Windows 7: Can't Install Win 7 - BSOD on Completing Installation

Having problems installing Win 7 on to my computer (Abit IP35-E mobo and on to a new 1TB HDD, which I partition to 50gig for the Windows drive). It can get as far as the completing installation part (which takes ages), and then it will quickly flash a blue screen for a second and then reboot with an unfinished install on the drive and thus of no use.

Tried pretty much everything other places have suggested, such as going down to 2gig ram (even swapped diff types in and out), unplugging all USB devices, unplugging every bit of hardware i can. Even tried installing on an older non-sata dvd drive but with no luck, and also tried a friends copy of Win 7 (32bit this time) and that didn't work either.

Only other suggestion that gets mentioned a lot is to try turning ACHI on, but seems my mobo doesn't support that.



Anyone have any other suggestions? And is there a way to check out what the bsod is reporting as the error? I've seen mention of dumps to a minidump folder, but there isn't one of those in the c/windows dir of the unfinished install.

Welcome Precizion


What is the make & model of your video card ? Do you also have any onBoard video connections on the MB ? Where did you get you Windows 7 Disc ? What version is your 64bit ? What is the make & model of the DVD you have tried to use with the install ?

Video card is an ATI 4890. MB doesn't have onboard video. Win 7 is enterprise version and is the free trial version from MS. Dvd drive is a Samsung SH-S223C and also an older Samsung TS-H552 that I tried but which made no difference.

Thank you Precizion for the info

I have several installs I have done with my TechNet Windows 7 Ent x64 version. If yours is the Trial version I beleive it is only good for 90 days trial. I asume that you downloaded it as an .iso file.
That is best burned to DVD with ImgBurn (Freeware) at 4x speed & verify ON. So you may have had a bad burn that is preventing a complete install.

Does your MB Bios have the IDE mode for the HD's, even though it is a 1tb Sata HD ?

If the problem repeats after confirming ISO integrity and burn, try using this method to enter Device Manager during install to uninstall any devices shown in error (likely the Display adapter) so install can complete without BSOD and you can update driver from the desktop: Device Manager - Access During Windows 7 Installation

Thanks Greg. Did what you said and used the device manager and found a few that could be causing conflict, but decided just to disable to VGA driver to start with and after that it installed fine. So guess that was my problem.

Thanks to Doc as well for offering help.

Glad it was the simple driver problem, that let you install it

Good, now enable hardware auto-updating and check regularly for newer drivers in optional Windows Updates: Automatically get recommended drivers and updates for your hardware

Any drivers then missing in Device Manager can be imported from the Support Downloads webpage for your model computer or device. I would not change out any drivers given by the installer or Updates unless performance problems point to that driver. Windows 7 is the authority on its drivers except in rare cases.