Windows 7: Laptop Install stalls part way. W7 home prem 32bit

Soo its an Acer travelmate 4000 laptop, 1.6Ghz, 2gig ram, clean hard drive with two partitions , primary is 30 gig , secondary 120 gig.

Windows 7 home prem OEM 32 bit

It gets through the first part of the install (up to the first restart) then goes on to the screen shown in part 9 of the clean install guide, highlighting the "completing installation" message

Clean Install Windows 7



then stops with the progress bar about 3/2rds of the way. The drive light flashes occasionally, but otherwise nothing,

I formatted and partitioned the drive in another machine.

Boot the installer and use Custom install Drive Options to delete all partitions, create new as you desire, format and install.

If this fails, try wiping the HD: SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation. Unplug all other HD's and peripherals.

If the installation fails at same place, try entering Device manager during install to uninstall any Device which is in error and likely stalling installation, then update driver from desktop after install finishes: Device Manager - Access During Windows 7 Installation

Next try resetting the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS to Optimal Defaults.
While in BIOS setup, set SATA controller to AHCI to try install.

Thanks for the reply.

I've gone through those and no luck so far. I didn't clear all the drivers flagged with a yellow triangle in the compmgmt bit as there were a couple I thought might be needed, but I tried everything else.

I'm wondering if XP might be less fussy. I'm going to try installing XP, getting all the drivers sorted, then upgrade to 7.

You won't be able to literally Upgrade from XP desktop, but can run a Custom install to overwrite XP. I'd try to install it to first partition then delete others and repartition as needed after install. Clean Install Windows 7

The problem driver is normally the Display. If it has anything other than Standard VGA showing in error when you enter Device Manager during install, try Uninstalling the Device to see if installation will complete. As a last resort you can then try uninstalling all in error as Windows will default to setup drivers to possibly complete install.

Where did you get Windows 7? DId you burn the DVD yourself? Try confirming ISO integrity or downloading another, burn to DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed, or write to flash stick to try an alternative method booted install using Universal USB Installer with Windows 7 in dropdown menu - boot under USB, Removable or HD's using one-time BIOS Boot Menu key given on first screen.

XP didn't want to play ball either.

I'll have another go stripping out the remaining drivers showing errors, I stripped out the display driver first time.

The Windows 7 disk is a pukka unused oem version, still got the coa sticker n everything.

Huzzah! (possibly)
I turned off everything listed as a possible problem and it's got to the second restart.

Obviously - Because it's windows - it's now saying that the product key is invalid. I'll skip that for now but I guess I need to fix that pretty quickly.

It's easy to type incorrect characters. If need be, do the phone activation: How To Activate Windows 7 by Phone Step-by-Step Guide

Your only worry would be if it isn't legit Windows 7 bought from major retailer or other unquestionable source. What is this exactly?

As far as I know it's a genuine version, It came from a retailer via amazon, but has all the correct holograms and stickers.

Stage 9 can take a few hours on some PC.

I would Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

Hi Theog, yeah, the first time I tried it I left it overnight. It turns out is was the hardware driver issue, I had to disable pretty much everything to get it to install, then switch them all back on again once the desktop was running, Almost all anyhow, a couple wouldn't activate and still need sorting out.

Right so I thought I'd try the online activation before phoning ------and it worked, go figure
I now have a correctly activated copy of Windows 7, complete with shiny "genuine microsoft" sticker.

Now I just need to get the mysterious "unknown hardware" working and get the USB ports going again.
---Thanks Acer



Oh and proper real non-sarcastic thanks to you Gregrocker and Theog for your help