I have built many systems. The new Z170-Premium system I have built (see config at the end) is so fragile it is a nightmare.
This system will crash, while in a sleep state. It will hang on the windows restart screen. USB devices that work fine on other systems, will spontaneously disable/re-enable. It will hang on POST every few reboots.
After doing assembly and a clean Win10 install, here are just a few of the bugs I have documented:
1) updates to the ASMedia SATA AHCI drivers from the standard Microsoft drives causes USB ports to be unavailable.
2) updates to the Intel IRST AHCI storage controller drivers cause static interference with the Realtek audio subsystem.
3) AISuite 3 causes many, many Event Log errors and causes general system instability, ACPI.SYS BSODs among other things.
Just a few of errors for which ASUS is totally responsible include:
a) ACPI Error 15 - The embedded controller (EC) returned data when none was requested. The BIOS might be trying to access the EC
without synchronizing with the operating system. - this one is a confirmed bug in AISutie 3.
b) Kernel-PnP Error 219 - The driver \Driver\WudfRd failed to load for the device SWD\WPDBUSENUM\
{205989ea-1601-11e6-bdc6-806e6f6e6963}#0000000008100000. - This one is well documented online with no solution.
c) Service Control Manager Error 7034 - The Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology service terminated unexpectedly.
It did not occur to me at first that driver updates from the OEMs of the support chipsets would cause so many issues. The number of clean O/S
reinstalls I have done to troubleshoot is over 20!!! Not to mention dozens of System Restore operations.
There is no way to get a clean event log with Asus mobos I have learned, through online searches and trial-and-error, a/b troubleshooting.
Some of the conflicts in hardware and software and Event Log errors are disputed with finger pointing among the OEMs: Intel, ASMedia, Realtek, Asus and of course Microsoft.
To be clear, I have reinstalled Window 10 on this system many times and used only the latest BIOS and drivers downloaded from the Asus motherboard support website. No weird or unstable apps are installed. I just wanted to get a stable O/S before adding more variables. I have run burn in tests with theROG Realbench and other similar tests, plus RAM has been thoroughly tested and etc.
It is clear that the hardware has not failed. ASUS has failed testing the drivers, O/S and UEFI. The Q.A. on this board, BIOS and drivers is very poor.
It's ANY other mobo brand for me in the next system build. So disgusted!!!
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CPU - Intel I7-6700K
Motherboard - Asus Z170-PREMIUM - UEFI/BIOS 1801
Memory - G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) (F4-3200C14D-32GVK)
Graphics - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming 4GB GDDR5
O/S SSD - Samsung 950 PRO Series 256GB PCIe NVMe M.2
Data HDD - Seagate 4TB SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive) SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache (ST4000DX001)
ODD - Pioneer Blu-Ray Writer (BDR-2209)
Liquid Cooler - Enermax Liqmax II 240 (ELC-LMR240-BS)
Thermal Compound - Cooler Master ThermalFusion 400 High Performance (4G RG-TF4-TGU1-GP)
PSU - CORSAIR HXi HX1000i 1000W Platinum Certified, Full Modular (CP-9020074-NA)
Chassis - Cooler Master Silencio 652S - Silent Mid Tower (SIL-652-KKN2)
O/S - Win10 Pro x64
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