Install from DVD freezes on "Windows is Loading Files"

Computer is a couple years old, self built, no issues. Watching hulu and suddenly there's a crackling sound, a flash of light, and screen freezes (not bsod, just total freeze). No biggie, reboot. Won't reboot. Get's to "Starting Windows" and freezes.

Figured it's a ram or hard drive issue. Long story short, quick trip to Fry's, put in brand new hard drive & one stick of brand new ram (completely took out old ram and old hard drives). Took out wireless card, unplugged all usb, except for new usb (wired) keyboard.

Put in Window's installation DVD, boot from CDRom, it gets to "Windows is loading files" and about the third time it completes a status bar, it freezes there. I've rebooted a few times, same issue. Swapped out the one new ram for the second stick that came in the pack, same thing.

So...not hard drive, not ram, not wireless card, not any usb thingy plugged in, system temps have been fine lately. Based on the sudden noise/flash seems like a hardware thing, but can't pinpoint.

System Specs:
Antec case, corsair 750W power supply, Gigabit UDP3 motherboard, intel i5-750, evga GeForce GTX260 vid card, and as of tonight a corsair 4gb ddr3 1333x ram, and wd caviar green 1tb hard drive.


Any ideas? I'm going to try to take out the video card (pita) in the mean time.


THX!

Could easily be the mboard.

Well, not what I wanted to hear, but very possible.

Going to have to research cheapest way to rebuild this thing.

Just keep going through your process of elimination.

hey jdecker..
how did you solve your problem .. as i am also having the exact same problem here.. stuck from 3 days now

Unplug all other HD's and peripherals,

Boot into BIOS setup, reset to defaults, save changes. If an EFI BIOS you'll need to decide if you want UEFI BIOS vs. Legacy BIOS. If UEFI follow these special steps for Install, otherwise enable Legacy BIOS or Compatibility Support Module to proceed with normal install:

Set DVD drive first to boot, HD second, set SATA controller to AHCI, Save changes and Exit.

Then boot into Windows 7 installer DVD or flash stick burned or written using tool and latest ISO for your licensed OS version here. I would use a fresh ISO written with tool in Step 2 as yours is in question. If DVD fails again then try flash method.

At first installer screen Press Shift + F10, or enter System Recovery Options to open a Command Box, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK 0 (after confirming Windows 7 target HD #)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
FORMAT FS=NTFS LABEL="WINDOWS 7"
ACTIVE
EXIT
EXIT

Next click Install Now, then Custom install to Clean Install Windows 7 to the partition you created. If it fails then report back at which step and the verbatim error message.

In addition read over these steps to understand the tools and methods which work best to get and maintain a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7. The steps are the same for retail.

After install you can adjust partition size or Create new partitions for data, etc. in Disk Mgmt. You are creating the partition here for the purpose of wiping the HD and marking Active which overcomes certain install failures.