Windows 7 installation hanging/freezing

[barneyp]

Hey...
When I'm trying to install Windows 7, it gets stuck, generally at "Completing installation", but sometimes before, at the first background screen... I can only get to "Completing installation" using the safe mode install. I've tried taking all unneccessary parts out, and used several different sticks of RAM.

I've also tried different hard drives, different DVDs (the current one is a retail disk), and a different graphics card. When it freezes, the monitor will just go black - into standby - and I can't turn it back on. I've tried disabling the USB ports in the BIOS.

Current Operating System, pre-install
• Do you have a single OS on your computer, are you planning on multi-booting with this installation? Yes, XP at the moment, and yes I'm planning on multi-booting.
• Are you multi-booting now? No

Current Hardware
• How many internal hard drives (HD) are connected to your system? 3
• Are they IDE or SATA? SATA
• How many DVD drives are connected to your system? 1
• Are they IDE or SATA Drives? SATA
• Any external HDs used? Nope
• Are they connected by USB or eSATA?
• Check Disk Management for any HDs listed with a yellow triangle and explanation point? Nope, all work fine.
• Is this a New Clean HD? The one I'm installing - or attempting to install - 7 on is, yes.
• Have you pre-formatted the HD? No

Windows 7 installation details
• Which build number and version of Windows 7 are you installing? Retail version, Professional.
• Are you installing a 32 bit (x86) or 64 bit (x64) OS? x64
• Where did you get the ISO file from? Retail disk.

Installation Media
• Using a USB memory key? Nope
• From another partition or hard disk? No
• From a DVD? Yep
The procedure and speed of burning the ISO to DVD has been the most frequent cause of installation failure
• How did you burn the DVD? Briefly describe the steps you used. Retail...
• Which ISO burning software did you use?
• At what burning speed and with Verify checked?
• A slow burn speed, lowest setting (example x4 speed), will ensure an error free burn.

Other
• Any Over Clocking of the RAM, CPU or GPU? No, not atm




The only real possibility I can think of right now is that the motherboard is dodgy... I read somewhere else a bit ago that one range of Gigabyte boards didn't like installing Windows 7, but can't remember exactly...

EDIT: Well... I just got further than I've been able to manage so far... got to the bit where I was choosing the time... then out of the blue the monitor turned off, same as before :|

EDIT 2: ...it's managed to install... I think... but it keeps on crashing frequently in Windows 7, so I've got a feeling that the RAM's dodgy... again..


Thanks in advance,

Barney

 

[gregrocker]

Check your mobo connections. Test RAM using memtest86 CD for 5-6 passes, swap and reseat RAM.

Are you booting Win7 DVD to try install. If so, try running from XP desktop.

Next try unplugging all other HD's to try install.

If you have a video card, can you remove it to default to onboard graphics in BIOS?

What is SATA controller setting in BIOS? Try AHCI first, then IDE if necessary.

You may need to pull the new HD and plug into another machine to initialize the HD in Disk Mgmt.

 

[barneyp]

Connections are all good, I'm testing the RAM right now... and thanks, I'll try the rest later if the RAM's okay...

 

[Keiichi25]

Another option is how much ram do you have, what is the physical configuration. From what I have seen as past suggestions is to run with 1 ram in the system (Preferably the one meeting the min necessities).

The possibility could also be a RAM issue coinciding with the dodginess of the board, but without specifics, it could be anything short of trying to go to the very lowest configuration first.

 

[gregrocker]

Since you now have WIn7 installed, check you have the latest BIOS version update from the Gigabyte Support Downloads webpage for your model.

If so, reset the CMOS: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/tp/clearcmos.htm

Can you get to the Event Viewer>Admin View to google repeat errors to find out how others have solved the issues? Check also Performance log on Advanced Tools page accessed by clicking through WEI score link at Computer>Properties. Look for cued issues at top of page, also Generate a System Health Report and look closely at memory and hardware section.

Try running with only 2gb of RAM, swap sticks, try all slot combinations. Test RAM sticks individually, stress test RAM overnight. What brand of RAM do you have and how old?

 

[barneyp]

I'll try updating the BIOS soon... Windows 7 seems to be working in safe mode, so i'm installing drivers right now, I'll have a look at the others soon.

I've got 4x1gb sticks of RAM so can't test them individually, but I've run memtest 86 on them overnight, 10 tests, and they all passed...

I have 2x1gb sticks of corsair ram, brand new (about a day or 2 old), and 2x1gb sticks of ocz ram, from about december.

 

[Keiichi25]

I'll try updating the BIOS soon... Windows 7 seems to be working in safe mode, so i'm installing drivers right now, I'll have a look at the others soon.

I've got 4x1gb sticks of RAM so can't test them individually, but I've run memtest 86 on them overnight, 10 tests, and they all passed...

I have 2x1gb sticks of corsair ram, brand new (about a day or 2 old), and 2x1gb sticks of ocz ram, from about december.

That might be part of the problem... Two different manufactures of RAM.

In the past, I had seen Memtests show fine, but when put under stress of what Windows did (This was back with Win95 and 98...) Systems would have issues with memory that were mixed manufacture. Sometimes the bus will try its best to run at the lowest common denominator for RAM, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way, causing some dirty data to happen because of how memory is accessed.

Whether or not this is still true with current day hardware, I have been a proponent of trying not to mix ram manufacturers and memory types (Mostly speed differentials) to mitigate potential memory error flaws that come from it. While it may have worked fine before, again, the same could be said about systems prior to putting Windows 95 back in the day and only to have it crap out when Windows tries to run at any clip.

 

[barneyp]

I flashed the BIOS and it worked perfectly

Thanks for all the help

 

[gregrocker]

Glad it helped