310 chipset question

[teckneeculler]

While trying to find new hardware that supports W7, I came across some BIOSTAR motherboards that have 310 chipsets, which, apparently, allow one to install and run W7.

I actually bought one board - an H310MHC2 - from a retailer in the UK. (I'm in NZ). Haven't tried it yet.

This exercise got me thinking about chipsets - something I've never really done before.

So I have a question: There are lots of motherboards with 310 chipsets, but I'm assuming that not all of them necessarily support W7. Which would seem to imply that individual motherboard makers - like Biostar - must either customize their chipsets as required, or have Intel, say, do that for them.

Anyone know?

 

[file3456]

I think it's really just a driver thing. I'm not sure. I wanted the latest CPU, but I needed a 300 series MOBO and then I saw that the board manufacture didn't have Win 7 drivers for that board. So I imagine it's because Win 10 is the latest OS and as such the MOBO maker will just stick to Win 10 drivers and not be backwards compatible.

That's just my theory on it.

 

[teckneeculler]

So you think it's solely a driver thing, not the chipset?
BTW, here's a link to one of the Biostar pages.
file:///S:/DOWNLOAD/BIOSTAR%20mobo%20downloads/wp/Windows%20tool.htm

ooops! Sorry, that's a page I saved locally, I'll try and find the real link...


Windows tool - better

 

[Paul Black]

Hi teckneeculler,

To get Win 7 to install and run with newer MB's you need the correct drivers. There are numerous posts on this forum that discuss this along with the links and downloads for the drivers that can either be integrated into the install.wim [boot] or installed on the live OS.

I hope this helps!

 

[iko22]

Im inclined to think it is actually mainly a CPU thing. Microsoft announced that they were not going to support 7th and 8th generation processors for their operating systems. They had not announced that they were not going to support H310 chipsets, or whichever.

Motherboard manufacturers therefore seem to determine the compatibility of their devices based on which CPUs they support.

A motherboard still needs the correct device driver to interface an OS with the hardware. But it might be that the same device driver can be used for several OS editions/ flavours.

There could be other factors, like how much RAM the OS supports, or whether computer supports Safe Boot and GPT - UEFI boot partitions. In which case there may be different drivers for each OS edition / flavour. There again, in spite of these differences, a motherboard manufacturer may not implement all of the chipset features on particular motherboards in their product line.

That is my take on the question.

---Edit---
Reference: Microsoft says new processors will only work with Windows 10

 

[Paul Black]

Hi teckneeculler,

You might find this useful => Update your Win 7 installation media.

I hope this helps!

 

[dsperber]

Consider getting whatever modern hardware you want, enable Intel Virtualization, installing Win10 as your VM host, install VMWare Workstation Player (free for personal use) or Hyper-V, create Win7 VM guest, and run Win7 forever that way (supported on any hardware by VM), along with Win10 as your primary OS or simply as your VM host to support Win7 VM guest.

You still will have no MS updates for Win7 after January 2020, but you will be able to run Win7 VM gueston any new hardware forever, thanks to VM.

 

[Paul Black]

Consider getting whatever modern hardware you want, enable Intel Virtualization, installing Win10 as your VM host, install VMWare Workstation Player (free for personal use) or Hyper-V, create Win7 VM guest, and run Win7 forever that way (supported on any hardware by VM), along with Win10 as your primary OS or simply as your VM host to support Win7 VM guest.

You still will have no MS updates for Win7 after January 2020, but you will be able to run Win7 VM gueston any new hardware forever, thanks to VM.

 

[file3456]

Im inclined to think it is actually mainly a CPU thing. Microsoft announced that they were not going to support 7th and 8th generation processors for their operating systems.

This is not true. You can run a Kaby or Coffee Lake with Windows 7 perfectly fine. Perhaps there may be a few CPU instructions you'll miss out on, but you can still use 7. The only caveat that I know of with running Win 7 on a Kaby or Coffee Lake is that M$ in their infinite wisdom decided not to allow you to use updates in Win 7 if you use those two CPU architectures. So to get around that, someone at Github created a program that will re-enable you to download updates with a Kaby or Coffee Lake CPU.

 

[Paul Black]

Hi F22 Simpilot,

The only caveat that I know of with running Win 7 on a Kaby or Coffee Lake is that M$ in their infinite wisdom decided not to allow you to use updates in Win 7 if you use those two CPU architectures. So to get around that, someone at Github created a program that will re-enable you to download updates with a Kaby or Coffee Lake CPU.

That is correct, it disables the Unsupported Hardware message in WU, and allows you to continue installing WU's on Win 7 systems with Intel Kaby Lake, AMD Ryzen, or other unsupported processors.

See here => wufuc.

I hope this helps!

 

[johnhoh]

There are lots of motherboards with 310 chipsets, but I'm assuming that not all of them necessarily support W7. Which would seem to imply that individual motherboard makers - like Biostar - must either customize their chipsets as required, or have Intel, say, do that for them. Anyone know?

There are two reasons why intel 3xx motherboards do not work out-of-the-box on win7: usb3 and integrated graphics.

BUT, the intel 3xx chipset and usb drivers for Windows 10 DO WORK on windows 7. Integrating them into a win7 install iso was first outlined in an anandtech thread that I can't find right now, but its out there and is 18 months old. So what biostar may have done is simply written a program that does the same thing, adding those win10 drivers into your win7 installation media. This was not groundbreaking but IS a great idea since it makes it so much easier for users, and I hope it sells a lot of boards for them.

BUT, to my knowledge there is NO win7 driver that supports coffee lake integrated graphics. Further, I just looked at the biostar download page for your motherboard and am not seeing ANY graphics drivers at all listed there for win7. They do have graphics drivers for win8/10 though. H-m-m.

By all means, load up your new board using their win7 tool then post back with the "driver date and driver version" details for the display adapter driver in your device manager. If you have a coffee lake cpu, it will be very interesting to see the graphics driver details.

As a general rule motherboard makers write bios control programs but do not write OS drivers, they just grab them from other sources. And if you find a driver on one motherboard site xyz for a baord with a certain chipset that is the same chipset you have on your board even though your board is made by company abc, odds are high that the xyz driver will work on your board.

I'm saying that if you can get both the usb3 and coffee lake integrated graphics on your new biostar 3xx win7 system working using their tool, their tool is a huge win for everyone who wants an easy way to install win7 on a 3xx chipset board no matter who makes the board.

Side point - the method outlined in the anandtech thread for getting usb3 working on 3xx was really just for a 370 chipset, and apparently it does not work for 390. So I should perhaps not be using 3xx above, but rather just 310. Hopefully someone with a 370 board can try the biostar tool and report back to us if it works.

One more thing - you will still need to use use the wufuc tool by zeffy in order to use windows update

 

[SIW2]

Does the link

Intel H310 chipset special onboard GPU driver for Windows 7 OS download link as below:
https://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/event/H310_windowstool/win7_8th_i3_i5_Driver_2.0.rar

work for you? If so you could do us a favor by uploading the file somewhere we can get at it.

 

[johnhoh]

Intel H310 chipset special onboard GPU driver for Windows 7 OS download link as below:
https://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/event/H310_windowstool/win7_8th_i3_i5_Driver_2.0.rar

Thanks for that link. Not sure why biostar does not list it in the motherboard download section.

To install just the graphics part of the link you can unpack it, then load its display driver from device manager by navigating to the Graphics > x64 folder then selecting the igdlh.inf file, i.e. HD630 graphics.

What that custom setup file appears to do is to use the intel graphics driver from 12/2018, otherwise known as version 4598, then add the Coffee Lake Device IDs to the setup file but disguises them as though they are Skylake cpus. I had previously tried this same method by labeling them as kaby lake, which did not work. It appears that someone with more persistance may have broken the code. It would be great if someone with a coffee lake cpu and windows 7 could try loading the driver and see if it works.

 

[SIW2]

The link doesn't work for me.

 

[teckneeculler]

Thanks, guys. Very informative.
So, to get back to my original question, is the chipset a factor in whether or not motherboard 'X' can host W7?

 

[johnhoh]

The link doesn't work for me.

you do a right-click, save-as to download it (its a rar file) then open it with 7zip or winrar

 

[johnhoh]

Thanks, guys. Very informative.
So, to get back to my original question, is the chipset a factor in whether or not motherboard 'X' can host W7?

Yes. But to be more precise, the chipset matters only if you want to use the motherboard's native usb ports. That is, if you do not mind using a pci-e card for your usb ports, then all motherboards made for windows 10 will also run windows 7 regardless of chipset.

Motherboards built for intel cpus up to and including the intel 270 chipset will run win7 with no usb problems (although you need to make sure your win7 iso file has usb3 drivers in it, which is not hard to do as microsoft even provides a link to it now.
Link to microsoft installation iso for win7 with integrated nvme and usb3 drivers and updates through 8/2018

But the usb ports on intel 3xx motherboards won't work with a normal win7 installation, so there have been various hacks developed in order to get usb support using the motherboard usb ports, but those hacks are for the technically inclined, frustrating especially for those who bought laptops with win10 thinking they could load win7 on it.

So yes, the chipset matters a lot if you want win7 to run without jumping through some hoops. But the chipset does not matter at all when it comes to intel integrated graphics, as the drivers to run it are for the cpu and are independent of the chipset. For win7, Intel supports integrated graphics officially only up through skylake (cpu models 6xxx), and unofficially for kaby lake (models 7xxx) using the intel beta graphics driver release 4508, but not for coffee lake (models 8xxx and 9xxx).

That's why this biostar tool may be so important - if it indeed provides both motherboard usb3 and cpu integrated graphics support for win7 on intel coffee lake and coffee lake+ cpus on either 310 or 370 chipset motherboards, it makes win7 available on the latest hardware without requiring technical expertise, which is a huge win for those wanting to use win7 on 2019 hardware.

 

[teckneeculler]

Thanks, guys. Very informative.
So, to get back to my original question, is the chipset a factor in whether or not motherboard 'X' can host W7?

Ooops again! I didn't read the previous posts from JohnHoh and SIW2 before I posted the above. This is getting interesting.

JohnHoh: You mentioned 370 in your earlier post. Actually, my interest in this question of compatibility only started because, late last year, I accidentally purchased an Asus H370M-PLUS mobo together with 32GB ram and a Coffee Lake i5 8400 processor.

By the time I got around to begin assembling what I thought was going to be a great W7 rig, it was too late to return the hardware. So I started working on a W10 install with tweaks to make it more like W7. I'm part way through that now, but it's just not my idea of Windows. So, i'd be delighted if I could get the 370 board to accept W7.

Buying the Biostar H310MHC2 board was an act of desperation. Ok, it may be a little easier to put W7 on it, given Biostar's software assistance, but the board itself isn't as good as the Asus - it won't take an M2 NVME card, for one thing, while the Asus has space for two.

 

[johnhoh]

late last year, I accidentally purchased an Asus H370M-PLUS mobo together with 32GB ram and a Coffee Lake i5 8400 processor.

If I were in your shoes, I would first follow the steps in this link to turn your win10 install into a win7-look-a-like
Making Win10 look and act like Win7

Then I would remove that boot disk and put in a different disk and load win7 on it using the biostar tool. Though it is specific for 310 I would bet it would work fine for 370 too. Plus we need someone to be the guinea pig to see if it actually works on coffee lake.
Windows tool

 

[teckneeculler]

Sure, I'm happy with that. Just so long as you can pick me up if I get confused , lol.

Took a look at your first link - excellent stuff there. Later I'll post some links to the W10 'config-to-W7-look' You-Tube videos and apps that I used. In the meantime, a YouTube search for these names should bring up those links:
"Setting up the perfect Windows 10 Installation" by Chris Titus, with links to software.

Then, for info on making W10 like XP, by a guy who calls himself 'MJD', search for "Make Windows 10 Look Like Windows XP (Works on 1903!)" and "Followup - Make Windows 10 Look EVEN MORE Like XP".

EDIT: Here are the video links, in order:
YouTube
YouTube