M3A770DE won't install windows 7 64 bit

[markbarkins]

After getting this MB recently, I ran through the install process. Everything seemed to go fine, but when it booted for the first time, explorer started crashing and restarting.

I got this result with windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I also tried Alienware edtion 64 bit with the same result.

Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit actually wouldn't install saying something like it could not run on the hardware.

The non-Alienware editions of Pro and Ult were action pack (if that matters). I've tried installing on 3 different HD's, and have used 2 different optical drives and 3 different discs. All with the same or similar results.

I ran memtest86+ and the ram came back clean. I've tried installing drivers after the broken install of 7 pro 64. This didn't seem to help.

BIOS - 1.40

Ran install with sata set to IDE mode in bios. Interesting to note that setting sata to AHCI caused BSOD during install with alienware edition.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ASRock TSD - Sean C]

Re: M3A770DE won't install windows 7 64 bit

Dear Markbarkins,

I suggest you can install the official Windows7 to verify this issue.
Due to we cannot guarantee the "Windows 7 Alien edition" is modified with another driver to cause this issue.
Obviously, the "Windows 7 Alien edition" is not the official retail version from Microsoft.

If you still get problem, please provide your detail configuration you used on your system.
Thanks for your cooperation.

Best Wishes
Sean

[markbarkins]

Re: M3A770DE won't install windows 7 64 bit

Well, I did get the exact same result with Windows 7 Pro. I only tried Alienware edition because the normal pro edition wouldn't work.

Anyway, I now have windows 7 ultimate 64-bit installed, from an action pack subscription, and everything seems to be working fine except I have no sound. Windows 7 tries to fix/troubleshoot when I click on the speaker icon in the bottom left (I see a red x on it). When windows is done troubleshooting it says the device is not enabled.

-I updated firmware to 1.60
-I installed latest via audio driver from asrock site (VIA high definition audio driver ver:v7500F_HDMI)
-I changed the onboard audio in the BIOS to "enabled" instead of "auto"
-I uninstalled the driver for my radeon 5770 just in case the HDMI port on the graphics card was interfereing with the audio. And then uninstalled/reinstalled the audio driver.

Normally, I would suspect a faulty board, but I'm pretty sure I had audio when running windows 7 32-bit.

(FYI - I was able to install sans BSOD with Windows 7 Ulitmate 64 by settting AHCI as sata mode in the BIOS)