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How to install Windows 7 x64bit on Asus Maximus XI Hero Z390 motherboards ?

chispy
Level 8
Good evening gents , anyone have windows 7 USB drivers for Z390 motherboards ? I have spent the last 3 days trying to install windows 7 x64bit on my Asus Maximus XI Hero Z390 , until today that i finally manage to get a very old PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard and was able to transplant a Z370 windows 7 installation to my Z390 MXIHero. The PS2 mouse works flawlessly but the PS2 keyboard it's kind of wonky , sometimes it will be detected and sometimes it will not 😕 . But at least i am able to run windows 7 on the new Intel Z390 chipset. i'm restricted to using either a PS2 mouse or a PS2 keyboard because there is only one PS2 conector at the back of the Asus MXI Hero Z390. So for screenies and saved files i will have to use a spare HDD to transfer those files for later submissions to hwbot as i do not have USB ports working for my flash drives 

The only thing that is not working on the Z390 mobo on windows 7 is the USB ports 😞 , not a single usb 2.0 -3.0 - 3.1 works on the motherboard , i have tried all kinds of usb drivers and so far none works on this Z390 boards , everything else installs correctly. Please if you have found some windows 7 USB drivers for Z390 post here or a fix , i and a lot of people would appreciate the help.
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Phillyflyer
Level 10
chispy wrote:
Good evening gents , anyone have windows 7 USB drivers for Z390 motherboards ? I have spent the last 3 days trying to install windows 7 x64bit on my Asus Maximus XI Hero Z390 , until today that i finally manage to get a very old PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard and was able to transplant a Z370 windows 7 installation to my Z390 MXIHero. The PS2 mouse works flawlessly but the PS2 keyboard it's kind of wonky , sometimes it will be detected and sometimes it will not 😕 . But at least i am able to run windows 7 on the new Intel Z390 chipset. i'm restricted to using either a PS2 mouse or a PS2 keyboard because there is only one PS2 conector at the back of the Asus MXI Hero Z390. So for screenies and saved files i will have to use a spare HDD to transfer those files for later submissions to hwbot as i do not have USB ports working for my flash drives 

The only thing that is not working on the Z390 mobo on windows 7 is the USB ports 😞 , not a single usb 2.0 -3.0 - 3.1 works on the motherboard , i have tried all kinds of usb drivers and so far none works on this Z390 boards , everything else installs correctly. Please if you have found some windows 7 USB drivers for Z390 post here or a fix , i and a lot of people would appreciate the help.

You may be hard pressed to get Windows 7 driver support for the Z90 .....Windows 10 is only supported OS for that board.
Asus ROG Maximus XI EXTREME
Intel i7 9900K OC'D @ 5.2 GHZ @ 1.345V (1.296V LOAD) LLC 6 PRIME 95 STABLE 8 HRS
XSPC RX360 Rad (6)Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850 RPM Fans In Push/Pull @ 1500 RPMS
Swiftech Drive II / Swiftech MCP35X Pump
Enermax Platimax 1200 Watt Power Supply
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MSI GTX 1070 SEA HAWK EK X SLI WITH ASUS HB RGB
(5)Samsung 840 Pro 128 GB In Raid 0
(2) WD 1TB Black Edition
Corsair 900 D

Feklar
Level 8
chispy wrote:
Good evening gents , anyone have windows 7 USB drivers for Z390 motherboards ? I have spent the last 3 days trying to install windows 7 x64bit on my Asus Maximus XI Hero Z390 , until today that i finally manage to get a very old PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard and was able to transplant a Z370 windows 7 installation to my Z390 MXIHero. The PS2 mouse works flawlessly but the PS2 keyboard it's kind of wonky , sometimes it will be detected and sometimes it will not 😕 . But at least i am able to run windows 7 on the new Intel Z390 chipset. i'm restricted to using either a PS2 mouse or a PS2 keyboard because there is only one PS2 conector at the back of the Asus MXI Hero Z390. So for screenies and saved files i will have to use a spare HDD to transfer those files for later submissions to hwbot as i do not have USB ports working for my flash drives 

The only thing that is not working on the Z390 mobo on windows 7 is the USB ports 😞 , not a single usb 2.0 -3.0 - 3.1 works on the motherboard , i have tried all kinds of usb drivers and so far none works on this Z390 boards , everything else installs correctly. Please if you have found some windows 7 USB drivers for Z390 post here or a fix , i and a lot of people would appreciate the help.


I tried for a week and it will not work. I installed Win 7 using just a ps/2 keyboard as well. After that, don't waste your time. I could not even get USB 3 drivers to even install. I kept getting the error message "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements to install this program". There is no USB controller driver or even entries in the device manager tree. I finally gave up and installed Windows 10 Pro. I swore I would never do it but I did and don't mind it at all. Nate, one of mods here suggested to install classicshell if you want to make some of it look like Win 7. I have to say it is faster and more secure than Win 7. Just take the time to make the adjustments for privacy concerns. I don't think you will ever find a way to get Win7 to install properly with Z390 or work the way it should. This was my thread on it https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?105628-Maximus-XI-Hero-and-Windows-7

i9 12900k + Asus Maximus Z690 Apex + EVGA RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 ULTRA
G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6000l XMP 3.0 Desktop Memory Model F5-6000U4040E16GX2-TZ5RK+ Samsung 870 Pro SSD, EVO 1TB, EVO 2TB
EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 T2 Power Supply + Fractal Meshify 2 XL case
Ek Velocity 2 CPU block, Ek GPU block
Koolance Fittings and QDC's + Mo-Ra 3 Pro 4x180 Radiator
LG 38GL950G Monitor +
Windows 10 Pro

Mr__Fox
Level 12
Windows 7 is WAY BETTER than Windows 10. Does the ASUS EZ-Install tool not work as it has in the past? If not that sucks real bad. Them Nazi BassTurds at Micro$lop love to screw things up and they are hell bent on ramming that crappy trash OS up all of our bottoms.

If the ASUS EZ-Install tool does not work, don't give up. Maybe reach out to Fernando at Win-RAID forums and see if there are any tweaked drivers available. If not, there probably will be pretty soon.

In the interim, just run the Windoze OS X cartoon for stuff like Time Spy and Fire Strike and get your overclock tuned up and ready while waiting for the drivers for a real OS.
Wraith // Z790 Apex | 14900KF | 4090 Suprim X+Byksi Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | Toughpower GF3 1650W | MO-RA3 360 | Hailea HC-500A || O11D XL EVO

Banshee // Z790 Apex Encore | 13900KS | 4090 Gaming OC+Alphacool Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | RM1200x SHIFT | XT45 1080 Nova || Dark Base Pro 901

Spectre // Z790i Edge | 14900KF | 3090 Ti FTW3 | 48GB DDR5-8200 | RM1000e | EK Nucleus CR360 Direct Die || Prime A21

Methuselah // X79 Rampage IV Gene | Xeon E5 1680V2 | Titan | 32GB DDR3-2400 | GameMax 850W | EK Nucleus CR360 Dark || Prime AP201

Half-Breed // Dell Precision 7720 | BGA CPU Filth+MXM Quadro P5000 | 4K Display | Sub-$500 Grade A Refurb | Nothing to Write Home About

Mr. Fox wrote:
Windows 7 is WAY BETTER than Windows 10. Does the ASUS EZ-Install tool not work as it has in the past? If not that sucks real bad. Them Nazi BassTurds at Micro$lop love to screw things up and they are hell bent on ramming that crappy trash OS up all of our bottoms.

If the ASUS EZ-Install tool does not work, don't give up. Maybe reach out to Fernando at Win-RAID forums and see if there are any tweaked drivers available. If not, there probably will be pretty soon.

In the interim, just run the Windoze OS X cartoon for stuff like Time Spy and Fire Strike and get your overclock tuned up and ready while waiting for the drivers for a real OS.


There is no EZ Installer for this motherboard. I tried the one for the Hero X both with usb and iso via odd. Did not work. USB ports work fine in the bios but not at install or at the desktop if you do get it installed.

i9 12900k + Asus Maximus Z690 Apex + EVGA RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 ULTRA
G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6000l XMP 3.0 Desktop Memory Model F5-6000U4040E16GX2-TZ5RK+ Samsung 870 Pro SSD, EVO 1TB, EVO 2TB
EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 T2 Power Supply + Fractal Meshify 2 XL case
Ek Velocity 2 CPU block, Ek GPU block
Koolance Fittings and QDC's + Mo-Ra 3 Pro 4x180 Radiator
LG 38GL950G Monitor +
Windows 10 Pro

Feklar wrote:
There is no EZ Installer for this motherboard. I tried the one for the Hero X both with usb and iso via odd. Did not work. USB ports work fine in the bios but not at install or at the desktop if you do get it installed.

Oh man, major bummer. Sorry to hear that. I guess it is going to take a driver modding expert like Fernando or another guru at Win-RAID to fix that. Hopefully someone will before long. There are just too many benchmarks that Windows 10 loses at to have to live without Windows 7. I was originally planning to go the 9900K route before I switched to X299 and 7960X. I am super glad I did not now. I would have been very upset about this. I use Windows 10 for the small sample of benchmarks where it is actually beneficial, but that is the only real use I have for it.

I wonder what would happen if you restore a Macrium Image of Windows 7. That actually worked for me on a Z170 Clevo laptop that I had modded for 8700K. When the mod was first done I had a similar problem and that allowed me to use Windows 7 and everything work flawlessly while I was waiting for modded drivers. I was able to do a clean install normally after I got the modded drivers.
Wraith // Z790 Apex | 14900KF | 4090 Suprim X+Byksi Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | Toughpower GF3 1650W | MO-RA3 360 | Hailea HC-500A || O11D XL EVO

Banshee // Z790 Apex Encore | 13900KS | 4090 Gaming OC+Alphacool Block | 48GB DDR5-8600 | RM1200x SHIFT | XT45 1080 Nova || Dark Base Pro 901

Spectre // Z790i Edge | 14900KF | 3090 Ti FTW3 | 48GB DDR5-8200 | RM1000e | EK Nucleus CR360 Direct Die || Prime A21

Methuselah // X79 Rampage IV Gene | Xeon E5 1680V2 | Titan | 32GB DDR3-2400 | GameMax 850W | EK Nucleus CR360 Dark || Prime AP201

Half-Breed // Dell Precision 7720 | BGA CPU Filth+MXM Quadro P5000 | 4K Display | Sub-$500 Grade A Refurb | Nothing to Write Home About

Mr. Fox wrote:
Oh man, major bummer. Sorry to hear that. I guess it is going to take a driver modding expert like Fernando or another guru at Win-RAID to fix that. Hopefully someone will before long. There are just too many benchmarks that Windows 10 loses at to have to live without Windows 7. I was originally planning to go the 9900K route before I switched to X299 and 7960X. I am super glad I did not now. I would have been very upset about this. I use Windows 10 for the small sample of benchmarks where it is actually beneficial, but that is the only real use I have for it.

I wonder what would happen if you restore a Macrium Image of Windows 7. That actually worked for me on a Z170 Clevo laptop that I had modded for 8700K. When the mod was first done I had a similar problem and that allowed me to use Windows 7 and everything work flawlessly while I was waiting for modded drivers. I was able to do a clean install normally after I got the modded drivers.


I actually took an SSD with Win 7 from the Hero X build, plugged it in to the Hero XI with an 8086k, it started up, posted to the desktop and all usb ports were non-functional. Now they say there is very little difference between Z370 and Z390 so it should have worked but did not. This is not even a speed bump in the road, the road just ended.

i9 12900k + Asus Maximus Z690 Apex + EVGA RTX 3090 Ti FTW3 ULTRA
G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6000l XMP 3.0 Desktop Memory Model F5-6000U4040E16GX2-TZ5RK+ Samsung 870 Pro SSD, EVO 1TB, EVO 2TB
EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 T2 Power Supply + Fractal Meshify 2 XL case
Ek Velocity 2 CPU block, Ek GPU block
Koolance Fittings and QDC's + Mo-Ra 3 Pro 4x180 Radiator
LG 38GL950G Monitor +
Windows 10 Pro

Menthol
Level 14
I see on HWBOT benchmarks posted on M XI Z390 boards using Win 7 but I couldn't install it on my board, I created a Win 7 USB using EZInstaller on my Z370 board but it doesn't see my SSD to install on using a PS2 keyboard, my next step was to install on my Z370 and move to Z390, if that doesn't work I don't know

I use Win 10 daily but wanted to run some old benchmarks, I haven't asked anyone yet

HiVizMan
Level 40
When my board gets here I will give this a go too, Menthol, assuming you have not cracked it by then. There has to be a way.
To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

Menthol
Level 14
Where there's a will 🙂

I checked HWBOT forums, someone recommended using a USB 2.0 pcie riser card, I tried using the USB 2.0 ports on the motherboard using a pcie bracket without success, why it didn't see my SATA SSD using PS2 keyboard I haven't looked into it any further yet

I haven't cracked any hardware lately, I have been more reserved since I have retired and living on a lot less income than when I was working