Installed a Maximus VII Formula 48hs ago.
Had 1.000.000 problems but most of them were from programs (had to make a regedit for Corsair link, lan drivers freezing with the setup so I installed them from device manager, office 2007 prompting for passwords over and over which is a known issue by Microsoft and it solution is only compatible with XP and not for Windows 8.1, and many many mores).

Long story short, one of the problems was that I had a logical drive (DVD / Blu-ray) connected to the asmedia sata connector. As it states in the manual, those connectors are only for data drives. Once I swap the blue ray from the asmedia connector with an hdd all freezes and bios crushes were gone. At leas so far.