Windows isn't booting up anymore & CD won't work

JohnnyScience said:

alphanumeric said:

Windows key plus pause/break key. Then click advanced system settings. Under the Advanced tab go to startup and recovery settings. In the System failure section make sure "Automatically restart" is NOT checked. Then the next time you get a BSOD write down the info on the screen so you can Google it latter. There are also log files etc you can look at to try and find out why it Blue screened. The Stop code on the actual blue screen is a good place to start though.

Where exactly do I hit windows & pause/break key?

Remember I can't even get past the initial product key registration to finish installih windows.

OK, I wasn't sure how far you got. You can leave it blank and still install. You then have 30 days to enter a valid product code. If your product code is being rejected during the install its either typed incorrectly or not the right code for the version you are installing. As an example you can't install Pro and try to enter a Home premium product code. I'm not saying thats what your doing, I'm just saying that is one thing that can cause your product code to be rejected. Double check to make sure you are not typing say an 8 when it should be a B or maybe an O instead of a Q or vise versa. At that point in the install (as far as I know) windows has no way of knowing if that code has been used before or on another PC. That only comes into play when you try to activate windows.

JohnnyScience said:

I've got 8g or ram (4 - 2g sticks) which I just resat all of them. Also resat my 2 video cards.

Ding, ding, ding - possible big clue here.

Try using only one stick of RAM.

In the past, I've seen some "problems" installing Windows when the system had 4GB or more of RAM.

If Windows installs under this, then reinstall the additional RAM.

Let us know if this works for you.

Regards,
GEWB

GEWB said:

JohnnyScience said:

I've got 8g or ram (4 - 2g sticks) which I just resat all of them. Also resat my 2 video cards.

Ding, ding, ding - possible big clue here.

Try using only one stick of RAM.

In the past, I've seen some "problems" installing Windows when the system had 4GB or more of RAM.

If Windows installs under this, then reinstall the additional RAM.

Let us know if this works for you.

Regards,
GEWB

I actually just did this about an hour ago.

I kept getting the BSD even after a clean install on another HDD.

So I attempted to go after the memory next. I took it down to 1 stick and everything seems to be working fine with no errors.

I actually reinstalled windows again back on the HDD I thought was corrupt with no issues.

Mannnnnnn I wish I would have figured this out before I wiped my HDD and tried to install windows literally about 50 times.

Do you think I actually have a bad stick? How can I go through the other 3 sticks to see which one might be bad?

So now I just need to reload my paragon backup, but I dot have any DVDS to burn and my memory stick is only 16g.

Is there anyway I can do it while the file is still on my internal media HDD? (man I hope that it works)

JohnnyScience said:

So I attempted to go after the memory next. I took it down to 1 stick and everything seems to be working fine with no errors.

I actually reinstalled windows again back on the HDD I thought was corrupt with no issues.

Do you think I actually have a bad stick? How can I go through the other 3 sticks to see which one might be bad?

OK, getting it narrowed down.

You have four sticks of RAM and at least four RAM sockets on your mobo. I would start by inserting one stick in the first socket (as per the user manual - please follow the instructions). Boot, run a memory test ulility, observe results.

Shut down, turn off, change RAM stick and repeat test. Do this until all RAM sticks have been tested.

If all four sticks pass then it's time to test the mobo to see if there is a bad socket.

Add a second stick (of previously tested/passed RAM) to the appropriate socket, probably for dual channel, - follow the mobo user manual instructions for this as the "mating" RAM slot is probably not physically next to the first slot (they are usually cpolor coded). Boot, run memory test utility.

Good luck.

Regards,
GEWB

Just thought I would add a note of caution about memory checkers.

I have been having similar problems on my computer for a few weeks now. Random freezes and BSODs, particularly when trying to re-install Windows. I also suspected the hard drive and bought a new one but that still gave trouble.

Running two or three memory checkers showed no problems but in desperation I removed one of my two memory sticks and everything was fine.

So I used some proper contact cleaner and cleaned the suspect memory stick contacts and plugged it back in again. Again, the memory checkers showed no problems but the BSODs returned. Now I have removed the memory stick permanently but it is still bugging me as I hate not knowing the exact cause of the problem.

Bare Foot Kid said:

Here you go.


RAM - Test with Memtest86+

Is this the best way to test memory? it seems Rumpty tried this but it did not work for him.

It also seems like its quite an intensive time consumer (I will run them while I'm sleeping like its suggested.) But still 4 sticks & 4 slots is going to take a long time based on the way this test is done

I agree that the problem I had could be caused by mismatched RAM even though it has been working fine in dual channel mode for months.

But shouldn't mismatched RAM, or even a slot problem, show up as a memory problem in a memory checker?

Success!

For those of you who are interested, here is a bit more information and a solution to my problem.


Originally, two identical (same make, same specification) 1Gb modules were installed and were operating in dual channel mode.

The computer had been operating perfectly for many months, then gradually random crashes appeared which became more frequent. Eventually, trying to install Windows 7 from DVD caused the computer to crash every time at the same point in the installation.

Suspecting a memory problem I ran memory checker programs, including the excellent Memtest86, but none of them showed any problems. I removed one memory module and everything was ok. It did not matter which memory module was installed or in which slot, as long as only one was present. I then discovered that it is possible to turn off dual channel mode in the BIOS. So, in went both modules and off went dual channel mode. Solved!

Windows 7 has been installed three times since from DVD to prove that it was not a one-off quirk.

So the moral of this tale is if you suspect a memory problem and are using dual channel mode try turning it off.

During the course of the investigation my hard drive went from giving the odd problem to packing up completely. It really should be made illegal to have two simultaneous problems on the same computer as it makes fault finding much more difficult.