Windows 7: Freezes whilst joining network during install

Hi,

I'm installing Windows 7 Professional on my laptop and I'm at what I think is the final set up stage but it has been trying to connect to the network and apply the settings for an hour now. The loading bar is still scrolling continuously and I can move the pointer round but I can't do much else.

Can someone suggest what the cause might be? If not, is there a safe way to turn the laptop off now?

Sometimes you can enter Device Manager during install to disable a device which is in error and may be hanging the intsall, then after it completes install the correct driver from desktop: Device Manager - Access During Windows 7 Installation

If that fails then reinstall following the Best Practices given in Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 with the wireless switch turned off on laptop and/or if necessary wireless disabled in BIOS setup. Then you can deal with it from the desktop after install.

Thanks for the help. I went into BIOS and disabled the wifi and just plugged it in via the ethernet and it worked. I then had a problem logging in though with it saying The User Profile Service service failed the logon. Managed to login to the same account fine in safe mode and just removed the password and copyed the administrator folder from windows.old into the new users folder and it seems to work fine now. Thanks again for the help.