Hi all,
Just a quick note that I spent all week trying to get the ethernet working on my Framework desktop to no avail.
Using HWInfo64 told me that they use the RealTek Semiconductor RTL8126 PCIe Ethernet Controller and hence I figured if I downloaded the drivers directly, they would work: Realtek .
And they did. My Ethernet is now up and running perfectly.
Figured I’d share since the standard drivers don’t work in Windows 10.
You probably know that, but I will tell you anyway, just in case.
Strix Halo processors are not meant to work with Windows 10 (just like Intel’s Alder Lake and newer). So you should be ready for all kind of instabilities and incompatibilities.
I wasn’t aware of that and in my research and had never come across any article or person who mentioned this incompatibility. You are the first person I’ve seen say that.
So far it’s completely stable with zero errors aside from the Ethernet driver, which I’ve now fixed myself.
In fact at the moment it’s the first time I’ve ever had zero BSDs with my firewire PCIE card and attached RME Fireface 800 firewire soundcard. On my old HP z640 Xeon it would BSD occasionally. With the framework it’s steady as a rock.
It seems like we should thank AMD and Framework for that, definitely not Microsoft, they are not interested to add support for the new hardware to Windows 10 anymore.
AMD officially announced that new processors (Strix Halo included) do not support Windows 10.
Moreover, Windows 10 does not fully support new Intel Thread Director which is necessary for correct P and E core load balancing on all of Intel’s heterogeneous CPUs (Alder Lake and newer).
Since mobile Zen 5 are heterogeneous too (but with no instructions differences between Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores) you may face something unexpected problems.
Moreover, Strix Halo specifically has a ton of new architectural stuff that are not specifically testes nowadays by AMD and Microsoft, since there is no official support.
The text in the quote box below is provided by Grok AI:
Strix Halo systems may boot and run on Windows 10 using generic or legacy drivers, but expect limited functionality, such as reduced iGPU performance, missing NPU (Neural Processing Unit) acceleration for AI tasks, and potential stability issues.
Awesome, thank you very much, that’s good to know. Might also explain my dock issues, probably due to incompatible thunderbold or USB4 drivers….
Out of curiosity - what do you need it for? Such an old tech… in top-notch PC with 8000 MHz RAM… I am surprised to say the least.
Is that hardware the reason you are stuck with Windows 10?
UPD: I don’t understand a thing in audio tech. Googled it and figured out that RME thing might be expensive to replace, that’s where the FireWire card comes from I guess.
It’s a really really good soundcard with 8 inputs and 8 outputs that I use for managing a large number of external analog synthesizers and recording equipment. It is easier to keep it running, and a lot cheaper, than replacing it with a USB3/4 soundcard.
In no way comparable but @D_Bit , in this post, noted Cubilux which look to have an amazing range of audio equipment that look quite respectably priced
Yeah that isn’t even close to replacing what the RME does. It’s on a totally different level.