Playing around with XP on the 4790k and it runs really quickly, I have not been able to find AHCI drivers for the SATA controller so I'm running that in IDE mode. I suspect XP compatible AHCI drivers simply don't exist for this chipset.

Supermium works nicely on here to view vogons btw!

There is this mystery device I have flagged in device manager though, when I use snappy driver installer it installs something gives an error and lives on as a flagged item.

It's a nice build, though I would consider a modern mesh case for better airflow. That is if you plan on using the GTX 980 Ti.

Might just be personal preference, but retro cases don't have much appeal for me after the Win9x era.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-06-09, 05:39:

It's a nice build, though I would consider a modern mesh case for better airflow. That is if you plan on using the GTX 980 Ti.

Might just be personal preference, but retro cases don't have much appeal for me after the Win9x era.

Thanks!

You can't see it well in the pic I posted and my phone is out of reach but it's an old Cooler Master Centurion 541 case, it has lots (for it's day) of airflow provided you install fans in it.

Here's a pic from google.

I just realized something, the 3com nic is actually slower than my internet connection these days... So I've replaced it with a D-Link gigabit nic.

300 megabit internet, what a time we live in. I remember I would have committed crimes for even 5 megabit in the 90's.

Cool! Whats the deal with drivers? I have a 970 FTW and a 4790k in a Gigabyte Z97-UD5H sitting around and im having exactly the same thoughts as you! Trying to understand if it can simply run XP. Are there actual XP drivers for your Asus board or can you use newer 7 drivers and just force them?

ATi_Loyalist wrote on 2025-06-09, 06:27:

Cool! Whats the deal with drivers? I have a 970 FTW and a 4790k in a Gigabyte Z97-UD5H sitting around and im having exactly the same thoughts as you! Trying to understand if it can simply run XP. Are there actual XP drivers for your Asus board or can you use newer 7 drivers and just force them?

Well there are video drivers for the 970, you do have to edit the inf file to make them work though.

As for the motherboard I just downloaded the full 44GB snappy driver installer and stuck it on a usb stick and let it install whatever it could. I did NOT do a fresh install of either Vista or XP, I just moved the drives over from the old board. From doing some googling it seems like there aren't any drivers for AHCI mode and the intel lan. I haven't actually bothered trying the onboard audio because I use optical output on all my retro machines. I think USB stuff is all running at USB 2.0 speeds as well, I'll have to test that with a file transfer to a fast stick in a bit though.

EDIT - I just turned the machine on went into the bios and turned on the realtek audio and it seems to work fine in XP. Also I just tried plugging a USB 3 256GB stick into one of the USB ports and it works but it's definitely running at USB 2 speeds based on how slow it's copying over a big file right now.

EDIT 2 - It turns out the typical 3 pin optical headers that I have a bunch of work with this board too so now I have sound from the realtek audio through the optical output. I'm not going to bother looking for the X-fi now. 🤣

EDIT 3 - One interesting quirk of this onboard sound is that the windows volume control seems to do nothing, mute does work though. It's just after 4:00AM here now though so that's enough retro tinkering for today.

pete8475 wrote on 2025-06-09, 03:43:

Why? I don't know boredom I guess.

I've had a 4790K and Asus Z97M-Plus motherboard sitting around for several years doing nothing so today I decided to see if I could upgrade my XP/Vista dual boot

Out of interest how is it with Vista (not sure, guessing 64bit?). I always go straight to w7 now but vista might be a nice change, does it do well with games / applications natively?

pete8475 wrote on 2025-06-09, 05:25:

There is this mystery device I have flagged in device manager though, when I use snappy driver installer it installs something gives an error and lives on as a flagged item.

What I use to make these go away is a NODRIVER driver. If's quite easy to create a .INF file, but for Vista I think it now needs to be Microsoft Signed. I guess you don't have the EV Code Signing certificate you need to do this so I have Microsoft Signed the attached.

Right/Click on the device, select update driver and tell it to use NODRIVER.inf. As I can't test it you will have to tell me it it installs OK and the warning goes away.

In you look in NODRIVER.inf you should see that in addition to your ACPI\PNP0A0A there are several other devices.

gerry wrote on 2025-06-09, 12:46:

pete8475 wrote on 2025-06-09, 03:43:

Why? I don't know boredom I guess.

I've had a 4790K and Asus Z97M-Plus motherboard sitting around for several years doing nothing so today I decided to see if I could upgrade my XP/Vista dual boot

Out of interest how is it with Vista (not sure, guessing 64bit?). I always go straight to w7 now but vista might be a nice change, does it do well with games / applications natively?

Yep it's the 64 bit "Business" version. I have nothing installed on it right now aside from Supermium, the OS itself flies along.

red-ray wrote on 2025-06-09, 12:47:

What I use to make these go away is a NODRIVER driver. If's quite easy to create a .INF file, but for Vista I think it now needs […]
Show full quote

pete8475 wrote on 2025-06-09, 05:25:

There is this mystery device I have flagged in device manager though, when I use snappy driver installer it installs something gives an error and lives on as a flagged item.

What I use to make these go away is a NODRIVER driver. If's quite easy to create a .INF file, but for Vista I think it now needs to be Microsoft Signed. I guess you don't have the EV Code Signing certificate you need to do this so I have Microsoft Signed the attached.

Right/Click on the device, select update driver and tell it to use NODRIVER.inf. As I can't test it you will have to tell me it it installs OK and the warning goes away.

In you look in NODRIVER.inf you should see that in addition to your ACPI\PNP0A0A there are several other devices.

I will try that tonight, thank you. In Vista there is no weirdness everything seems to have a working driver including that AMDA00 thing.

That nodriver "driver" worked nicely to get rid of the flagged item in XP.

Thanks!

I just migrated from a combo H97 / i7-4790k to a Z370 / i7-9700k build for my Windows 2000 Enterprise Server, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 10 installs. The i7-4790k served me well for a couple of years for XP, Vista, and 7, but I got the itch to do more with these OS's. I have a GTX 480 and a GTX 980 Ti that I swap out for Windows 2000 and the rest respectively.

If you'd like AHCI drivers for Windows 2000 and Windows XP, you can do an internet search for "Fernando's AHCI Drivers". I use the drivers based on Intel's Version 7.6.0.1011 for both Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Later versions of the AHCI driver should work for you, too.

fosterwj03 wrote on 2025-06-09, 22:24:

I just migrated from a combo H97 / i7-4790k to a Z370 / i7-9700k build for my Windows 2000 Enterprise Server, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 10 installs. The i7-4790k served me well for a couple of years for XP, Vista, and 7, but I got the itch to do more with these OS's. I have a GTX 480 and a GTX 980 Ti that I swap out for Windows 2000 and the rest respectively.

If you'd like AHCI drivers for Windows 2000 and Windows XP, you can do an internet search for "Fernando's AHCI Drivers". I use the drivers based on Intel's Version 7.6.0.1011 for both Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Later versions of the AHCI driver should work for you, too.

Oh interesting! I'll definitely check those out.

EDIT - got them installed in both XP and Vista and bother operating systems seem to be working! Version 11.2.0.1006 according to device manager btw.

pete8475 wrote on 2025-06-09, 20:39:

That nodriver "driver" worked nicely to get rid of the flagged item in XP.

Good, thank you for confirming it worked. With the driver you have on Vista is there a service?

Will the nodriver "driver" install on Vista? It should, but as it's SHA2 signed so you may need the SHA2 patch, see https://www.vistax64.com/threads/sha-2-code-k … 4474419.305971/

Basically you have to manually install the Server 2008 (R1) one from https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/sear … spx?q=kb4474419

red-ray wrote on 2025-06-10, 08:20:

Good, thank you for confirming it worked. With the driver you have on Vista is there a service? […]
Show full quote

pete8475 wrote on 2025-06-09, 20:39:

That nodriver "driver" worked nicely to get rid of the flagged item in XP.

Good, thank you for confirming it worked. With the driver you have on Vista is there a service?

Will the nodriver "driver" install on Vista? It should, but as it's SHA2 signed so you may need the SHA2 patch, see https://www.vistax64.com/threads/sha-2-code-k … 4474419.305971/

Basically you have to manually install the Server 2008 (R1) one from https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/sear … spx?q=kb4474419

I took a screenshot of the device driver page and services.msc is open too, there is an "Asus Com Service" that's running.

I have not installed the no device driver in vista as that thing wasn't flagged, presumably snappy driver installer had a working driver.

pete8475 wrote on 2025-06-10, 09:30:

"Asus Com Service" that's running.

Thank you, that what I suspected would be the service. I use the NODRIVER driver rather as often the ASUS services fail to use locks such as Global\Access_SMBUS.HTP.Method + Global\Access_EC.

I am not sure that's the driver, you need to press [Driver Details] and post that screen shot.

red-ray wrote on 2025-06-10, 09:39:

pete8475 wrote on 2025-06-10, 09:30:

"Asus Com Service" that's running.

Thank you, that what I suspected would be the service. I use the NODRIVER driver rather as often the ASUS services fail to use locks such as Global\Access_SMBUS.HTP.Method + Global\Access_EC.

I am not sure that's the driver, you need to press [Driver Details] and post that screen shot.

Here ya go.

pete8475 wrote on 2025-06-10, 16:39:

Here ya go.

Thank you, the driver is AsIO64.sys / AsIO32.sys. I wonder what Windows thinks it's Not Digitally Signed.