Solved Win 7 Clean install new build errors - Help me find a pattern/cause

[Joah]

Hello!

I've been trying to install win7 ultimate Upgrade on a M.2 SSD (SM951 Nvme). I have found a Nvme SSD driver that i could load during setup that shows my drive. Since this was quite an ordeal I will try and retrace my steps here:

1) In BIOS I set PCI-EX16_3 Bandwidth to X4, and SATA Mode Configuration to M.2
2) I run win7 install from a retail Upgrade DVD
3) When the installer asks for a drive there are none listed
4) To see USB (3.0,3.1 and 2.0 are not recognized by the installer) I choose Load Driver and load the USB3 driver from the Asus driver CDROM.
5) After this my USB is visible and I install a downloaded NVME driver
6) After this my M.2 SSD is visible so I prepare a partition and continue install
7) Install finishes, windows 7 boots from the M.2 SSD
8) I install system drivers from the ASUS driver CDROM
9) I install drivers for my GPU from CDROM
10) I start updating through Windows Update

During this process I get several errors and some strange behaviour. Amongst which (I can't recall all):

-) Loading USB drivers in setup failed the first time, crashing my mouse and keyboard that were connected to USB2.0 ports. Second time around I loaded an unsupported USB2.0 driver, didn't work either. Tried the supported USB 3.0 drivers and they magically worked and showed my USB stick.
-) When windows loaded, I had no (USB) mouse/keyboard control. Had to use PS/2 mouse and keyboard to get to the Asus Driver CDROM and install USB drivers. After that they worked.
-) Error Message from GPU installation, saying no .NET framework 4 available
-) GPU installation installs Audio drivers, that lead to installation errors from the Asus Drivers CDROM, which tries to install Realtek HD driver (0x000000FF)
-) Error message on startup saying there was a problem starting c:\windows\system32\nvspcap64.dll (module could not be found)
-) Sometimes shutdown takes 5-10 minutes (showing "shutting down" and after some more updates "logging off")
-) Error message on startup saying Desktop Window Manager stopped working
-) Hanging Windows update window, or rendering extremely slow. For instance, I click Windows update from the Start menu and it will show a half transparent tooltip (like as if the rendering hangs) and no program or service is started. Also, slow shutdowns seem to happen after this (but more factors might contribute to this).

In general, the system, driver installation and updating have had errors that I can't reproduce and seem pretty random. I am almost certain faulty hardware can be ruled out, since it is all brand new and i was cautious to prevent ESD when putting it all together.

Much more likely (although, I'm no pro) it seems to be a faulty medium (win7 installation DVD). I've had this disc for over 4 years, and installed my current (old) system with it, which works fine. It is an upgrade DVD, but I read that should not make a difference and there are registry tweaks to let the system think it is updating an older system when time comes to activate the key.

Also, I think part of the problems are related to problems with graphics drivers, since it seems to have trouble rendering windows. The Aero Desktop also took some updates (perhaps .NET) to work.

So the question I have is if all the above is indicative of some particular issue I'm unaware of? Something you might readily spot? And otherwise, where to start troubleshooting?

 

[Joah]

Some of the errors I mentioned in my previous post have somehow resolved themselves by installing updates. However, after the second update of Windows Update, it seems to be unable to download any more updates and it hangs on "Checking for Updates". I managed to bypass this by installing KB-3202810, after which Windows Update seems to find many more (234) updates. They all installed without a hiccup.

So, after four days of reading up on the internet and continuously failing I decided to put up this post to ask for help. Of course that is the exact moment that things finally started to work. So I guess I got smiled upon by Lady Luck and the questions have sort of answered themselves.

Nevertheless, thanks for the help I'm sure I would have gotten here