Solved Installed new motherboard, unable to install windows (system hangs)

[DestroyRX]

Hi everyone,

A while ago, my grandparents gave me an old HP desktop. They thought it would be fun for me to screw around with it. I learnt a bit more about building.computers and decided I would just upgrade this old pc. I bought new CPUs and RAM and a new graphics card with the money i got from my new job at maccas (only 15 yrs old by the way), however the OEM motherboard (a8m2n-la) wouldnt take the Phenom x4 9850, so i replaced it with a motherboard (ASUS a2m vm) my friend had lying around. That's where my problems began.

When I installed the new motherboard, I tried to boot from the hard drive which hung at the starting windows screen and then a Windows 7 ultimate disk and was able to get through the loading files part , but the system would hang at "Starting Windows" without the windows animation. I also tried xp and even an 2000 ME disk I found. All resulting in the same problem. Now arises a new problem, my SATA HDD is not detected in the BIOS in this PC or any others I tried. So I'm assuming its dead. Do I need a new HDD, where I am (Adelaide) I can pick up one for about $50 and if so what steps do I have to take to install Windows?

Original specs:
a8m2n la asus motherboard
AMD sempron 1800+ 1.8ghz
Onboard graphics
OEM 300w psu
256mb ddr2 533mhz ram
IDE 80 gb hdd

Upgraded Specs
Phenom x4 9850 (had athlon 5600+ x2 running in old motherboard before)
Asus a2n VM motherboard
nVidia GTX 460
Corsair 680w PSU
4 gb (2*2) kingstob ddr2 800mhz ram
SATA 250 gb HDD



Thanks
Dan

 

[gregrocker]

Sounds like you need a new HD, or swap in an older one if you have it.

Then Clean Install Windows 7.

 

[Golden]

^ Exactly what the man with the surfboard said - that HDD sounds kaput if it won't appear in the BIOS (give the connections a good wiggle to be sure)

 

[Anthony]

Try New Cables or known working ones, too

 

[DestroyRX]

Yeah, sounds like my old HD is dead, but now I am back to my original problem, I am unable to install windows. It hangs at the "starting windows" screen. (new hdd btw) Any ideas?

 

[bobkn]

Yeah, sounds like my old HD is dead, but now I am back to my original problem, I am unable to install windows. It hangs at the "starting windows" screen. (new hdd btw) Any ideas?

This is a bit of a long shot, but Asus lists the board as requiring BIOS 2101 or later to support the Phenom X4 9850.

Do you have that?

 

[DestroyRX]

Yeah, sounds like my old HD is dead, but now I am back to my original problem, I am unable to install windows. It hangs at the "starting windows" screen. (new hdd btw) Any ideas?

This is a bit of a long shot, but Asus lists the board as requiring BIOS 2101 or later to support the Phenom X4 9850.

Do you have that?

Yeah, I have version 2102 :/

 

[gregrocker]

Did you swap in a new HD?

Enter BIOS setup to make sure HD is detected. Reset BIOS to defaults, set SATA controller to AHCI to try install.

Try wiping it first with Diskpart Clean Command from the booted installer accessing DISKPART At PC Startup.

Then close the Command Box and choose Install Now, use drive options to partition as you please or just click Next to let installer do it for you. Illustrated steps here: Clean Install Windows 7

 

[Golden]

Also check the source of the Windows 7 installation ISO - is it an original or a downloaded ISO? If the latter, butn it to DVD again at a slower speed to ensure a good burn.

 

[DestroyRX]

Still can't get past the windows is starting screen. I finally gave up and I asked Dad if he could take it to a guy at work who had previously fixed our computers to have a look at =) Hopefully he can find the cause of this dilemma. If I get a cause, I will reply so others with this problem will not have to go through what I did. (No homework for a week XD) A huge thank you to all those who spent their time to help me.

Dan

 

[Golden]

You never did say if it was an original DVD, or a downloaded ISO? We could have helped you get this sorted very easily.

Regards,
Golden

 

[DestroyRX]

It was a disk my dad picked up from our local computer store that we never ended up using as the family pc's CPU and motherboard overheated and everyone ended up relying on mine.

 

[Golden]

Ah OK, in that case I guess it was unlikely to have been damaged (e.g. scratched)?

 

[DestroyRX]

No it looked pretty good, I ran it on my a friends laptop at school and it loaded the files cleanly and was able to use system recovery.

 

[Golden]

Mmm. Maybe a bad CD/DVD drive? Did you know you can burn the Windows 7 installation ISO to a USB drive and boot and install from that, if that old HP allows you to boot from a USB?

 

[DestroyRX]

Yeah, I'm able to boot from a USB. Is there a recommended program for creating a bootable USB? Is it possible to install windows to an external HD and then boot from it?

 

[Golden]

Is it possible to install windows to an external HD and then boot from it?

^My understanding is it is so dog-slow, its not worth it.

Get the same ISO download here:
Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life

Install it to a 4GB USB using this tool:
Microsoft Store Online

Activate it using the key that came with the disk you got from the shop.

 

[gregrocker]

Why no reply to these steps? What changes after trying each?

Did you swap in a new HD?

Enter BIOS setup to make sure HD is detected. Reset BIOS to defaults, set SATA controller to AHCI to try install.

Try wiping it first with Diskpart Clean Command from the booted installer accessing DISKPART At PC Startup.

Then close the Command Box and choose Install Now, use drive options to partition as you please or just click Next to let installer do it for you. Illustrated steps here: Clean Install Windows 7

There will be more if these fail.

When trying the booted USB install, if it fails unplug the DVD drive next.

 

[DestroyRX]

Well, it looks as though the new HDD I bought was faulty, it was tested in a test PC at MSY (computer parts store) and it had a similar problem. Brought home a replacement and lo and behold I was able to install windows 7. Thanks for you help, I really appreciate it. I felt so happy I even went back and bought a new 128gb SSD for gaming and booting windows.

Dan

 

[Golden]