Windows 7: First installation of Windows 7 x64 restarts on "Starting Windows"

Have you tried it with just a single stick of RAM?

Are all of these components new?

Is your installation disc burned, retail, OEM, borrowed, or ???

How did you check the RAM?

Where did you get Windows 7? Did you burn the disk yourself?

Unplug all other HD's and peripherals.

Strip it down and then add components back, one at a time, to try and isolate the offending component.

The test (power off, power cord unplugged):

• Disconnect everything externally connected except the mouse and keyboard (printers, USB devices). If you are not using a wired mouse and keyboard see if you can borrow one.

• Disconnect the power and data cables from all the drives inside the computer (Hard drives, DVD/CD drives).

• Remove all the cards installed in the PCI slots including the video card. (be careful handling them and place them on a non conductive surface while testing).

• Remove all the RAM sticks (same rules as above).
Now connect the power cord and turn the PC on.

• The motherboard should start beeping. You should get a beep code that tells you there is no memory. This is good, it means the processor is functioning and the motherboard is good so far.

• Now add one stick of memory in Slot A1 and power on. More beeping: "no video card" beep code. This is good.

• Then add the video card and connect it to the monitor. You should get no beeping and you should see the BIOS screens, ending with the message that there is no boot device.
If you get no video then switch the one memory stick installed for another one and test.

Continue adding components one at a time.

If at any point the PC fails the the last component added was the problem one.

If you removed everything and there is only the Motherboard (with integrated video), processor, and power supply to contend with and it does not POST or show anything on the screen, then the problem is one of those three.

If you have tested by using another power supply then you are down to two. CPUs rarely fail, so motherboard is the most likely guess.

Try performing a CLRTC or Clear CMOS as a last ditch effort, and check the 3v battery. Both long shots, but what do you have to lose at this point.

The RAM checked through, I didn't get a problem. But after I turned it on with the RAM inside, I didn't get an error message for the missing video card. I went through with the rest and it appeared to be normal. I'm going to try the CLRTC/Clear CMOS.

If none of these work, should I have my motherboard exchanged?

Should I just take it to the shop?

Not yet.

Wait for more input.

You could have bad hardware, but it's difficult to tell directly without specific tools.

At some point, you may be able to narrow it down to motherboard OR processor. At that point, you might have to just guess it was the motherboard because processor failures are VERY uncommon.

I assume you have do not have a second power supply that you could swap in if necessary?

I'd wait for more comments.