Windows 7 - PC keeps rebooting at last step of install

Everything about the install appears to be going fine, but at the last step when it says completing installation, i have problems.

It says it's going to reboot and then does. When it's starting back up, is says setup is updating the registry. Then it says setup is starting services. It restarts again and when it gets to the same spot, out of nowhere the PC reboots and gets to the same point before endless rebooting.

I tried installing both 32 and 64 bit versions but the same problem with both of them. The 32 bit version I was able to get installed just fine on 2 old XP computers my friend had, so I know the disc itself is good.

I've tried just about everything I can think of but can't get past this issue. And every attempt is a big deal because I have to then restore my PC back to the original factory condition and it takes time. I don't have another PC of my own to troubleshoot with either. I've tried raising the RAM to 4GB but that had no effect. I'm sorta a beginner so any help is greatly appreciated.

Funny, it took on the XP machines like nothing but on the Vista machine it's a no go.

Hello garbagedrew and welcome to the Se7enforums!

If you are trying to update and not use the custom install option to replace the existing installations this is where you are running into problems from the start.

The custom install option will pack everything up from the existing XP or Vista installation into the Windows.old folder while the upgrade will stall every time until the finished retail upgrade disks are out on 10/22. At this point MS recommends installing the 7 RCs on a separate partition when you have the free drive space as well as an existing installation already running on the system. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...tructions.aspx

With that in mind you will want to look at the tutorial right here on how to go about setting up a dual boot of XP with 7, Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

To see 7 in a dual boot with an existing Vista installation, Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and Vista

For simply seeing a nice clean install of 7 by itself, Clean Install Windows 7

I think you want to look over those last 3 three as well as the information seen on the MS page for deciding on which option you will go with in order to see working results.

Follow this tutorial and you are done: Solved Hard Drive - Unable to Select or Delete during Installation - Vista Forums

Actually you have to consider all the options available if you still want to run XP or Vista on the system 7 goes on. If you simply want 7 only the best option is simply to reformat the entire drive to see a totally fresh clean install of 7 by itself.

In fact that's the usual recommendation MS provides for setting up a test machine while leaving your main drive/OS untouched. A clean install to a second partition later allows you to simply reformat when wanting to remove the temporary install of 7 that would be going on at this time.

So i have read all the info above and tried everything i could think of. Clean install, dual boot, booting from a second hard drive and every combination therein. Nothing works. I still have the same problem.

I can easily install Windows 7 on my roommate's 2 older XP computers (acutally from 1998) and it works just fine. But at the last step on mine, it just keeps rebooting. Sometimes it says "starting services" and then reboots, sometimes it just doesn't say anything.
When I restart it says "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows, click 'OK' to restart the computer and then restart the installation." Of course restarting the installation doesn't help.

Why won't this work. I have a computer already running Vista and I thought it was supposed to be easy to install Windows 7 on it. I am not necessarily trying to save anthing on my drive. I have done a clean install multiple times with the same error.
I even tried with a different install disc. First I was using the 7001 build and then I also tried the 7057.0.09.... build but it's the exact same problem. Doesn't matter if I use 64-bit or 32 either. Same problem.

I'm gonna try what dinesh suggested and see if that helps.

Maybe I just have to accept the fact that I can't use Windows 7 no matter what. My computer just doesn't like it and no one can offer any help that works. Everyone I talk to has no idea what the problem is. I can downgrade to XP okay but obviously don't want to stay that way. Does no one else out there have a similar problem? Is there any way at all to install Win 7?

Help please!

And actually I'm not going to follow the instructions on the link dinesh posted because that is for installing Vista which is not a problem. Also, it looks like that is an entirely different problem than what I am having. I can select the hard drive or partition or whatever just fine. It starts installing just fine. At the very end, right when it should be asking for a key code, it reboots. It will go in a neverending cycle if I let it.


It would be like Microsoft to make something that works with ten-year-old technology but not something made a year ago.

You could try checking the setup log files to see if they give you any sort of indication of what the problem is. The location of them is below.


$windows.~bt\Sources\Panther
Log location before Setup can access the drive.

$windows.~bt\Sources\Rollback
Log location when Setup rolls back in the event of a fatal error.

%WINDIR%\Panther
Log location of Setup actions after disk configuration.

%WINDIR%\Inf\Setupapi*.log
Used to log Plug and Play device installations.

%WINDIR%\Memory.dmp
Location of memory dump from bug checks.

%WINDIR%\Minidump\*.dmp
Location of log minidumps from bug checks.

%WINDIR%\System32\Sysprep\Panther
Location of Sysprep logs.

You are likely going to find out that you are seeing a hardware problem or bios setting off like ide or ACHI mode stalling the works on you if the dvd saw a good burn and the optical is in good working order. If the burn wasn't complete that will gum up the works simply for having a few setup files missing or incomplete on the disk.

From the problem description it sounds more like one setup file isn't being copied fully to the drive which results in the installation hanging just before you reach the desktop. When you added the new memory in that may have been a mismatch seen there which can hamper things fast! That seems to be the one thing mentioned right off compared to the other XP systems that saw results.

I have the same computer and experienced the same problem trying to install Windows 7. A bug in the video driver Windows 7 uses for your video card prevents windows from starting and installation to fail if you are using the dvi cable. First you have to remove it and use the VGA cable to successfully install Windows 7. After it is installed use windows update to get the prerelease nVidia Driver for windows 7. After it is installed you can reconnect your monitor with the dvi cables with no issue.

Thanks for the tip! joey2007ua and welcome to the Se7enforums!

The problem with rushing into the native HD resolution with the DVI cable is what you are saying there then. That would be something to consider if garbagedrew is presently using the DVI and not the standard vga depending on the monitor in use there which would likely be an HP model.