How To Get Ryzen Working on Windows 7 x64
Officially, AMD does not support Ryzen CPUs on Windows 7. Given that Microsoft has essentially ended support for the OS, this is the type of response we expect from AMD – Intel has also stopped officially supporting Windows 7 on the newest platforms as well. ‘Official’ is a general term: some special customers may receive extended lifetime support, or drivers currently out in the ecosystem still work on the platforms. Official support refers to driver updates and perhaps security updates, but there’s nothing to stop you trying to install an OS to either system or platform.
For clarification, we did not converse with AMD in writing this piece. AMD’s formal position on Windows 7 on Ryzen is that it is unsupported, and as a result this means they will not provide support around it. There may also be other methods to install an unsupported OS, however here are a few solutions.
The Main Issue: USB Support
For installing Windows 7, the issues typically revolve around USB support. When there’s a mouse/keyboard plugged in, everything else after that is typically simple to configure (installing drivers, etc). However, from the 100-series chipsets on Intel and the AM4 motherboards on AMD, this can be an issue. When the CD or USB stick is being used to install the OS, the image needs USB drivers in order to activate a mouse or keyboard to navigate the install menus. This is the primary process that fails on both platforms and acts as a barrier to installation.
General Solution: Use a PS/2 Keyboard, if the motherboard has a PS/2 port
By default, on most systems, the way to guarantee the presence of a mouse pointer or keyboard activity during installation is to hook up a PS/2 keyboard. I’ve never known an installation to fail to recognize a PS/2 peripheral, so this is often the best bet. However, PS/2 as a connectivity standard is near dead (sometimes new keyboards will offer dual connectivity, like one of my Rosewill mechanical keyboards), with fewer motherboards supporting it, and it falls to USB as a backup.
GIGABYTE AX370 Gaming 5 with a PS/2 Port
The main reason why PS/2 should work where USB doesn’t is due to the protocol. PS/2 uses interrupts through the system, compared to USB which is based on polling. This results in different levels of engagement: the PS/2 keyboard injects its commands, but this means limited n-key rollover support, whereas a USB keyboard will bundle its commands up and send it over when the system requests it. Unfortunately, the latter requires a default driver to be able to do this.
(As a general rule, always use USB 2.0 ports. These are most likely to be natively supported over USB 3.0 which can require chipset drivers.)
The problems facing users wishing to install Windows 7 who do not have a PS/2 port or peripherals come in two forms:
Problem 1: Installing Windows 7
With Intel on the Z170 series and above, it was a case of the USB 2.0 needing to be emulated through a BIOS option in order to install Windows 7, due to the EHCI support being removed.
After a couple of weeks when motherboard manufacturers started rolling out BIOS/EFI updates to each of their products and enabling the option allowed users to have a keyboard during a standard install.
However, from personal experience, this only really worked when installing Window 7 from a CD, never from a USB stick. Somehow using a data-based USB stick would nullify having a mouse/keyboard via USB in the installation.
With AMD, it gets a little tricky. There is no EHCI emulation. But apparently this comes down to where the USB ports come from.
Potential Install Solution 1.1: Use a Chipset USB 2.0 Port
According to some documents obtained by AnandTech, the AMD BIOS treats USB ports from the CPU (because the CPU is a SoC) and USB ports from the 300-series chipset differently. From what we’ve seen, USB support is enabled on the chipset ports, but not on the CPU-based ports. Ryzen is a little different to previous desktop platforms because it can have USB ports from both.
For example, here’s a CPU layout from Bristol Ridge and the B350 chipset, each showing USB ports.
The USB ports from the chipset are supposed to be natively supported in Windows 7 installation, allowing users to have access during either an OS install via USB or via a CD. But finding which ports on your device are supported via the chipset rather than the CPU can be tricky, especially if the motherboard manufacturer does not provide a block diagram of the onboard pathways and controllers. There’s also the fact that the onboard headers might be the ones based on the chipset, requiring header-to-port cabling to use.
However, on my Crosshair VI Hero, this method as described in the documents, did not work. It may work on other boards, but not here.
Even if it did work, there may be a larger problem when it comes to accessing the OS, as explained further down.
Potential Install Solution 1.2: Use an Unattended Windows 7 Install
For users that customize their operating system packages, using tools available online, an unattended install usually covers this whole scenario.
By being unattended, as long as no additional input is needed, it should sail straight through. Of course, this method usually means that the drive you want to use is ready to be used (with appropriate settings and partitioning). Power users familiar with this method will be comfortable here.
Potential Install Solution 1.3: Install Windows 7 on a Different System First
In our initial Ryzen review, in order to get SYSMark numbers comparable to the ones in our database, this is the method I had to use. In order to do so, we had to bend one of our more steadfast rules.
As a general thing to note, installing a Windows-based OS on one system and transferring the drive to another system is a bad idea. As part of the installation, Windows will detect what system is being used and install the base drivers for that system, for that CPU, and for that chipset. This provides clutter and confusion when moving the drive to another system, which is why we typically suggest that a new system gets a fresh OS install to help with this.
While it’s still a bad idea, a fresh operating system is easier to manage than a fully-laden, well-used OS.
So for this method for our review, due to the timing of events, I had access to a Sandy Bridge system. I did a base install of Windows 7 x64 Professional using a USB stick on the Z77 motherboard with an R7 240 graphics card, and when the OS was loaded, did not install any extra drivers.
But, there lies a second issue.
Problem 2: USB Drivers on Windows 7
The 300-series based chipsets are identical to those offered by Bristol Ridge, and in part based on the Carrizo hardware, and as a result the Windows 7 drivers for these platforms work with AM4 for the main chipset support. Audio and Network drivers are a slightly different kettle of fish, and you may have to go hunting for the Windows 7 variants of these.
If you installed Windows 7 via a PS/2 keyboard and mouse, the OS should have access to the hardware and installing drivers should be easy.
The drivers that worked on launch day are the Crimson ReLive 17.2.1 Chipset Drivers, dated March 3rd. The following links are for the 64-bit versions.
- Most Up-to-Date: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/chipset?os=Windows+10+-+64
- Previous Versions: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/chipset/previous?os=Windows%2010%20-%2064
However, the USB fall back methods of 1.2 and 1.3 above do not account for actually having USB drivers in Windows 7 for Ryzen. Windows 7 may apply some base driver, which will allow users to access the hardware, but this is not guaranteed. There is a sure-fire method for doing this.
Windows 7 USB Driver Install 2.1: Integrate Drivers In The Unattended Install
For a power user that is familiar with adding installation packages or driver packages to their OS images, the following drivers extracted from the files above need to be:
- USB30_ZP\
- USB31_PT\
Rope this into your OS image and the USB ports will work.
Otherwise…
Windows 7 USB Driver Install 2.2: Set Drivers To Install at Boot
This is the method I used to install the drivers. The basic premise is for the OS to install the drivers when the OS loads. All these actions need to take place on the secondary system that Windows 7 was installed on, aside from the last couple of instructions.
(Step 1) Download the ReLive 17.2.1 Chipset Drivers from the links above.
(Step 2) Run the Installer, but only to the point where it extracts the files and the Radeon screen comes up:
When this happens, go to where the drivers were extracted to, usually C:\AMD. Make a copy of this directory, wherever you need it to go, and exit the installer. The installer usually removes the original copy, and you can place it back into C:\AMD.
(Step 3) Go into the Radeon-Crimson-ReLive-17.2.1… directory and you will see the following:
Now right click, and navigate to New -> Text Document:
Select this, press enter to accept the default name, and open the file up.
You should see an empty notepad file. In this, add the following:
Setup.exe -install
Save this file as ‘setup.bat’ in the same directory. You should see the following now in the setup folder:
If the Setup file has the same icon as New Text Document, then the ‘.bat’ part of the filename did not work. You will need to go through Tools -> Options and enable ‘File Name Extensions’ in order to see the full file name and rename it this way to setup.bat (right click on the file, select rename).
(Step 4) We now need to create a shortcut to this batch file in the Startup directory. From the start menu, go to ‘All Programs’, find the startup folder, right click and select ‘Open’.
It should offer an empty directory. Right-click, and select New -> New Shortcut, and a menu will popup. Select Browse, and navigate to the batch file (in this example, c:\AMD\Radeon-Crimson…).
Select OK, the select next, and select finish.
You should see the following in the directory:
(Step 5) Shut down the system, and transfer the SSD over to the Ryzen system. Turn it on, and wait a few minutes after the system loads for the drivers to install. At some point, control of the mouse and keyboard will occur.
The TL;DR Flow Chart
For some of our power user readers that know how to extract files and create shortcuts, this flow chart might be easier to follow:
Limitations
Arguably this solution could be ported to other circumstances where installing Windows 7 and not having USB is an issue. However, due to our limits in Ryzen testing, we’ve only tested this method, installing Win7 x64 Professional, on the Crosshair VI Hero so far. Other methods may work better as the platform evolves. However, it should still be stated that AMD is not officially supporting Ryzen and the AM4 platform on Windows 7.
Any users with other methods, or success/failure stories, please post below.
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AMD Ryzen and Windows 7
This article is a work in progress and can have major modifications and additions.
The following information should work for B350, B450, X370, X470 and X570 chipsets along with 1st gen, 2nd gen and 3rd gen Ryzen CPUs. While 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen CPUs and motherboard with chipsets up to X470 work with official AMD drivers, the 3rd gen AMD Ryzen CPUs and X570 chipsets don’t have official support and you’ll need to use modded drivers.
The no.1 issue with running Windows 7 on a AMD Ryzen system is that Windows 7 lacks the necessary drivers for USB ports which makes configuring such a system problematic.
History [show more][hide]
- 25 May 2020: Article updated.
Driver downloads
For 1st and 2nd gen Ryzen and up to X470 motherboards download the latest chipset drivers for Windows 7 from here.
For 3rd gen Ryzen (aka Zen2) CPUs and X570 and possibly B550 motherboards you need to download modded drivers by canonkong from here. You could also mod the drivers yourself by following this guide. Previous discussions about this method have taken place on this reddit page.
Installing the modded drivers on an existing Windows installation
In order to install the drivers on an existing Windows 7 installation, ideally you should have a mouse connected to the have PS/2 port and use Windows On Screen Display (Start->Programs->Programs->Accessories->Accessibility) for typing. Or you could have a USB PCIe card that already has working drivers. If you have a working LAN, another way would be to remotely connect to this AMD Ryzen PC you want to install the drivers.
Modded drivers typically require you to run Windows in Test Mode or install them after booting Windows with Disable Driver Signature Enforcer boot option.
For those devices that do not have drivers installed, to install their drivers right-click on Computer-> Manage-> Device Manager and go through each device that does not have a driver and right click «Update Driver Software.
..»-> Browse my computer for driver software-> select path where the drivers where extracted.
For NVMe SSD support you need to install the following Windows 7 hotfix updates: Windows6.1-KB2990941-v3-x64, Windows6.1-KB3087873-v2-x64, Windows6.1-KB2908783-x64.
Integrating the drivers on the Windows 7 installation image
To add the USB drivers and any other drivers to the Windows 7 installation image (DVD/USB flash drive) you can slipstream them with tools like ntlite or Windows 7 Image Updater.
For NVMe SSD support you need to also slipstream the following Windows 7 hotfix updates: Windows6.1-KB2990941-v3-x64, Windows6.1-KB3087873-v2-x64, Windows6.1-KB2908783-x64.
Windows 7 updated image installation
For testing the new Windows 7 installation image, you could make a secondary Windows install on a different partition, disk or in a VHD file (#1, #2). If needed, you can use EasyBCD (info, download) to edit the boot entries.
You need to disable secure boot before trying to install.
If you really need secure boot enabled, you can check this guide.
Additional information
Bypass the Windows Update block on Ryzen systems with wufuc tool.
How To Get Ryzen Working on Windows 7 x64 from Anandtech.
Applies to:
- AMD Ryzen 3100, 3300x, 3600, 3600x, 3700x, 3800x, 3900x, 3950x etc.
- AMD Ryzen 2600, 2600x, 2700x etc.
- ASRock, ASUS, Biostar, Gigabyte and MSI motherboards with AMD B350, B450, X370, X470, A520 B550 and X570 chipsets.
- Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
How to Install Windows 7 on AMD Ryzen and M2 SSD Drive
Home » Windows
Setup
Author: admin
Installing Windows 7 on machines with an AMD Ryzen processor or an M.2 SSD drive can be a tedious process, and is entirely possible. Let’s look at how you can install Windows 7 on Ryzen, as well as on computers equipped with an M.
2 SSD.
Contents
- 1 No support for AMD Ryzen and M.2 SSDs
- 2 Step 1: Prepare Windows 7 installer
- 3 Step 2: Install drivers for AMD Ryzen
No support for AMD Ryzen and M.2 SSDs
If you bought a new computer with a Ryzen processor and plan to install Windows 7 on it, then you are in for a slight disappointment. Microsoft supports the new AMD Ryzen and Intel Kaby Lake processors only on Windows 10. Trying to install the «seven» in most cases is useless, because the system does not recognize the USB driver (there is no keyboard and mouse support). Even though the installer is running, you won’t be able to navigate through the menus because the USB keyboard and mouse will be inactive.
This problem is further exacerbated when an M.2 SSD with NVM Express interface is installed on the PC. When installing the «seven» on such disks, problems may arise regardless of the installed processor. Namely, the drive itself is not displayed in the list of disks, so there is no way to select it for installing the system.
Below we’ll show you how to properly prepare the Windows 7 installer to include both USB drivers for Ryzen and newer M.2 drives.
Step 1: Prepare Windows 7 Installer
The simplest solution is to modify the installer ISO image to include unsupported device drivers. Thanks to this, the installer will immediately load with the necessary support and the system will install without problems.
Making changes to the image is quite easy, because Gigabyte has provided a special utility that automatically adds USB support for Ryzen and M.2 SSDs with NVM Express interface. Of course, the utility can be used regardless of the brand of the motherboard — it does not have to be from Gigabyte.
Download GIGABYTE Windows USB Installation Tool
Run the program after downloading it. First, in the «Source Path» tab, specify the drive with the original Windows installer. If it is recorded on a DVD disc, then insert it into the drive and specify the drive letter.
If the ISO image is located on a local disk, then you need to mount it on a virtual drive (for example, using Daemon Tools).
Then, in the «Destination Path» field, you need to specify the flash drive on which the «seven» installer will be created with support for the necessary devices. Connect the flash drive and indicate the letter under which it was identified by the system.
In the next step, check the «Add USB drivers to an offline Windows 7 image» box. If the M.2 SSD with the NVM Express interface is not recognized, then check the «Add NVME drivers …» box. After that, click on «Start» — the program will automatically change the ISO and prepare a bootable USB flash drive.
Then connect the flash drive to the computer and install the operating system. The USB drivers will now be loaded and there will be keyboard and mouse support, as well as solid state drive support.
Step 2: Install AMD Ryzen 9 Drivers0021
After installing and running the OS for the first time, you need to install drivers for AMD chipsets that support Ryzen in Windows 7.
Despite the fact that Microsoft does not officially provide such support, AMD decided to release the corresponding driver package themselves. It can be downloaded from the official site.
Download AMD Chipset Drivers for Ryzen
Download the new package from the above website and simply install it. Windows 7 will now fully support the AMD Ryzen architecture.
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AMD’s latest Ryzen processors do not work with Windows 7
AMD’s official forums began to receive complaints from users who had difficulty installing Windows 7 on systems based on AMD’s new Raven Ridge generation processors — Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G with integrated graphics accelerator (APU). The problem is the appearance of the so-called «blue screen of death» or BSOD even after a «clean» installation of the system from the official DVD.
The error message indicates that the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) of the motherboard does not fully support ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Management Interface).
Although Microsoft is trying very hard to promote Windows 10, Windows 7 is still not only the most popular version of Windows, but simply the most common operating system for desktops and laptops. According to LiveInternet, 54% of all computers of Russian-speaking visitors are running Windows 7. As for foreign Internet users, NetMarketShare estimates the share of Windows 7 at 44.62% of personal computers compared to 29.98% attributable to Windows 10 machines. The statistics compiled by StatCounter show approximately the same popularity data (43.54% and 41.55% for Windows 7 and 10, respectively), as well as an emerging trend towards a slight decrease in the number of Windows 10 users in March compared to February 2018
Thus, still the most popular operating system is Windows 7 (according to NetMarketShare, this version of Windows is installed on 44.62% of desktops compared to Windows 10, which accounts for only 28.98% of machines) fail when combined with the latest AMD processors.
The Ryzen APUs seem to be the source of the problem. However, the use of a discrete video adapter instead of the one built into the processor does not correct the situation.
Contacting the support service of popular motherboard manufacturers does not help either. So, a Reddit user under the name roflmaono talked to ASRock technical support specialists, eventually getting advice to contact the processor manufacturer, despite the fact that the error message contains a mention of the BIOS, a microcircuit located on the motherboard.
It is possible that what happened is not a bug at all. Recall that back in 2016, Microsoft announced that Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems would not support AMD Zen and Intel Kaby Lake processors, ceasing to release updates and fixes for systems based on these processors. In this way, Microsoft encouraged owners of new powerful hardware to switch to Windows 10.
Given the closed nature of the Windows operating system, close cooperation between hardware manufacturers and Microsoft is required to solve the problem.