ASUS Z87 Motherboards - Overview, Guides and Official Support

There's so much conflicting information out there..

Raja, could you advise if the up-coming Haswell Refresh (the K series/sku whatever) works on our Z87 boards?

From the BIOS:
Support New 4th-Generation Intel Core Processors

Hoping you know either way and lay rest to the confusion?
 
As I have understood it the haswell refresh processors are still haswells and will work in z87. Devils Canyon will only work in z97. I'm not seeing a lot of conflicting info about this.
 
If you're not finding conflicting information you're not visiting enough forums. Everyone has a different opinion. Some base it on what you've stated others see it as I believe (hope) is the case. Or rather maybe if you know, why wouldn't they work?

Either way, I'm waiting for Raja to advise either way as nobody beyond Intel and mobo manu would know for 100%.
 
If you're not finding conflicting information you're not visiting enough forums. Everyone has a different opinion. Some base it on what you've stated others see it as I believe (hope) is the case. Or rather maybe if you know, why wouldn't they work?

Either way, I'm waiting for Raja to advise either way as nobody beyond Intel and mobo manu would know for 100%.

You'll see. ;)

But you're right, though. These are opinions of mine.

It helps to go to reliable sources, though.

Mostly I based them on this article from legitreviews which I read when DC was first announced.

In the article, it's clear they didn't yet understand that Devil's Canyon isn't technically part of the Haswell Refresh release. This is now known.

Me: It has a different code name for a reason. It has a slightly different pin layout than Haswell (including the Haswell refresh SKUs, which are still codenamed Haswell). z97 can accomodate both Haswell and DC, but z87 can only accomodate Haswell. Bummer.

Anyway if Intel isn't letting anyone "official" say anything about it yet... why are you asking Raja? lol
 
Anyone know if there are any known incompatabilities between the z87 chipset (namely the Asus Maximus hero motherboard) and the Intel x25-m gen 2 80gb ssd? I seem to remember reading something similar but can't seem to find the specific info atm.. tks!
 
Anyone know if there are any known incompatabilities between the z87 chipset (namely the Asus Maximus hero motherboard) and the Intel x25-m gen 2 80gb ssd? I seem to remember reading something similar but can't seem to find the specific info atm.. tks!

Z87 chipsets onwards have issues with SF1200 (Sandforce 1200 series controllers) based drives which are non-compliant with SATA Spec. The newer chipsets have tighter tolerances so drives need to be within spec to work properly with them.
 
Raja,

I'd appreciate your insight into an issue I'm having with a clean Windows 7 install on an Asus H87-Plus mobo.

My buddy bought some parts, relying on my advice, and Windows will not install on this new build.

Asus H87-Plus mobo
Intel i5 cpu
Nvidia 750 GTX gpu (he's not a gamer)
Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Asus DVD drive
8 gb g-skill 1600mhz ram (2 x4gb)

Windows install (off a disk) hangs with a "could not find driver" message. When I put the mobo driver disk into the dvd drive to find the driver, the shear number of available drivers means I've got to pick one. I've done that many times, in an iterative process, trying to guess at the driver that Windows is looking for.

How do I get Windows to install on this clean build? Or, how can I install the driver that Windows seems to be looking for?

Thanks,
Ken
 
Last edited:
Is there any way to disable the charge boost, it's a nice feature, but unstable if anything else is plugged into that port.
 
Raja,

I'd appreciate your insight into an issue I'm having with a clean Windows 7 install on an Asus H87-Plus mobo.

My buddy bought some parts, relying on my advice, and Windows will not install on this new build.

Asus H87-Plus mobo
Intel i5 cpu
Nvidia 750 GTX gpu (he's not a gamer)
Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Asus DVD drive
8 gb g-skill 1600mhz ram (2 x4gb)

Windows install (off a disk) hangs with a "could not find driver" message. When I put the mobo driver disk into the dvd drive to find the driver, the shear number of available drivers means I've got to pick one. I've done that many times, in an iterative process, trying to guess at the driver that Windows is looking for.

How do I get Windows to install on this clean build? Or, how can I install the driver that Windows seems to be looking for?

Thanks,
Ken

No idea Ken. Would start wit any drivers Windows does not hav embedded by default. Marvel or USB 3.0 perhaps. Other than that, first time I've had someone ask me, so not sure at all.

-Raja
 
Raja,

Thanks.

One customer service note: the documentation could be far better. I would love to know where the various drivers are located on the mobo utility disk. I think I'm lacking a sata driver, but windows 7 isn't telling me.

Fresh OS install instructions could be far clearer than what's in the manual.

Thanks,
Ken
 
Raja,

Thanks.

One customer service note: the documentation could be far better. I would love to know where the various drivers are located on the mobo utility disk. I think I'm lacking a sata driver, but windows 7 isn't telling me.

Fresh OS install instructions could be far clearer than what's in the manual.

Thanks,
Ken
I always found win 7 DVD installs to be terrible. You can get ISOs of windows 7 with updates included I think that are much easier to install on newer boards. Then put the ISO on a dis or flash drive. I'm also wondering if maybe you need to mess with the boot compatibility mode settings.
 
I always found win 7 DVD installs to be terrible. You can get ISOs of windows 7 with updates included I think that are much easier to install on newer boards. Then put the ISO on a dis or flash drive. I'm also wondering if maybe you need to mess with the boot compatibility mode settings.

Thanks.

I've built 4 W7 computers for myself, using new W7 disks with no issues. It figures that the first time I try to do it for a buddy, it screws up. Over on sevenforums one of the ms helpers (not ms employees), has suggested the same course of action, to download an ISO and put it on a thumb drive.

I wouldn't -think- boot compatibility mode settings would be a player, but if so, in the ASUS H87 PLUS uefi bios, which settings should I tell my buddy to look at and change?

Thanks,

Ken

Update: I used one of my older w7 disks and his install worked flawlessly. He had received a bad disk.
 
Last edited:
Either I'm going nuts, or they've broken the Manual voltage exploit on z87 too somehow. Not working for me anymore after reinstalling my M6H. Now I'm like, crap--what did I put this board back in again for? 2 usb ports? Nah, I swear the z87 boots faster but I'm really confused about the manual mode trick not working anymore, I was able to have my voltage drop (or say it's dropping) even in manual mode while idle until I installed a z97 Hero other day, now I'm back to square zero.

/sigh I got the exploit working again... It looks to me like you also have to have a C-state setting very specifically set. Instead of Auto for C-states, set it to enabled, then change package support to enabled. Sucks... because I am pretty sure this is why it wasn't working on my z97 Hero... so now... in order to be a thorough "exploit" tester I have to go back and reinstall the damn M7H.
 
Last edited:
Does enabling "ErP Ready" under Advanced\APM cause the USB ports to power off when the system was shutdown?

Z87-WS here and I recently bought an USB DAC/AMP for my headphones that keeps getting powered even when I shutdown the PC.

If the ErP feature does this are there any side effects on other parts of the system I should be aware of?

Thanks
 
How do you disable the quick charge USB port? Every time I plug stuff into it I lose connectivity for other stuff plugged into other HUBs, really starting to get annoying. I can not find it in the UEFI or the Asus AI suite manager, even when I disabled it in software it was still buggy. I uninstalled the quick charge part if the software, but it didn't fix anything. Its really starting to get annoying to have one less USB port on a motherboard that is already lacking in USB port, even onboard there is only 1x 10-pin connecter and 1x USB SS. I like everything else about the my z87 Sabertooth, except not enough USB ports and because of the quick charge port my HUBs don't seem to work right.
 
OK, so there's BIOS 2005, with "improve system performance".

What does it mean? Likewise for 1802 and "improve system stability".

I'm still on 1602 (and I'm still getting drive spinup on shutdown + occasional BSOD on shutdown). Should I update?
 
Guys, on your z87 boards, when you boot into the UEFI menu, at the bottom does it say version is 2.10 or 2.4? I'm curious if the 8 series boards shipped with the most updated version of UEFI spec or not.
 
Last edited:
I recently built a new system with the following:

Gryphon Z87 Motherboard
4x4GB Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 1866 RAM
Nvidia GTX 680 SC
Intel i7-4790k
Seasonic 860W Platinum PSU

I started out with a Pentium G3220 for about a week on this board and it worked great. Was even able to play a few rounds on BF4 no problem. No issues with start up, flashed to the latest BIOS for the 4790K support and after that everything was still good.

Then I got my 4790K and initial boot was fine, but after every reboot, the system will not post, the fans are all on high speed and the CPU LED is solid red. I have to hold in the power button until the system shuts off and if i power it back on, it boots just fine.

Trouble shooting:
Tried stock cooler and Corsair H105 no difference in boot behavior
Loaded optimized defaults, no change.
Removed GTX 680 No change
Cleared CMOS and initial boot was fine, but after a restart, issue persists.


Any ideas?
 
i'll try that and report back.
I also removed the CPU to make sure I didn't muck up any pins and they look good.
 
Hey,

I've exactly the same problem as Draconian but I've a completely different configuration, except the i7-4790k.

Asus Sabertooth Z87
Intel i7-4790K
G.Skill ram
Be quiet power supply

And I tried the same things to solve the issue and nothing works but I didn't try to increase the voltage.

I'm happy to see that I'm not alone because I made a lot of searchs on google and didn't find anyone else with the same issue.
 
I set XMP profile to profile one 1 (Also did in the past) and also loaded the ASUS performance settings from easy mode. I set the over clocking to sync all cores, and iirc I disabled at least 1 over voltage setting but i'd have to take a look again to be sure on what I changed. So far the system hasn't shown any issues but I will need to play with it more tonight to be sure.

Tom's has quite a few forum posts about Asus Z87 boards in particular having the Red CPU LED issue. One common culprit was certain corsair power supplies, or bent pins on the socket.
 
Our problem with the red CPU_LED is not common I think, because people have generally this problem at the first boot, sometime randomly but when they got it a simple reboot can't fix it.

For us, everything is fine except after a reboot and a simple start/stop fix it. As you, my fans are not slow down what should be happen briefly during a reboot. Another strange thing, when we're is this state the rest button of the tower doesn't work.

I will try to apply your changes to find which one could fix the issue.
- About the XMP profile, I never use it, I set manually the latency and voltage of my ram because by default it didn't recognize it correctly.
- About the Asus performance, did you mean the load of defaults settings into the bios? Because I always did it from the easy mode by using F5...F10.

On my side, on the "Ai Tweaker" section of the Bios, I set everything to "automatic", except for the ram. Extreme Overvoltage is "disabled". OC tuner is set to "As is".

One more information, after any change on the bios, when we do the "Save & Reset" we got the CPU_LED problem, except if you change the value of "EPU Power Saving Mode" into the "Ai Tweaker" section. If you switch it, you will have a normal reboot but just once.
 
Went to turn on the PC this morning after it had been off all night, and it happened. Shut it off and powered it back on and it booted as expected. and I was wrong about the XMP, i'm not using it either, Ai Tweaker is set to auto as well. But I had tried using the XMP profile before.

In easy mode there are 3 easy set options, one is Normal, the other is power saving, and the third one is performance. But our interfaces are probly a lil different.
 
Well, my problem is solved.

My first try was to modify some properties from the bios as you suggest Draconian. Unfortunately for me, nothing works. More things I change... worse it was. At the end, I got the red cpu led at the first boot which I never had before (only on restart).

From some days, I exchange some emails with the asus support for fixing my issue. For my second try, I applied their last suggestion and it worked! It was one more bios update...

From the start, I've the last revision of the bios but I installed it in different ways. At start, I updated the bios under DOS using an utility called Bupdater.exe from asus. (Got red cpu led) Later, I updated it using an utility called EZ Flash 2 Utility directly from the bios itself. (Got red cpu led) And last but not least, I updated the bios using the Bios Flashback system. For that, with the computer shutdown, I've to plug an usb driver with the bios and to push on a specific button. (Fixed red cpu led)

I hope that it could help you, good luck.
 
Well, my problem is solved.

My first try was to modify some properties from the bios as you suggest Draconian. Unfortunately for me, nothing works. More things I change... worse it was. At the end, I got the red cpu led at the first boot which I never had before (only on restart).

From some days, I exchange some emails with the asus support for fixing my issue. For my second try, I applied their last suggestion and it worked! It was one more bios update...

From the start, I've the last revision of the bios but I installed it in different ways. At start, I updated the bios under DOS using an utility called Bupdater.exe from asus. (Got red cpu led) Later, I updated it using an utility called EZ Flash 2 Utility directly from the bios itself. (Got red cpu led) And last but not least, I updated the bios using the Bios Flashback system. For that, with the computer shutdown, I've to plug an usb driver with the bios and to push on a specific button. (Fixed red cpu led)

I hope that it could help you, good luck.


Thanks, i'll give this a try :)
 
I have USB3 disks that won´t show up after power on or restart. Device Manager gives me:

This device cannot start. (Code 10)

{Operation Failed}
The requested operation was unsuccessful.

This has been a problem for me with Window 7 and now after fresh install also on 8.1.

Is this the C1 stepping bug? Any suggestions?
 
What happened to software support? Almost every software package for my motherboard (Z87 Pro) is well over a year old. Basically nothing was released in 2014. Just some BIOS updates.
 
My problem with the USB3 drive remains with the latest bios (2103). If it is plugged in when starting it won´t show up. Reattaching it solves the problem but it is annoying.

MoBo Z87 Expert

Device manager gives:

This device cannot start. (Code 10)

{Operation Failed}
The requested operation was unsuccessful.

Anyone have any idea?
 
Raja,

Merry Christmas, and a plea for help! ;)

I've got an Asus Z87 Pro, BIOS 2103 w/i7 4770k. I've noticed that my one optical drive is insanely slow. It's an LG WH12LS38 Bluray. (A few years old, updated with the latest firmware, v1.03, about 4 months old.) The read speeds are really bad. The LG bluray firmware HAD been v1.01 when I noticed the issue: updating firmware did not improve the read speeds. So, bad read speeds with firmware v1.01, bad read speeds with firmware v1.03. That ain't it.

I loaded "Shadow of Mordor", a 5 disk set. Each disk (DVD) took over 20 minutes to read. Yeah. (Edited because I can't remember the name of the game!)

Loading Farcry 4, 3 disk set, reinforces that there is a problem. Each of those disks took 20 minutes to read.

The LG bluray is hooked up via Sata cable to Sata Port 6 (The last yellow one. Intel controller, NOT one of the brown Asmedia SATA ports. Those brown ones specifically note that they don't support ATAPI.). When I look in Device Manager, it is correctly identified. However, I don't think the right drivers are present. I'm learning about DMA. That seems to require a "Channel". There is none.

This is what I see for the optical drive in device manager:

Device Manager->DVD/CD-ROM drives -> HT-DT-ST BD-RE WH12LS38 SCSI CdRom Device
Properties -> Driver Details -> Microsoft, 6/21/2006, v6.1.7601.17514

Under Device Manager -> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers -> Intel (R) 8 Series/C220 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller is all that is listed. There is nothing else. It shows Driver Intel, 8/1/2013, v12.8.0.1016.

I would think that there should be another driver available to the optical drive.

What am I missing???

I don't see any UEFI setting that would enable DMA.

I've got an SSD, 3 hard drives, and the optical drive. All are SATA. The SSD and 3 Hard drives (each are WD blacks), have beautiful read/write performance. There is nothing else hooked up to the sata ports.

It seems like a controller isn't loaded, but I'm just guessing. I'd appreciate any help.


Thanks,
Ken

PS: In a desperate attempt to curry favor, see http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1040430016&highlight=c3k#post1040430016

:) Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Um do you have another optical drive to try cause it could be its starting to die? I have Asus z87 plus with 2004 bios (haven't needed up update cause 0 problems). I have an LG bluray drive HT-DT-ST BD-RE WH08LS20 and have no problems with mine.
 
Um do you have another optical drive to try cause it could be its starting to die? I have Asus z87 plus with 2004 bios (haven't needed up update cause 0 problems). I have an LG bluray drive HT-DT-ST BD-RE WH08LS20 and have no problems with mine.

You know, that was a thought. I don't have a spare lying around anymore. I just ordered a new one...

Meanwhile, I'll check my other rigs and see how their ODD's look in W7/64's device manager. (Different rigs/manufacturers, so I'm not too hopeful they'll show me anything useful.)

Is there an easy way to see my data transfer rate for a disk drive? (I know there is, I just don't remember it and my google-fu has failed me.)

Thanks.
 
You know, that was a thought. I don't have a spare lying around anymore. I just ordered a new one...

Meanwhile, I'll check my other rigs and see how their ODD's look in W7/64's device manager. (Different rigs/manufacturers, so I'm not too hopeful they'll show me anything useful.)

Is there an easy way to see my data transfer rate for a disk drive? (I know there is, I just don't remember it and my google-fu has failed me.).

Yea it take some looking to find a util that will test optical drive speed, but if all other drives are fast. It kinda boils down to cable or drive faulty or failing as most likely cause.
 
Question for anyone, is there any way to check volts on the Z87-pro board? I know there are no "points" but is there a way?
 
Back
Top