HP DV6000 Intel based installation failure

toddah · 26 Apr 2010

I have a friends HP DV6000 I am attempting to install Windows 7 ultimate on and it is giving me fits. I am going to post here to see if anyone has any ideas. I have been working on this thing for over a week and cannot figure it out. I am a Network Administrator with 17 years of windows technical troubleshooting and configuration expirence.
HP Pavilion Laptop
Core 2 Duo processor
I think it has an intel graphics processor (no nvidia sticker)
2 gig of RAM
160 Gig disk
Running Windows Media Center 2005 currently

I have a new Windows 7 Ultimate package (upgrade)
I have a Windows 7 Professional CD from My Technet account
I have Vista Ultimate Production CD

I Start up the install from the Win7Ultimate DVD
I choose Custom
I Delete the partitions on the hard disk
I create a new 60 gig partiton, I also tried no precreated partiton
I have tried formatting the partition and not formatting the partition
and select to install Win7 there.
Setup goes on unpacking files and everything looks to be OK
System reaches a point and tells me it's going to reboot
That goes fine, I hear audio initialize (speakers make a small pop)
After rebooting a box appears listing a bunch of things it has done with green check marks next to each one, it then starts working on the last item which is
Completing Installation ...
Dots keep moving, mouse is moving and I can red x the top right and get a message that the system is working and if I stop now the system install will be incomplete.
I have let it run for over 12 hours and it never finishes.

I have tried the following

BIOS update = Only BIOS update available is for AMD based DV6000 not Intel
Setting SATA compatiblity configuration to Enable/Disable (tried both same result)
Removed 1 RAM chip and tried with 1 Gig of memory
Loaded Intel HDD driver files from Floppy at the F6 prompt (Both 32 and 64 bit)
Tried 32 and 64 bit installations of WIndows 7
Tried Win7 Ultimate and Professional disks (production and burned)
Tried Installing WIndows Vista Ultimate same result
Windows XP Media Center 2005 installs just fine and works well
Nothing in USB slots (except when loading HDD driver on one attempt)
I have used 3 different media disks and tried everything I can find on the internet to no avail. Anybody have any ideas I am out of fresh ones?

Casca · 26 Apr 2010

Disconnect ALL USB devices and try again.

toddah · 26 Apr 2010

As I posted earlier

Nothing in USB slots (except when loading HDD driver on one attempt)

Casca · 26 Apr 2010

Not even an internal card reader or onboard wifi?

Jonathan_King · 26 Apr 2010

Hmm... try disabling your onboard sound in your BIOS, or unplug the card if you have a PCI sound card.

Also disconnect the video card, if you have onboard graphics and a discreet card.

toddah · 26 Apr 2010

I did have the wireless switch turned off and the Wireless disabled in the BIOS. I don't remember if it has a card reader built in. I don't remember seeing anything in the BIOS about an internal card reader but I will look.

Laptop, so no video except what is built in to the MB, I will have to look and see if there is a sound disable function on in the BIOS but I don't think so.

I do appreicate the suggestions I will check these things when I get home from work

toddah · 27 Apr 2010

Ok I looked last night and the only setting in BIOS is to disable legacy USB support, And another to disable wireless other than that there is no facility to do anything with the built in card reader. I am currently running a tough test pro suite on the machine to determine if there are some technical issues with the machine as I cannot think of any other things to try. I am going to try an install from a USB stick instead of using the DVD reader just in case there is some issue with the reader (although it install WIndows XP fine).

No settings in BIOS to disable sound.

Casca · 27 Apr 2010

Did you 'disable legacy USB support' and try again?

toddah · 28 Apr 2010

Yup tried that, No go .
Well things progressed from bad to really bad last night. I don't think its a W7 problem anymore. I found a BIOS update for that machine based on the motherboard BIOS Product number and I used the DOS based Phoenix rescue BIOS program to install it. Everything progressed just fine thru the update with the floppy reading and waiting and reading until it finished as it should and then it shut down the machine power as it should but now the power button will not even light up when pressed. I am not sure if a failed BIOS update should keep the actual power button from pulling up the power to the machine or if the MB just gave up the ghost at the moment I was doing the upgrade. I will need need to research this further to determine what happened. I appreiciate all the help and suggestions you guys have offered but I am thinking I may have been witnessing a failing MB during this entire process thus explaining all the weird crap I have seen trying to do a simple install.

Jonathan_King · 28 Apr 2010

Try testing your RAM. Download a copy of Memtest86 and burn the ISO to a CD using Iso Recorder. Boot from the CD, and run at least 5 passes.

HP DV6000 Intel based installation failure

HP DV6000 Intel based installation failure

nothing in any USB slots on 12 attempts

USB settings

Disable USB legacy support