[wim]

David,

My Win 7 motherboards only came with USB 2, not with USB 3, so I can't really speak for compatibility with Win 7.
Also, UEFI has been around for a long time, my 8 or 9 year old Win 7 desktop certainly had it.
I have had a variety of motherboards over the years, including all the big brands, but these days I only recommend MSI, Asus, and Intel, although the latter only for very specific systems due to their pricing.

As to replacing your motherboard with another that is compatible with your processor: that is not worth the trouble IMO. Apart from a new motherboard, if it is quite a bit newer, you may need a new power supply unit as well, because connectors have changed a lot over the years. And unless you are building a high end machine, it may be cheaper to get a case with PSU, rather than just a separate PSU as a replacement.

In addition it generally is not recommended to remove a CPU, and put it on a different motherboard, as it is hard to properly clean the cololing paste and stuff, and may cause very spotty overheating in the CPU as a result. I've doen it in the past, but apparently I got lucky accordign to some experts.

I am in IT so it is not entirely fair, but I tend to replace my desktop PCs once every 5 years with a new one, mostly due to tax regulatons here, as I am only allowed to write off computer equipment over a 5 year period for tax purposes these days. If regulations were different, i would replace it every two to three years, because it would be affordable with shorter write-off periods.

So, what I do now is to get myself a custom built machine, and built in such a way that it will last me 5 years easily, if not longer, and is upgradable to a very large degree if need be, and which I can ideally still use as a server thereafter. Over the past 2 1/2 years I already upgraded it a few times, added some extra DRAM, added a few extra SSds, and added a second proccessor, but the latter only becauseI saw prices were rising, and with COVID would likely rise only even more . Upgrading I always do myself, BTW, as I did build my own desktops in the past, as well as for friends and clients.

Anyway, I tend to buy high-end motherboards, with lots of space for memory (DRAM), and a lot of options to connect hard drives, in order to be able to upgrade those parts that generally do require upgrading over a longer period of time, or for use as a server. Works well for me. but it also means it requires a budget to go with it.

Sorry for my long ramble, just some thoughts I have on the subject.

Kind regards, Wim

[davidmanze]

If my guess is correct, the version of firmware on your motherboard now is Uh1, the 1st version to give the board UEFI, replacing BIOS.

If you flash the BIOS back to F12 (one before the Uh1 UEFI version), the on-mother-board USB controllers should work again.



https://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php?topic=9819.msg74216#msg74216 *


BIOS F12 firmware version for Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 (rev. 1.3): **


https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/BIOS/Gigabyte/Gigabyte-GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3-rev-13-BIOS-F12.shtml

* that's the very one that I first read when looking around for solutions .... what I didn't understand is that a few got the rear sockets working ..... yet were still looking for solutions  ....... if it worked what was the problem ??
 ...... that's the time I tried to role back the FW ..... maybe I hadn't successfully wiped the later UH1 and the old one wouldn't install in it's place ..... or I just didn't find the right one or just didn't install it correctly ... hence I gave up !

so BC you think the F12 FW should restore USB 3 ??

---

David,

My Win 7 motherboards only came with USB 2, not with USB 3, so I can't really speak for compatibility with Win 7.
Also, UEFI has been around for a long time, my 8 or 9 year old Win 7 desktop certainly had it.
I have had a variety of motherboards over the years, including all the big brands, but these days I only recommend MSI, Asus, and Intel, although the latter only for very specific systems due to their pricing.

As to replacing your motherboard with another that is compatible with your processor: that is not worth the trouble IMO. Apart from a new motherboard, if it is quite a bit newer, you may need a new power supply unit as well, because connectors have changed a lot over the years. And unless you are building a high end machine, it may be cheaper to get a case with PSU, rather than just a separate PSU as a replacement.

In addition it generally is not recommended to remove a CPU, and put it on a different motherboard, as it is hard to properly clean the cooling paste and stuff, and may cause very spotty overheating in the CPU as a result. I've done it in the past, but apparently I got lucky according to some experts.

I am in IT so it is not entirely fair, but I tend to replace my desktop PCs once every 5 years with a new one, mostly due to tax regulations here, as I am only allowed to write off computer equipment over a 5 year period for tax purposes these days. If regulations were different, i would replace it every two to three years, because it would be affordable with shorter write-off periods.

So, what I do now is to get myself a custom built machine, and built in such a way that it will last me 5 years easily, if not longer, and is upgradable to a very large degree if need be, and which I can ideally still use as a server thereafter. Over the past 2 1/2 years I already upgraded it a few times, added some extra DRAM, added a few extra SSds, and added a second processor, but the latter only because I saw prices were rising, and with COVID would likely rise only even more . Upgrading I always do myself, BTW, as I did build my own desktops in the past, as well as for friends and clients.

Anyway, I tend to buy high-end motherboards, with lots of space for memory (DRAM), and a lot of options to connect hard drives, in order to be able to upgrade those parts that generally do require upgrading over a longer period of time, or for use as a server. Works well for me. but it also means it requires a budget to go with it.

Sorry for my long ramble, just some thoughts I have on the subject.

Kind regards, Wim

 Don't worry about the rambling Wim ...... that's my sphere ...... 

I wasn't thinking of replacing the MB with a modern one ..... rather with one of the period, which was known to function correctly, but brand new ........ if they are still available ?? .... 

... as for cleaning the CPU paste, I feel that's the one thing I could do ... 

...... other than that anything modern will inevitably end up having incompatibilities at many levels.

 thanks for all your help Wim ......

....... anyway my eyelids are getting heavy so it's good night from me !

[Brightcolours]

Yes, I think F12 will make the USB work. If for some reason you want to keep UEFI instead of the F12 BIOS, just add a PCI-E USB card.

[davidmanze]

Yes, I think F12 will make the USB work. If for some reason you want to keep UEFI instead of the F12 BIOS, just add a PCI-E USB card.

Morning BC ...... the early bird catches the worm obviously ......

   A few questions and I'll start with these ones  ...... What has to be done to use this PC-I-E USB card, is it just a case of plugging it in and away we go ?? ....... does it use the edge PCB edge connectors to plug in to the GA-268X - ....... or those blue and white board mounted sockets ?? 
  
  I kind of like the fact that after plugging it in if it didn't function all I would have to do is unplug it again ...... is that right ??
 
 

thanks BC

[Brightcolours]

1st, let us congratulate ourselves to successfully highjack this DXO-thread (shitty company anyway, regarding their DXOmark lens test nonsense).

As I understand it, the card plugs into a free PCI-e slot. The connectors on the board are (as I understand it) to provide power for the USB 3 ports, sata and older style plug so you have the choice? If I am wrong there, I am sure Wim will chime in on that detail.
The only thing needed is a driver for the card/controller on the card. Not a windows guy, so I don't know if windows 7 figures out the driver itself or not.
And if it does not work somehow, indeed you just remove the card and things will be as before.

Personally I'd try the BIOS (F12) but that is just me (Mac guy after all). The Hackintosh I made for my girlfriend still does not do sound (although getting weird components to work on a hackintosh is way more complicated than flashing a BIOS).

[you2]

The pcie bus does indeed provide power. Unfortunately windows 7 is dead in more ways than one. I believe i read somewhere that there was a deliberate attempt by ms to kill off windows 7 with regards to newer hardware via the incompatibility route. I've not read the full thread but yes newer bios and newer drives generally will not work with windows 7 - also you have to be careful depending on age of your motherboard as there were some subtle changes to pcie and newer cards may not work with older motherboards. I forgot the specific details (i had looked them at the time) but i had an early motherboard for the 2500k (i've forgotten the chipset but it was not a final revision). At some point i updated the gpu and it would not function. I had to find a beta bios (the company no longer officially supported the motherboard but did put out an unofficial patch for this probelm) to support the new pcie spec.
-
It is almost certainly that any mb released in the past 2 years will not work with windows 7 due to bios compatbility issue and similar (there are some fairly extreme hacks to sort of get it work where you pull the drivers from windows 10 and put them into your windows 7 install but i've not messed with them since linux is my primary os and it doesn't have any of this deliberate sabotage stuff taking place.
-
Anyway i'm not adding a lot of useful information other than the power for the usb pcie card comes from the pcie bus and in all honest with the move to usb-c and newer standards at some point you are likely to have to bite the bullet and say good buy to windows 7.

[wim]

Yes, I think F12 will make the USB work. If for some reason you want to keep UEFI instead of the F12 BIOS, just add a PCI-E USB card.

Morning BC ...... the early bird catches the worm obviously ......

   A few questions and I'll start with these ones  ...... What has to be done to use this PC-I-E USB card, is it just a case of plugging it in and away we go ?? ....... does it use the edge PCB edge connectors to plug in to the GA-268X - ....... or those blue and white board mounted sockets ?? 
  
  I kind of like the fact that after plugging it in if it didn't function all I would have to do is unplug it again ...... is that right ??
 
 

thanks BC

Yes, that should be all that is required. Use one of your free slots.

Having said that, it likely requires unscrewing 1 cover plate, clicking/pressing in the card into the slot behind it, and fixing it with the screw removed for the cover plate, and then restarting the PC.
Of course, mounting it will require you o switch off the PC, unplug the power cable, wait for all led lights to go off, before even trying to mount the card. Wearing rubber gloves and//or an anti-static cable around your writst is a good idea too - I managed to blow up a motherboard once, actually the keyboard chip (literally a piece exploding off), because of static, although that was back in 80286 Dos 3.x/Win-386 days .

You should be able to plug it into any available PCI-e slot, but I'd suggest you use the shortest slot available.

However, it will only work if there is a driver for it for Win 7. That is something you need to make sure first.

As mentioned, you better upgrade to Win10, however. Win 10 pro should be around the 100 € mark AFAIK; it was when I bought my last Win 10 non-WS version.

Warm regards, Wim

---

The pcie bus does indeed provide power. Unfortunately windows 7 is dead in more ways than one. I believe i read somewhere that there was a deliberate attempt by ms to kill off windows 7 with regards to newer hardware via the incompatibility route. I've not read the full thread but yes newer bios and newer drives generally will not work with windows 7 - also you have to be careful depending on age of your motherboard as there were some subtle changes to pcie and newer cards may not work with older motherboards. I forgot the specific details (i had looked them at the time) but i had an early motherboard for the 2500k (i've forgotten the chipset but it was not a final revision). At some point i updated the gpu and it would not function. I had to find a beta bios (the company no longer officially supported the motherboard but did put out an unofficial patch for this probelm) to support the new pcie spec.
-
It is almost certainly that any mb released in the past 2 years will not work with windows 7 due to bios compatbility issue and similar (there are some fairly extreme hacks to sort of get it work where you pull the drivers from windows 10 and put them into your windows 7 install but i've not messed with them since linux is my primary os and it doesn't have any of this deliberate sabotage stuff taking place.
-
Anyway i'm not adding a lot of useful information other than the power for the usb pcie card comes from the pcie bus and in all honest with the move to usb-c and newer standards at some point you are likely to have to bite the bullet and say good buy to windows 7.

Very true. USB-C effectively is USB 3.x, though, just with a different connector.

[davidmanze]

Ok, guys thanks for all that ........ I'll digest it and see if my friend would help me as my own confidence in anything in the nature of computers and success is not what it was ..... especially with these lesser known issues !!

Thanks again !!