Struggling badly with Windows 8 and GA-Z68XP-UD3

[FastNOC]

I'm not sure where to go. i'm beyond frustrated.

I have a GA-Z68XP-UD3 Rev 1.0 board.

I'd been having problems with Windows 7, but they weren't board related issues. I have a technet membership so I thought i'd do two things.

1. Boot to UEFI and
2. Install windows 8.

Well the UEFI thing was a complete failure. i see the option in my device boot menu but my guess is support for UEFI was very new at the time. I did flash to the latest stable bios, and I also notices some chat here about upgrading to a different bios for full UEFI support. but i wasn't crazy about changing to a different bios on a whim and the site i was readin was not a Gigabyte site. So i didn't do that.

I finally gave up on UEFI, and installed from a USB 3 drive. Install was fine, though the entire system did shut down within the first 5 minutes or so. However, after rebooting it stabilized.

Currently I'd say I'm 2 weeks into my installation. i'm getting system lockups, and virtually every app i have on this PC has crashed at some point.

I went to upgrade my drivers. Even though Windows 8 seemed to pick up valid drivers for everything, I know that's not always the best option. however, when I went to install the system driers (chipset and inf install) i get a message telling me the drivers i have installed are newer than the one I'm trying to run. So i backed out. This is a direct download from this site, so i'm a little confused, but I guess it just means the windows default drivers have a newer date than the official drivers. But again, I did not proceed.

I'm at wits end now. i am a video editor, and twice now I've lost HOURS of work due to AE crashing or C4d in the middle of a project. I think it's likely the problem is drivers for the chipset, but I'm not sure what the best approach is. I'm very tempted to just trash this board and get something new with real UEFI support, but if I can resolve the issues I'd rather do that.

So what is the poplar thought? is UEFI even possible? and two, what should I do about the constant app crashes? Sometimes the shell crashes, but most often it's the app i'm working in, not the O/S

Really need some help here. Thank you

EDIT: i'm getting many different alerts in the event viewer, and i see this problem a lot, the strange thing is there is no transfers happening in my homegroup at all.

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Hang
Date: 10/1/2013 3:26:12 AM
Event ID: 1002
Task Category: (101)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: JT-Workstation
Description:
The program AfterFX.exe version 12.0.0.404 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
Process ID: 20f4
Start Time: 01cebe7fafe88548
Termination Time: 4294967295
Application Path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC\Support Files\AfterFX.exe
Report Id: 208434fb-2a73-11e3-825c-50e5495bf639
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Application Hang" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1002</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>101</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-10-01T08:26:12.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>5098</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>JT-Workstation</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>AfterFX.exe</Data>
<Data>12.0.0.404</Data>
<Data>20f4</Data>
<Data>01cebe7fafe88548</Data>
<Data>4294967295</Data>
<Data>C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC\Support Files\AfterFX.exe</Data>
<Data>208434fb-2a73-11e3-825c-50e5495bf639</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Binary>54006F00700020006C006500760065006C00200077 0069006E0064006F0077002000690073002000690064006C00 650000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode
Date: 9/27/2013 6:50:25 AM
Event ID: 10110
Task Category: User-mode Driver problems.
Level: Critical
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: JT-Workstation
Description:
A problem has occurred with one or more user-mode drivers and the hosting process has been terminated. This may temporarily interrupt your ability to access the devices.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DriverFrameworks-UserMode" Guid="{2E35AAEB-857F-4BEB-A418-2E6C0E54D988}" />
<EventID>10110</EventID>
<Version>1</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>64</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x2000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-09-27T11:50:25.624876800Z" />
<EventRecordID>1570</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="824" ThreadID="3536" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>JT-Workstation</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<UserData>
<UMDFHostProblem lifetime="{9BA27A05-930A-4220-9981-682DC270339F}" xmlns:auto-ns2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events" xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/DriverFrameworks/UserMode/Event">
<Problem code="3" detectedBy="2">
</Problem>
<ExitCode>3</ExitCode>
<Operation code="259">
<Message>72448</Message>
<Status>4294967295</Status>
</Operation>
</UMDFHostProblem>
</UserData>
</Event>

Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-EventTracing/Admin
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-EventTracing
Date: 10/1/2013 5:00:28 AM
Event ID: 4
Task Category: Logging
Level: Warning
Keywords: Session
User: SYSTEM
Computer: JT-Workstation
Description:
The maximum file size for session "P2PLog" has been reached. As a result, events might be lost (not logged) to file "C:\Windows\Logs\Homegroup\p2p.etl". The maximum files size is currently set to 5242880 bytes.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-EventTracing" Guid="{B675EC37-BDB6-4648-BC92-F3FDC74D3CA2}" />
<EventID>4</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>1</Task>
<Opcode>10</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000010</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-10-01T10:00:28.781547500Z" />
<EventRecordID>44</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="4188" />
<Channel>Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-EventTracing/Admin</Channel>
<Computer>JT-Workstation</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="SessionName">P2PLog</Data>
<Data Name="FileName">C:\Windows\Logs\Homegroup\p2p.etl</Data>
<Data Name="ErrorCode">3221225864</Data>
<Data Name="LoggingMode">293601285</Data>
<Data Name="MaxFileSize">5242880</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Edit 2:

actually here are a couple more errors i'm seeing

Log Name: System
Source: Schannel
Date: 10/1/2013 8:47:56 PM
Event ID: 36887
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: JT-Workstation
Description:
A fatal alert was received from the remote endpoint. The TLS protocol defined fatal alert code is 40.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Schannel" Guid="{1F678132-5938-4686-9FDC-C8FF68F15C85}" />
<EventID>36887</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-10-02T01:47:56.507965200Z" />
<EventRecordID>1888</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="740" ThreadID="5792" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>JT-Workstation</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="AlertDesc">40</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Log Name: Application
Source: Application Hang
Date: 10/1/2013 5:04:01 PM
Event ID: 1002
Task Category: (101)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: JT-Workstation
Description:
The program notepad++.exe version 6.5.0.0 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
Process ID: 1d0c
Start Time: 01cebef191eba9f6
Termination Time: 8
Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
Report Id: 5f0bbf7a-2ae5-11e3-825c-50e5495bf639
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Application Hang" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1002</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>101</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-10-01T22:04:01.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>5227</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>JT-Workstation</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>notepad++.exe</Data>
<Data>6.5.0.0</Data>
<Data>1d0c</Data>
<Data>01cebef191eba9f6</Data>
<Data>8</Data>
<Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe</Data>
<Data>5f0bbf7a-2ae5-11e3-825c-50e5495bf639</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Binary>55006E006B006E006F0077006E0000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

Log Name: System
Source: Schannel
Date: 10/1/2013 1:55:43 PM
Event ID: 36887
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: SYSTEM
Computer: JT-Workstation
Description:
A fatal alert was received from the remote endpoint. The TLS protocol defined fatal alert code is 40.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Schannel" Guid="{1F678132-5938-4686-9FDC-C8FF68F15C85}" />
<EventID>36887</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-10-01T18:55:43.621490500Z" />
<EventRecordID>1887</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="740" ThreadID="5792" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>JT-Workstation</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="AlertDesc">40</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-CAPI2
Date: 10/1/2013 6:56:27 AM
Event ID: 513
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: JT-Workstation
Description:
Cryptographic Services failed while processing the OnIdentity() call in the System Writer Object.

Details:
AddLegacyDriverFiles: Unable to back up image of binary Microsoft Link-Layer Discovery Protocol.

System Error:
Access is denied.
.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-CAPI2" Guid="{5bbca4a8-b209-48dc-a8c7-b23d3e5216fb}" EventSourceName="Microsoft-Windows-CAPI2" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">513</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-10-01T11:56:27.184079100Z" />
<EventRecordID>5130</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="1288" ThreadID="4528" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>JT-Workstation</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>

Details:
AddLegacyDriverFiles: Unable to back up image of binary Microsoft Link-Layer Discovery Protocol.

System Error:
Access is denied.
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

[parsec]

Re: Struggling badly with Windows 8 and GA-Z68XP-UD3

When you wrote, " Boot to UEFI", do you mean do a true UEFI firmware boot into Windows 8 with a UEFI booting configured Windows 8 installation?

If so, it looks like the majority of BIOS versions for your board are not UEFI-type firmware, but standard BIOS firmware. No UEFI booting with that, of course.

I found a "BIOS" version on your board's download page, "U1J(UEFI BIOS)", which seems to be true UEFI firmware. But true UEFI firmware is not only what is needed for UEFI booting Windows, the options to enable it must also be available. I have no way of checking that, since your board's manual does not seem to be up to date, ie, its date is older than the U1J UEFI firmware file.

At the time your board was new, most manufactures were using UEFI firmware with their boards, but were still booting in "BIOS mode", and did not include the option(s) to enable UEFI booting. There were true technical reasons for that (lack of UEFI compatible option ROMs, and video cards could not support the graphics protocol (GOP) that UEFI firmware uses, etc), so the only advantage of using UEFI firmware was the GUI type interface for the options and features. It seems that truly functioning UEFI firmware and the ability to configure UEFI booting became available with the Intel 7 series chipset boards (you have a 6 series, Z68), I did my first real UEFI booting Windows installation on an ASRock Z77 board. Gigabyte also seemed to trail behind with using UEFI firmware, relative to other manufactures.

I doubt that UEFI booting would solve your problems, or that your board is capable of doing it for several reasons.

On to Windows 8, which can be a pain when it comes to drivers. I never let Windows 8 install drivers for me, ever. Or I should say, other than what drivers it has built into it. Plus IMO the order of installation of a few files is critical. The INF/"Chipset" files are installed first before anything else. Next is the Intel Management Engine (IME) software, which may not be as important on a 6 series chipset board than the 7 and 8 series boards, as IME has become more complex and important over time. After those two the order does not matter. Windows 8 has many native drivers that it installs that are preferable to what you may find elsewhere, which is why you see that message about the driver being older than what is currently installed.

What does matter is that the drivers are Windows 8 compatible. I'm still finding certain drivers that are supposed to be Windows 8 compatible, but are failing in use. That may be due to not being UEFI boot compatible.

What are you using for your SATA/storage driver? The Intel IRST driver, used for AHCI or RAID mode, on your board's download page (for Windows 8), is 11.6, which Intel does not have available for download anymore for their own Z68 boards (plus Gigabyte has a "hotfix" for it??) If you are using IRST 11.6, I would suggest changing to an IRST 12 version, much better with Windows 8. Also, if you use the Marvell SATA controller... don't if possible, use the Intel only and the Marvell only for non-critical use.

BTW, are all the software packages you use versions that are Windows 8 compatible? That cannot be overlooked. The transition from Windows 7 to 8 was significant internally, and you must have Windows 8 versions of your software.

If things are that bad, Windows 8 is really doing nothing for you, I'd go back to Windows 7 if possible.

What processor are you using, and what other hardware do you use?

[FastNOC]

Re: Struggling badly with Windows 8 and GA-Z68XP-UD3

Hello, and thank you much for the response.

I spent hours last night going through some trouble shooting and I may well be on my way to resolving my issues, but time will tell.

Regarding how I'm using this. Couple interesting issues with hard drives. When I bought the board (which at this time I regret doing) I was not aware of the marvell issue. At the time I was running a single system drive (Small SSD) and a typical RAID5 for data storage.

Since then I'vce changed a couple things. First, I upgraded to Vertex 4 for the SSD, at the same time, I added a twin. Actually I just bought matching 256g Vertex 4 drives. I put them in RAID 0 for speed. After reading up on the issues, i was clear to put the system raid on the intel controller because even on its best day the marvel was not capable of the full speed. I ran numerous crstal diskmark tests and was getting a sweltering 920/950 read write which is about optimal and told me i had set up the RAID right, and was using the right ports.

Down the road, I needed to ad my RAID5 back. so i had to use the marvel controller, and I put that on 3 2tb red drives (not sata 3). So while I don't have gobs of speed, for storage it's fine and that's not a problem. Since that time I actualy ended up adding a USB 3, SATA 3 Seagate external which was so much faster than my raid, I ended up using the external for redundancy to the RAID5. Now that might sound a bit strange. I know RAID5 is literally built for that. Striped with parity, but TWICE in my history I've lost a single drive in an array, and while rebuillding after adding a drive, i either lost a second drive, or something burped and it blew the rebuild. which left me at a catastrophic loss of all data. So now, as a third precaution, I use RAID 5 for data, and the external to hold acronis images of the raid data.

Now I know that's not optimal, but it gives me a good peace of mind that my data is safe. I'm a developer by trade and I own a studio, so data protection on my workstation is paramount. i should be running a nas to pull the data off but so far... jsut havent but i will get around to it.

Now, on to the issues.... After much research, there were some serious issues i had. I did some in depth research and using things like autoruns isolated some problematic software and configs. I've corrected them, to the point that i went from seeing around 50 erors of various levels on boot, to 2. Both DCOM errors which are not critical. So i THINK a lot of the issue that i was having is gone. but time will tell. I do feel a lot more stability. So that's good.

Regarding UEFI if I can't do full UEFI there really isnt any point in doing it at all. I was under the impression that i could actually flash to an award bios that had full uefi compatibility. but read that if you did that, you could no longer ever flash back to the AMI. That seems very strange in a dual bios system, but I just didn't feel safe doing it. So i'm at the latest rev on my bios, and i guess i'll stay where i am.

I want full uefi but if it's a risk, it's just not worth it. i think I'd be better off with a new board. Which is likely going to be my next step for numerous reasons. but IF i can stabilize myself I'd like to wait till the end of the year and do a system build complete instead of noodling things by adding pieces.

I upgraded my video card recently too which might have led to issues, but i don't think so. You asked about apps with true win8 compatibility. I use a very narrow set of core apps. Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator and Premier Pro for video work. That's what I bought the new vid card for. i bought GeForce GTX 770. I had a GTX 560 TI SC, and the upgrade is to the best I could get before a titan. I upgraded the card because a lot of what I do now is video rendering. After Effects is my primary app right now, and i use mostly 3d renders. I do have Cinema 4d for models, but I don't really use it much. ACtualy I could probably get by fine with the buiolt in c4d lite in AE, but I went ahead and got the full app. I use Element 3d, and Trapcode Particular plugins for AE primarily. and that's where the rendering comes in. Heavy 3d stuff.

Along with that, I am using Offie 365 full web apps, with desktop apps too. I use Microsoft Exchange (cloud) and this COULD be where a problem lies, but I don't think this is it. I installed the 64 but office. They recommend 32 bit. but not because 64 is unstable, it's because a lot of 3rd party add-ins don't work in 64 bit office. Now, I could dump this and revert to the 32 bit. but the errors I was getting do not seem indicative of office problems.

Since doing all my research, and new driver installs last nigth (and yes, i installed just as you mentioned by the chipset then hotfix first) i ignored the newer version notices, and am now running everything based on the gigabyte drivers, not windows. I also made a change to my vid drivers. Previously I was running drivers from NVIDIA. But to eliminate other problems I went to the board mfr and installed EVGA drivers this time instead. not the tweaking apps, just drivers.

Now the last thing, when runnning windows i used easy tune to oc. but i have not done that since going to windows 8. Though i would like to. I need to push my cpu as far as i can. Ive got a i7-2600 Sandy Bridge.

So, first, I really appreciate your response. i have not had a lot of luck getting helpful replies on other forums about this, so i didn't go into great detail in my original post. Since you clearly gave a solid response i wanted to give a full picture. Plus, i made a lot of headway last night.

Let me know your thoughts, and again, thank you

When you wrote, " Boot to UEFI", do you mean do a true UEFI firmware boot into Windows 8 with a UEFI booting configured Windows 8 installation?

If so, it looks like the majority of BIOS versions for your board are not UEFI-type firmware, but standard BIOS firmware. No UEFI booting with that, of course.

I found a "BIOS" version on your board's download page, "U1J(UEFI BIOS)", which seems to be true UEFI firmware. But true UEFI firmware is not only what is needed for UEFI booting Windows, the options to enable it must also be available. I have no way of checking that, since your board's manual does not seem to be up to date, ie, its date is older than the U1J UEFI firmware file.

At the time your board was new, most manufactures were using UEFI firmware with their boards, but were still booting in "BIOS mode", and did not include the option(s) to enable UEFI booting. There were true technical reasons for that (lack of UEFI compatible option ROMs, and video cards could not support the graphics protocol (GOP) that UEFI firmware uses, etc), so the only advantage of using UEFI firmware was the GUI type interface for the options and features. It seems that truly functioning UEFI firmware and the ability to configure UEFI booting became available with the Intel 7 series chipset boards (you have a 6 series, Z68), I did my first real UEFI booting Windows installation on an ASRock Z77 board. Gigabyte also seemed to trail behind with using UEFI firmware, relative to other manufactures.

I doubt that UEFI booting would solve your problems, or that your board is capable of doing it for several reasons.

On to Windows 8, which can be a pain when it comes to drivers. I never let Windows 8 install drivers for me, ever. Or I should say, other than what drivers it has built into it. Plus IMO the order of installation of a few files is critical. The INF/"Chipset" files are installed first before anything else. Next is the Intel Management Engine (IME) software, which may not be as important on a 6 series chipset board than the 7 and 8 series boards, as IME has become more complex and important over time. After those two the order does not matter. Windows 8 has many native drivers that it installs that are preferable to what you may find elsewhere, which is why you see that message about the driver being older than what is currently installed.

What does matter is that the drivers are Windows 8 compatible. I'm still finding certain drivers that are supposed to be Windows 8 compatible, but are failing in use. That may be due to not being UEFI boot compatible.

What are you using for your SATA/storage driver? The Intel IRST driver, used for AHCI or RAID mode, on your board's download page (for Windows 8), is 11.6, which Intel does not have available for download anymore for their own Z68 boards (plus Gigabyte has a "hotfix" for it??) If you are using IRST 11.6, I would suggest changing to an IRST 12 version, much better with Windows 8. Also, if you use the Marvell SATA controller... don't if possible, use the Intel only and the Marvell only for non-critical use.

BTW, are all the software packages you use versions that are Windows 8 compatible? That cannot be overlooked. The transition from Windows 7 to 8 was significant internally, and you must have Windows 8 versions of your software.

If things are that bad, Windows 8 is really doing nothing for you, I'd go back to Windows 7 if possible.

What processor are you using, and what other hardware do you use?

[FastNOC]

Re: Struggling badly with Windows 8 and GA-Z68XP-UD3

Regarding IRST.

I don't see a 12 version on the gigabyte site. I have 11.6 and installed the hotfix. So do you have a recommendation for a correct 12 version for my board? I did find this, and assume this is what you are recommending but will wait for confirmation;

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=2101&DwnldID=23060&ProductFamily=Software+Products&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+Rapid+Storage+Technology+%28Intel%C2%AE+RST%29&lang=eng

I forgot to mention one strange thing.

Those speeds on the RAID i mention? that changed. I was getting those 900+ readings. But since then, that had dropped and I don't know wny. I am down to 650/650 r/w now. That's a huge drop, but frankly, still plenty of speed. I have never broken the array, and did not change any ports so i don't know what the deal is with the speed, but i suppose it could be a problemtatic drive. My next step would be to break the array and image ech drive to my system individually, and test speeds. determine if one drive is having an issue. but that's a lot of work i'm not sure I'm ready to do yet. Know what i mean? this is my primary workstation and that would risk a of of downtime or config/test time while i'm suppose to be working on client projects. But if i can stabilize everything else, that would be my lone remaining irritant and i think if i can stabilize at that point I'd break the array and try testing.