Have never seen this before - Win 11 25H2 Setup ("Please Wait" to ASUS Prime z790-A

Finally making the move to Windows 11 for a digital audio workstation here and have been trying to install a (NT Lite) Win 11 25H2 ISO here for several hours now - one ISO was built yesterday - using the new 2023 boot certs and one I did a month ago - without the new certs.

In both cases here today - installing to a known good ASUS Prime z790-A - to a Samsung Pro 990 - this ISO runs the first setup screen to the 78% mark and then does it's first restart and then upon returning - Win Setup displays "Please Wait" - like forever. Can't even Shift-F10 - nothing while this first black screen is being displayed.

I am struggling to understand just what is going on here.

Both ISOs were prepped via Rufus 4.14p as I always do. Both ISOs install successfully in 4 mins flat to a VM.

Both ISO use a very conservative NT Lite settings template that I have used for years and installed on many a physical/virtual machine

What am I missing here - have never been jammed out like this.

S

If the install is stuck for more than 30 minutes, power the system off. Boot into WinPE, but don't run Setup again.

Copy the "\$Windows.~BT\Sources\Panther" and "\Windows\Panther" logs to the USB drive so you can browse the setup logs offline.

garlin said:

If the install is stuck for more than 30 minutes, power the system off. Boot into WinPE, but don't run Setup again.

Copy the "\$Windows.~BT\Sources\Panther" and "\Windows\Panther" logs to the USB drive so you can browse the setup logs offline.

Click to expand...

Exactly how would I get into WinPE if there is no way to get into it?

I get zero options at startup. My setup goes right into Disk Selection and then off it goes to the light blue “ Installing Windows 11” with the percentage counter going by.

That rolls to the first reboot and then it’s hang city “Please Wait” on the black screen reboot.

S

Boot WinPE, enter Shift-F10 to open a CMD shell. If you don't know which logs to copy, use XCOPY and take an entire folder to the the same USB drive you're using to install Windows. Obviously this won't work if you have an unattended file, or using Rufus to automate anything.

Update: After what felt like about 22 minutes of Ai Q&A and other general searches - turns out that my specific ASUS Motherboard series (Prime z790-A) - when teamed up with 25H2 AND either disabling it's onboard LAN controller OR pulling the USB drive at the 79% mark during setup resulted in a successful setup.

Full disclosure - I tried the USB trick at least 4 times during the 10 prior passes of this install - but it wasn't until I disabled the LAN controller - that everything went as it should. Total install time from this ISO was 5min 12sec - exactly what my VM testing had demonstrated previously.

Appreciate the willingness to assist as always. And like I always say - just when I think I have seen it all.....

S

Sounds like a driver mismatch. After the specialize pass, Windows has the opportunity to use driver ranking to pick a different driver to load on the next reboot.

If the same ISO installs fine in a VM, you know it's a HW-based issue.

garlin said:

Sounds like a driver mismatch. After the specialize pass, Windows has the opportunity to use driver ranking to pick a different driver to load on the next reboot.

If the same ISO installs fine in a VM, you know it's a HW-based issue.

Click to expand...

Well - I have used this board for the past 3 years - first with 23H2 and then for the past two years with Windows 10 22H2 and have always left the LAN controller on and always had successful (NT Lite) based installs.

Also - the controller in this board is nothing special at all - it's your garden variety Intel i-225/226v so a modern July 2026 build of Windows 11 25H2 should have no issue with this in any way. Or maybe it does?

ALSO - the LAN was not even plugged in during Setup. I do not connect the network in a typical build until I get the motherboard driver installation.

So whatever is going on here - is most odd. Windows Setup should not care - LAN card wise - until I actually plug it in and/or get to the formal driver install.

This is the first time I have ever seen anything like this....

S

Does this sound about right?

Issue: Windows 25H2 Setup hangs with an endless "Please Wait" screen on the ASUS Prime Z790-A motherboard.

Root Cause: A conflict between the new generic Intel I226-V ethernet driver embedded in the 25H2 media and the motherboard's network adapter initialization, triggers background network polling introduced in the updated Windows 25H2 OOBE layer

Resolution: Disabling the LAN Controller in the UEFI BIOS removes the device from the initial Windows hardware scan, preventing the faulty driver from loading and allowing Setup to safely proceed offline.

And I would guess for future builds - it might be time to start baking in my specific drivers to my custom install media (NT Lite)?

S

SonicMojo said:

Does this sound about right?

Issue: Windows 25H2 Setup hangs with an endless "Please Wait" screen on the ASUS Prime Z790-A motherboard.

Root Cause: A conflict between the new generic Intel I226-V ethernet driver embedded in the 25H2 media and the motherboard's network adapter initialization, triggers background network polling introduced in the updated Windows 25H2 OOBE layer

Resolution: Disabling the LAN Controller in the UEFI BIOS removes the device from the initial Windows hardware scan, preventing the faulty driver from loading and allowing Setup to safely proceed offline.

And I would guess for future builds - it might be time to start baking in my specific drivers to my custom install media (NT Lite)?

S

Click to expand...

From the symptoms and the cure, I guess Windows would try to install drivers for the LAN adapter and could not find a match. That's why most of us trying to install Windows 11 on our unsupported computers have to disable all devices before a clean installation or upgrade to avoid Setup trying for ever to find drivers and then fail. I know yours is Windows 11 compliant, but same issue same fix.