Asus UX31A Fresh Install Guide

A lot of people (including myself) have been clamoring for a guide to doing a fresh Windows 7 install on the new Asus UX31A. I ran into several issues along the way, most annoying of which was the dreaded "missing CD/DVD driver" error at the install screen. I found that the Windows 7 image I was using was just not cooperating, so that was the major obstacle to overcome.

I would recommend creating recovery media (or at least storing the ISOs) with the AI Recovery application already on the machine before starting, just in case.


1. Download the appropriate image from this thread (Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit English for most people)

2. If using an external DVD drive, burn this image to a DVD. If using a thumbdrive, use the Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool
straight from Microsoft to make an installed thumbdrive. I used an 8gb one, but a 4gb *might* do.

3. Insert the appropriate media (DVD or thumdrive), restart your machine, and press escape at POST to select the boot media.

4. Install. I deleted all partitions when given the option, and created 1 new partition. I found out later that my drive was apparently already using MBR, but some other units have been formatted with GPT, so it may be necessary to use another bootable tool to change this before starting.

5. Enter your product key from your power adapter when prompted, and you should have a clean install (with no drivers) ready to go.

6. Drivers: get most recent drivers from the following sources:
Sound from Realtek (High Definition Audio)
Card reader from Realtek (5139)
Video from Intel
Wireless (6235) from Intel (includes bluetooth)
USB 3.0 from Intel
Widi from Intel

The rest of the drivers can be obtained from Asus themselves. The most important ones here are:
Chipset
Live Update Utility
ATKACPI driver and hotkey-related utilities
Other Asus utilities (Power Option, Splendid, Instant On, Webcam, USB Charge, Asus Wireless Switch, etc.)
Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Driver
Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver
Intel Management Engine Interface

And lastly, the tough one: Intel Rapid Start Technology Driver.

7. Install each of these drivers except Intel Rapid Start, one by one, restarting in between.

8. Using this guide, shrink your OS partition by 4gb (4096mb) using disk management, then create and configure a new partition for Intel Rapid Start using diskpart in the command prompt.

Note that you can tell if your disk is MBR or GPT by looking at the output of the "list disk" command. If the GPT column is empty, it is MBR, if it lists something, it is GPT. There is a different final command for each.

Restart your machine, then install the Rapid Start driver. If you tried this before recreating the partition, it gave you an error saying your machine does not meet the requirements. Afterwards it will install fine.

Run the Asus Live update utility to get most recent touchpad drivers, run your Windows updates, and check to make sure it activates once you are online. When I went to activate, it told me my key was invalid, but I re-entered it and it activated clear. I do not know if I mistyped the first time, or if it was being a pest, but it worked.

That should be about it. I may be missing one or two things, but those were the major steps I remember in getting every device in the device manager to recognize properly. I am not familiar with the ins and outs of GPT, so if there are extra steps needed for this, I would be grateful if someone who has done this with that would chime in, because my machine was MBR from the start.



Just a final note here:

My biggest obstacle in getting this started was the "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now." message.

Even with the USB driver from Asus unzipped on my thumbdrive, and pointing the Windows installer at it, I could not get it to accept the driver. I got past this only by download the ISO linked above, and writing that to a thumbdrive using the provided Microsoft tool. If you get this error, some people have succeeded by putting the USB 3.0 driver (unzipped) on their thumbdrive and pointing the installer at it, but I had no such luck. Only a different image rewritten to the thumbdrive got me past it.

Good luck!


EDIT: A note for down the line. Some of the drivers I linked are bound to go out of date. They all worked as of my writing this guide in the first place, but surely some of them will be updated as time goes by. The best course of action is to go through Intel and Realtek for appropriate drivers (the ones I linked to either of those), and Asus for the rest. I will not be updating links down the line, so keep this in mind.

 

Do you have to install intel rapid start technology driver? It sounds like its for hibernating, but if you only do sleep/shutdown/restart then you wouldn't need it and could skip that right?

 

Wow, this is an extremely helpful post. Thanks so much for sharing your experience - I've been wary of doing a clean install because of obstacles precisely like the kind you mentioned. I'm going to take the plunge and will report back. Two questions:

1. Is there a need to save the 4GB partition with a certain specific name or format or does the Rapid Start driver package simply find and install itself onto the 4GB just because it is there?

2. Have you noticed any fan issues after doing the clean install? I feel lucky that my DB51 does not exhibit any of the fan issues that folks seem to be suffering, and my worry is that by doing a clean install, I risk kicking an introduction of the issue. I know its absurd that I should have to hesitate to install an OS for fear of such a problem, but the fact does remain that no one has yet been able to pinpoint what's causing the fan-cycling issue.

 

1. As for the Intel Rapid Start Technology deal: It is not required. Your computer will run just fine without it. I am not sure what all benefit it provides, but it bothered me to have an unknown device (PCI Simple Communications Controller, if I remember) in device manager. If you want to save the 4gb, you should be able to skip over this, just be aware that you will likely have an unknown device remaining.

There are no obstacles to recreating the partition (you can shrink your OS partition from inside windows easily enough, and you just use command prompt Diskpart to recreate it, no 3rd party programs). There is no specific name for the 4gb partition, but the final step in the provided guide from gigabyte has you set the partition ID to 84, which I can only assume is an arbitrarily ID chosen by Intel specifically for the Rapid Storage driver to find and use.

2. I have not had any fan issues. I replied to another post shortly before righting this one on the same topic. I never hear my fan (even coming out of sleep) during normal use. Speedfan says it is sitting at around 3200rpm, but that is basically silent. I am no using a cooling pad yet, so mine sits on a plain cheapo laminate 'wood' desk.

 

This is a great post. Very important information.

 

I hit a wall with these same errors. I updated the Bios from 204 to 206 and the next try... it worked!

Might be a coincidence but ... i think not .

 

Curious, what was your available space on the SSD immediately after you finished this process?

Great thread by the way!!

 

OP, did you run into an error when installing the Asus update utility saying that "it is only for Asus" machines?

It will not install


UPDATE:
It was because i was running the install without first extracting the zipped download. Funny that the install started and then failed.

 

Sorry, don't really have that info for you. My guesstimates put it at around 82-85gb free, but I really couldn't tell you.


As far as the errors during install, on my first set of attempts I was already on bios 206, so I don't think it was that for me. The only thing I changed was what image/ISO I used to make the thumbdrive. Originally I had obtained what I thought was an oem image, but it was giving me trouble, so I gave the one I linked a try, and all was good.

 

CONFIRMED!

Updating the drive from 204 to 206 gets past the error. I spent 8 hours on this and called ASUS tech support with no luck. This was the only thing that worked, thank you so much!

 

yinyangtkd:

Thanks for the fantastic guide! One question - which WiDi driver did you use? The link shows to kinds - one for Netbook and a "regular" one. Given that this is an ultrabook, I wondered if there may be a certain one to choose.

Thanks!

 

Oh, and a new touchpad driver was released!

 

I just performed a clean install, and installed all necessary drivers, but excluded some of the ASUS bloat utilities (Webcam Utility, Video Enhancement and the like). I did shrink partition and install the Rapid Start driver. End result, after Windows updates: 97GB free. The boot time is significantly faster. Very much worth it to clean install.

 

I went with the "regular" one: see here.

Beware that I have not tested this because I haven't bothered to get an adapter for my TV. I have heard that there are some issues getting it to work on a clean install, so keep in mind if you plan on using it, that it may take some work.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I guess its a moot point for the most part as I don't think I'll have any WiDi-capable devices in the near future!

 

Glad i found it. glad it helped someone.

 

After following the guide above from the original OP,

The only remaining problem i have is one entry in the device manager under unknown devices called "USB 2.0-CRW"

Any ideas on what I missed. USB 2.0 works fine i know i installed the USB 3.0 drivers. I don't have a USB 3.0 device to try.

 

I think that may be the Realtek Card Reader.

 

Yeah, preliminary googling suggests the card reader. I would restart, reinstall the realtek card reader drivers, and restart again. I don't remember which driver it was, but I did have an issue where it didn't go through right the first time.

 

you were right. it was the card reader. tkx

 

The fan issues can be solved by uninstalling Intel(R) Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework from Control Panel -> Program and Features. The fan noise only arises when the system returns from a standby or hibernate and not on a fresh start up. This is definitely a bug. I'm waiting for a bug fix from Asus which will deal with this framework.

The problem after uninstalling is that, you will see some 6 devices in the devicemanager as unrecognized devices which are used by this framework.

 

The one issue I have noticed so far is that the wireless toggle (FN +F2) does not work for me--the toggle will turn off bluetooth but not the wifi adapter. Any ideas? I've tried reinstalling all drivers and the ATK Package multiple times and still no dice. Not a huge deal but it would be nice if I could figure out how to get it to work. I'm also not convinced the auto screen brightness sensor works but I'm less worried about that one. Every other toggle seems to work correctly.

Thanks yinyangtkd for the guide!

 

I beg to differ. I have the thermal framework installed (see attachment), and I rarely hear my fan. I use this machine for work (I work in a school district, moving from location to location), and constantly jump in and out of sleep. The only time it spins up is when it needs to, which is when I play HD video or games.

I don't quite understand the cause of these issues. Before exchanging my first UX31A (random shutdowns), I did have this problem, but I hadn't done a fresh install on that one. I know for a fact that on that one I had the same BIOS version (206), and the same ATKACPI driver version, so the related driver left that I see is indeed the thermal framework, but I wonder if they come out of the box with an outdated version, and it just isn't something people think of updating. It took some trial and error for me to find exactly what drivers I needed to eliminate all unknown devices, and these miscellaneous intel drivers made up, unexpectedly, the bulk of them.


As for the wireless toggle, I can't say I've had that issue. The hotkey didn't work at all until I installed the "ASUS Wireless Switch (Wireless Console3) Utility" from the Asus driver page. I am using this in combination with the most recent 6235 driver from Intel, and I've had no issues whatsoever. Check that you have that Asus driver installed, that and the wireless driver itself should be all you need.

 

Okay okay... Lets sort this out. Did you ever experience the fan revving up problem? See we have two versions of this zenbook here. about 40% I guess have fan problem. But there are the other 60 % zenbook owners... the luckiest one without this problem. And they do have the thermal framework installed and they have no problems with the fan whatsoever. I believe you are one among them. And people like me who are sufffering with the fan problem can uninstall this stupid framework. For me and many others... this works... no more fireworks from the fan.

And BTW I experienced a random shutdown yesterday(first time). Now I'm really scared. Should I return it or not? I'vent done any Fresh Install... but all my drivers and everything is upto date. Will Fresh Install help.???

 

I got my fan problem solved. Originally my fan worked normally then I noticed that it started running a lot on high then off again. I found many posts and no resolution that satisfied me. Mine ran normally to start with I figured it had to be something I installed that caused it. I decided to do a restore but my points didn't go back very far so I checked as far back as I could to see what would be uninstall if I did a restore. These items were on the list:
opera 12.01
sugar sync 1.9.71.94365
reader x mui 10.0.0
flash player 10 plugin 10.0.32.18

I uninstalled them all, restarted my computer and wala no more crazy fan. I ran a bunch of videos simultaiiously and monitored the temperatures to verify that the fan still works normally and it does. So my fan problem is fixed. I'm going to go back and try to figure out which one it is that did it now. I hope this helps others with this problem-I was about to return mine because it was making the battery life lower as well.

 

First of all, thanks to yinyangtkd for being the first (and still the only) kind soul out there to post this guide - kudos and gratitude.

Has anyone dealt with the GPT issue yet? My UX31A (DB71) came with GPT instead of MBR, and I am wondering if I need to do anything special before deleting the partitions and booting from a Windows CD (I have an external DVD drive already, so I plan to use it for the fresh install).

I've been reading up on GPT and find it a bit confusing. Do I need to convert it to MBR first using Diskpart or Disk Managment or some third party software, or will this option come up during the install? I've held onto XP thus far, but I plan to use Windows 7 Pro now, and I'm not familiar with it.

Any help is much appreciated. My new beast is now 3 days old but I haven't been able to really get any mileage out of it because I'm trying to figure out how to reformat it first!

 

Hi, I've a question about intel rapid start tecnology, I've followed your usefull guide for install this utility, but I can't found the options in the bios to activate IRST. How can I know if I 've right installed everything? After the installation I haven' t the intel utility to check it...

 

Simply boot using your Windows Installation disk and when you get to the screen where you determine installation, simply delete all of the partitions and then create a new one. Don't be afraid to delete all of them.

Before doing any of this, however, you may want to use the ASUS recovery program (already preinstalled) to make copies of the recovery disks. It allows you burn disks or save images in either an DVD-sized or Blu-Ray sized ISO format.


delete all the partitions

 

From my recollection, there is not in the BIOS that needs to be tinkered with. Simply follow the linked PDF guide to create the partition and then install the driver.

 

Ok, but in the pdf there is also suggest to change something in the bios. Anyway I installed like you sad, but I didn't noticed any difference. I tried to hibernate the system with or without the IRST and nothing change. There is no solution to check if I've correctly installed irst?

 

Have you guys tried doing a clean install of Windows 8 yet?

 

me.

Windows 8 Professional on Zenbook Prime UX31A - YouTube

 

Yes, I did...

not much of problems - only the Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Driver won't install

I used all Win8 test drivers from ftp.asus.com.tw

CU
Barabas

 

I installed Windows 8 on my girlfriend's Zenbook. Had a couple problems with multi touch and the computer sleeping. Also, the keyboard backlight would not come back on after sleep mode. All in all I think we need better driver support for it.

Since I installed Windows 8, in order to reinstall Windows 7 I had to delete every partition and start all over. Like an idiot I didn't back up the hard drive before installing Windows 8. If anyone has a backup image of their UX31A harddrive that they bought from the Microsoft Store, I would be forever grateful if they sent it to me. I would like the recovery partitions and the Windows Signature Themes and stuff back.

 

How are you folks activating Windows 8? I thought their volume licensing mechanism has been changed, so either you are TechNet/MSDN subscribers or you are running without activation?

 

dreamspark premium. legit and fully activated.

 

"A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now."
If you have this problem - simply load default settings in your BIOS!
I've spent 2 hours to solve this.

 

For the less brave of us out there - can someone put up a list of bloatware to exterminate from the UX31A out of the box?

 

After completely messing up a disk image transfer I had to start over. I am glad that I did -- things run better now.

Thank you very much yinyangtkd for your informative guide. Much appreciated! :thumbsup:

 

I don't think you need to go all over the web for drivers, you can find everything you listed on the asus site:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download UX31A

 

I chose to do this because of my experience with laptop drivers in the past. Truth is, quite often your immediate manufacturer doesn't pull updates from the oem of the individual part, so quite often there is a driver which is newer and works better, if you just get it from the source.

I realize this means my guide will quickly become out of date (since I directly linked a few drivers), but at the time it was accurate, and if you are savvy and have the time, I recommend finding the newest drivers yourself from the Intel and Realtek sites for most of the hardware, and Asus for a few stragglers.

I didn't change anything in bios to get IRST to work. The process was really just create the partition in the disk management console, change the parition ID via command prompt, and install the intel driver. You can tell it is working if the installer doesn't error out, and you no longer have the unknown device in the device manager.

I haven't tried Windows 8 yet because I don't know that it gains me anything at this point. I'm not a particular fan of the interface, and as of now there is no new directx version that requires it. It took enough work to get my clean install how I wanted it, that I'm in no big hurry to upgrade.

 

I did all of that, but it seems to not work. Do i need to install additional software?

Now when I close the lid and re-open it, nothing happens when I open the lid. I have to press the power button.

Edit: Fixed.
a) re-install intel graphics drivers ... this enables "sleep" option
b) configure windows to "sleep" when lid closed

 

I've created an ISO for installing on the UX31A. It's got
- a few hundred MS updates
- MS Security essentials
- mail & messenger
- .Net 4.5
- All the drivers
- USB Charger+

If anyone wants a copy, let me know. it's about 4gig so we'd need a place to store it for downloads.

 

What OS is there? Win 7 Pro or Home Premium? Do you have a problem with loud fan noise?

 

home premium (what came with mine) and i've never had a problem with the fan.

 

Hi,
My UX31A came with BIOS 214.

Apparently when doing the clean install routine when you install USB 3.0 drivers it will "brick" your USB connections. Basically you can't connect anything to USB.
Upgrading to BIOS 215 & clean install solved this.
Trusted platform module does not appear to have any hardware installed. Has anybody succeded to install it?

Also, when laptop runs on battery, on saving battery power mode, there is a clear screen flicker on bright colors. This is very clear if you install a solid bright color as background and switch to battery (LCD is on 60p Hz). Any ideas?

Regards,
Cristian

 

Hi all,

Here's my post for the fan issue on UX31A. You just have to uninstall Intel DPTF and install manually the drivers of unrecognized peripherals.
My original french / english post is here:

Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A [Topic Unique] - Page : 3 - Ultraportable - Ordinateurs portables - FORUM HardWare.fr

 

Does anyone know what I might need to install next to eliminate my last "unknown device in windows 8"? I have installed the following drivers:
1. Realtek Card reader
2. intel wifi
3. intel bluetooth
4. intel rapid storage
5. Intel rapid start
6. intel widi
7. intel dynamic platform and thermal framework
8. graphics
9. Realtek Sound
10. The atkcpi (or whatever) and smartgesture
11. Instant ON
12. Power4gear
13. Intel chipset drivers
14. Intel management interface

I'm thinking it should be on of the other ASUS utilities but I'm OCD about what I install and I don't want to install something that I don't actually need. Thanks!

 

Hi munim, I'm assuming you've successfully installed windows 8 from the sound of it. I was just wondering if you've also encountered a problem that I have when I installed windows 8 on my UX31A. The problem is with the wireless toggle function key "fn+f2", it doesn't turn on airplane mode (disable the wifi and bluetooth).

First of all I have a UX31A-DB71, and secondly I did not do a completely fresh install.
I only erased the C partition and did a windows 8 installation there. I did install the ATKCPI and all the other function keys are working. After installing all the drivers except Intel Rapid Start, I upgraded the BIOS form 204 to 212. After all that I noticed the Wifi key's led doesn't turn on and trying to press it I realized it doesn't toggle anymore.
I've tried installing wireless console 3, the Asus utility that toggles wifi and bluetooth when the fn+f2 key is pressed for windows 7. It does turn the wifi led on now, but the toggle still doesn't work. Asus doesn't seem to have this program in the windows 8 drivers section.

Anyone else have a similar problem?

 

Yep, I have the same problem. I had it when I upgraded from Win 7 and when I did a Win 8 clean install.