Motherboard (ASUS Z97-A) refuses to boot Window but boots Linux

Hi, I have an ASUS Z97-A + i7 4790k which boots into BIOS and boots Ubuntu from a USB just fine, but when I try to boot Windows 10 from the same USB and the same USB port, no image comes up and it boot loops. Here is a video which shows what screen it gets stuck on: Asus Z97-A - Windows fails to boot - Album on Imgur

I have tried changing RAM, clearing CMOS (including removing the battery), changing USB port, changing CPU. The Windows USB works when I try it on another PC.

Does anyone have an idea what could be causing it?

Thanks.

What did you use to make the Windows flash drive with?

Correction: I got something wrong in the OP, the problem is actually the processor (i7 4790k). My i5 4690k boots both Windows and Linux but my 4790k is only able to boot Linux (both on Asus Z97-A, same ram, same usb, etc).

I made the flash drive with the official media creation tool for Windows 10. I also have another USB with Windows 11. Both work in my main PC and work on 4690k, but neither works on the 4790k.

Have you reset the BIOS back to defaults on the problem computer? Is the BIOS up to date?

NavyLCDR said:

Have you reset the BIOS back to defaults on the problem computer? Is the BIOS up to date?

Yes, it has the latest BIOS version

I have reset the BIOS settings if that's what you mean.


Also, an update, I fiddled with some BIOS settings and found that if I change "Active Processor Cores" down to 1, it is able to boot the Windows installation medium.

- - - Updated - - -

Another update, I tested the 4690k and 4790k processors on another 1150 motherboard, with the same result (can only boot Windows with 1 active core). So it seems like there is a fault with the 4790k CPU.

I suspect that the active processor cores thing is a red herring.

I also have an i7-4790K based system. This was my primary system up until I built a new system about 2 years ago, but it now serves as my Plex server and backup server with large pile of big HDDs.

I think that NavyLCDR has hit upon the most important question: How did you make your bootable UFD?

Along those lines: Do you have a local ISO image of Windows that you have downloaded? If so, I would like to provide a batch file to you that I can pretty much guarantee will give a UFD that you can boot from.

@hafsblau, I'm stepping away a while. Rather than miss your response, below is a really robust method for creating a bootable USB Flash Disk (UFD). No tools of any kind needed other than a Windows PC and a downloaded Windows ISO image.

Last update July 10, 2023
<Simplified version of procedure>

Here is a procedure for creating a bootable Windows installation flash drive using no third-party tools, batch files, or anything other than running a few commands and copying some files.

Here is the procedure:

1) Begin by having your Windows ISO image available. Double-click that file. That should "mount" the ISO image. This means that the ISO image is opened and assigned a drive letter, much like inserting a DVD in a drive. Take note of the drive letter that File Explorer shows for the mounted image.

2) Plug in your flash drive if it is not already plugged in.

3) Press WinLogoKey + R, type in "diskpart" (without the quotes), press <ENTER>.

4) From the DISKPART> prompt, run this command:

list disk

5) From the size of the disks, try to determine which disk your thumb drive is and note the drive number. If that is not enough information, run these commands to get more detail on any disk. In this example, I want more info on disk 4:

select disk 4
detail disk

Repeat the above two commands for any other drives for which you want more detailed information.

Here is some sample output:

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 476 GB 0 B *
Disk 1 Online 3726 GB 0 B *
Disk 2 Online 465 GB 1024 KB *
Disk 3 Online 7452 GB 0 B *
Disk 4 Online 238 GB 0 B

DISKPART> select disk 4

Disk 4 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

SanDisk Extreme Pro USB Device
Disk ID: DC727760
Type : USB
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 7 Z My Software NTFS Removable 238 GB Healthy
C:\MountPoints\My Software\

6) When you determine the correct disk, run the commands below while you are still in diskpart. In this example, I have determined that disk 4 is my flash drive. Be sure to select the correct disk number because everything on that disk will be erased!

NOTE: It's possible that after you run the "clean" command below you may get an error. If that happens, simply run "clean" again. It should succeed the second time.

select disk 4
clean
convert mbr
create partition primary size=1000
active
format fs=fat32 quick label="VOL1"
assign
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick label="VOL2"
assign
exit

In the next step, we will copy files from the source to the FAT32 and NTFS partitions on the thumb drive. To be clear, all the files and folders that you are being asked to copy come from your ISO image that you mounted in step 1. You are copying them to either the FAT32 partition (the one labeled "VOL1") or to the NTFS partition (the one labeled "VOL2") on your flash drive.

7) Follow these steps to copy files to your thumb drive:

⦁ Copy all files and folders EXCEPT the \sources folder to the FAT32 partition.

⦁ Create a folder called "sources" on both the FAT32 partition AND the NTFS partition.

⦁ Copy the file \sources\boot.wim to the FAT32 partition \sources folder.

⦁ Copy all files and folders from the \sources folder EXCEPT boot.wim to the \sources folder on the NTFS partition.

At this point, you should have a bootable thumb drive that can be booted from both BIOS and UEFI based systems.

8) To finish, in File Explorer, right click the drive letter for the ISO image that you mounted in step 1 and choose "Eject". This will unmount the image, much like ejecting a DVD from its drive.

9) OPTIONAL STEP (but recommended): Omitting details, if interested in why we do this, ask me!

Open Notepad and type in the following two lines of text:

[Channel]
Retail

Save the file and name it "ei.cfg". Make certain that it does NOT have a .txt file extension. Drop that file into the \sources folder on the NTFS partition.

10) Cleanup: You can dismount your ISO image file now that we are done with it. Locate the drive letter that you Windows Image was mounted to in File Explorer. Right-click that drive and select "Eject".

END OF PROCEDURE

PLEASE NOTE: When booting the media that you have created, on some UEFI based systems, you may be presented with an option to boot either the FAT32 or the NTFS partition. Choose the FAT32 partition. The boot menu may not tell you which partition is FAT32 and which is NTFS. The FAT32 partition will typically be the first option for that drive in the menu.

hsehestedt said:

@hafsblau, I'm stepping away a while. Rather than miss your response, below is a really robust method for creating a bootable USB Flash Disk (UFD). No tools of any kind needed other than a Windows PC and a downloaded Windows ISO image.

Last update July 10, 2023
<Simplified version of procedure>

Here is a procedure for creating a bootable Windows installation flash drive using no third-party tools, batch files, or anything other than running a few commands and copying some files.

Here is the procedure:

1) Begin by having your Windows ISO image available. Double-click that file. That should "mount" the ISO image. This means that the ISO image is opened and assigned a drive letter, much like inserting a DVD in a drive. Take note of the drive letter that File Explorer shows for the mounted image.

2) Plug in your flash drive if it is not already plugged in.

3) Press WinLogoKey + R, type in "diskpart" (without the quotes), press <ENTER>.

4) From the DISKPART> prompt, run this command:

list disk

5) From the size of the disks, try to determine which disk your thumb drive is and note the drive number. If that is not enough information, run these commands to get more detail on any disk. In this example, I want more info on disk 4:

select disk 4
detail disk

Repeat the above two commands for any other drives for which you want more detailed information.

Here is some sample output:

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 476 GB 0 B *
Disk 1 Online 3726 GB 0 B *
Disk 2 Online 465 GB 1024 KB *
Disk 3 Online 7452 GB 0 B *
Disk 4 Online 238 GB 0 B

DISKPART> select disk 4

Disk 4 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

SanDisk Extreme Pro USB Device
Disk ID: DC727760
Type : USB
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 7 Z My Software NTFS Removable 238 GB Healthy
C:\MountPoints\My Software\

6) When you determine the correct disk, run the commands below while you are still in diskpart. In this example, I have determined that disk 4 is my flash drive. Be sure to select the correct disk number because everything on that disk will be erased!

NOTE: It's possible that after you run the "clean" command below you may get an error. If that happens, simply run "clean" again. It should succeed the second time.

select disk 4
clean
convert mbr
create partition primary size=1000
active
format fs=fat32 quick label="VOL1"
assign
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick label="VOL2"
assign
exit

In the next step, we will copy files from the source to the FAT32 and NTFS partitions on the thumb drive. To be clear, all the files and folders that you are being asked to copy come from your ISO image that you mounted in step 1. You are copying them to either the FAT32 partition (the one labeled "VOL1") or to the NTFS partition (the one labeled "VOL2") on your flash drive.

7) Follow these steps to copy files to your thumb drive:

⦁ Copy all files and folders EXCEPT the \sources folder to the FAT32 partition.

⦁ Create a folder called "sources" on both the FAT32 partition AND the NTFS partition.

⦁ Copy the file \sources\boot.wim to the FAT32 partition \sources folder.

⦁ Copy all files and folders from the \sources folder EXCEPT boot.wim to the \sources folder on the NTFS partition.

At this point, you should have a bootable thumb drive that can be booted from both BIOS and UEFI based systems.

8) To finish, in File Explorer, right click the drive letter for the ISO image that you mounted in step 1 and choose "Eject". This will unmount the image, much like ejecting a DVD from its drive.

9) OPTIONAL STEP (but recommended): Omitting details, if interested in why we do this, ask me!

Open Notepad and type in the following two lines of text:

[Channel]
Retail

Save the file and name it "ei.cfg". Make certain that it does NOT have a .txt file extension. Drop that file into the \sources folder on the NTFS partition.

10) Cleanup: You can dismount your ISO image file now that we are done with it. Locate the drive letter that you Windows Image was mounted to in File Explorer. Right-click that drive and select "Eject".

END OF PROCEDURE

PLEASE NOTE: When booting the media that you have created, on some UEFI based systems, you may be presented with an option to boot either the FAT32 or the NTFS partition. Choose the FAT32 partition. The boot menu may not tell you which partition is FAT32 and which is NTFS. The FAT32 partition will typically be the first option for that drive in the menu.

Thank you for the effort to help me. Ill say this, I've tried with both a Windows 10 installation USB created with the official Microsoft Media Creation tool, as well as with a Windows 11 To Go, created using Rufus. Both work on my other PC and both work with my B85m-g + i5 4690k and my Z97-A + i5 4690k. Neither work with B85M-g + i7 4790k or Z97-A + i7 4790k, unless I set active processor cores to "1" in which case both will boot on both B85M-g + i7 4790k and Z97-A + i7 4790k.

Thus it seems to me that it is exceedingly unlikely that there would be a problem with the windows USB drives.

I still suggest trying this, just to humor me . It would take under 5 minutes.

hafsblau said:

Thank you for the effort to help me. Ill say this, I've tried with both a Windows 10 installation USB created with the official Microsoft Media Creation tool, as well as with a Windows 11 To Go, created using Rufus. Both work on my other PC and both work with my B85m-g + i5 4690k and my Z97-A + i5 4690k. Neither work with B85M-g + i7 4790k or Z97-A + i7 4790k, unless I set active processor cores to "1" in which case both will boot on both B85M-g + i7 4790k and Z97-A + i7 4790k.

Thus it seems to me that it is exceedingly unlikely that there would be a problem with the windows USB drives.

Apparently it's a ASUS BIOS issue. Other folks have reported the same workaround (cores = 1).
Most of the answers include resetting BIOS to factory defaults with no OC, or checking for NX (no execute).