Ok, I thought I was pretty good but...HELP!!!

[JMack89427]

[Solved]Ok, I thought I was pretty good but...HELP!!!

Ok, so here's the story and then I'll answer the requisite questions. I've been a geek for 15+ years and know my way around Windows fairly well although I've been a Solaris Sysadmin for most of my professional career. I bought a Gateway DX4710 last year to replace an old E-Machine as a disposable gaming machine (Yes, I put a good video card in it ) I was running Windows 7 Ultimate RC 7100 for quite a while with no issues at all and decided to go legit and bought the upgrade. Here's where I'm at:

With AHCI enabled I restored to Vista and upgraded - IaStor.sys BSODs
Without AHCI I restored to Vista and upgraded - Processes hang under load
Without AHCI clean install from upgrade media - Processes hang under load
With AHCI clean install from upgrade and force install chipset drivers and Intel Matrix Storage crap - Whole system hangs within minutes of boot
With AHCI clean install from upgrade - Haven't done anything with it but install updates

By "under load" I mean adding my entire music collection, which is only 200+ gig, to WMP. Watching resource manager I see the processes start to go "Not Responding". I checked my internal drive for errors and didn't get any and am checking the smaller of my externals now. I'll provide whatever information you guys need

On to the questions:

Current Operating System, pre-install

• Do you have a single OS on your computer, are you planning on multi-booting with this installation? Planning on dual-booting Ubuntu 9.10 after Win7 is square
• Are you multi-booting now? No, 100 gig of unallocated space on the disk though.
Current Hardware
• How many internal hard drives (HD) are connected to your system? 1
• 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? 2
• Are they connected by USB or eSATA? USB
• Check Disk Management for any HDs listed with a yellow triangle and explanation point? All Healthy
• Is this a New Clean HD? No
• Have you pre-formatted the HD? It was reformatted before install using GParted

Windows 7 installation details

• Which build number and version of Windows 7 are you installing? Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade
• Are you installing a 32 bit (x86) or 64 bit (x64) OS? x64
• Where did you get the ISO file from? Store bought disk.
Installation Media
• Using a USB memory key? No
• From another partition or hard disk? No
• From a DVD? Yes

Other

• Any Over Clocking of the RAM, CPU or GPU? No



Solution: The problem ended up being a bad/incompatible video card. Once the GTS 250 was replaced with a 9800 GTX+, everything worked flawlessly. Just goes to show you that even though it's supposed to work, always question what's changed. Thanks everyone!

 

[JMack89427]

I should also probably mention that I put in a new PNY Geforce 250 GTS and 650w Corsair PSU between the RC and new install. I also had WoW hang on me repeatedly today while trying to play but the system never crashed, nor did the game.

 

[gregrocker]

Why did you restore Vista in order to Upgrade? To try to get in-place to work?

You could have left RC on, booted from Win7 DVD to format install and it would have accepted Upgrade version key.

Have you tried booting from DVD to Custom install, using Drive Options to delete/create/format? I cannot find it in your OP.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/31402-clean-install-upgrade-windows-7-version.html

 

[JMack89427]

Yes, I followed that guide, which I found late last night, for the last three installs. I never occurred to me to try and install cleanly from the upgrade disk.

 

[Adrian]

How are your storage devices attached?
Why AHCI, RU going for redundancy?
Please fill out your system specs at the bottom left of your screen.

 

[Adrian]

OK I see in the first post SATA connect. Change setting s in bios to sata for all drives, in mass storage set to IDE.

 

[JMack89427]

AHCI was enabled by default on my machine so I tried both ways. It was that was for the RC install. I updated my specs as well. Are you suggesting turning AHCI off and then changing those settings?

 

[JMack89427]

OK I see in the first post SATA connect. Change setting s in bios to sata for all drives, in mass storage set to IDE.

Can anyone clarify this? I just want to make sure I make the suggested changed correctly. Also, if I make that change, from AHCI to IDE, I'll need to reinstall again so I want to make sure first

 

[JMack89427]

Updated

Ok...I've reinstalled twice more, once with AHCI turned off and once with it turned back on. I'm still seeing the same problems as I was before, regardless of mode. Randomly, when I see the issue, Resource Monitor will show 100% Highest Active Time with little to no actual Disk I/O. Here's what HD Tune shows:

HD Tune Pro: WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B0 Health
ID Current Worst ThresholdData Status
(01) Raw Read Error Rate 200 200 51 0 ok
(03) Spin Up Time 176 157 21 4200 ok
(04) Start/Stop Count 100 100 0 132 ok
(05) Reallocated Sector Count 200 200 140 0 ok
(07) Seek Error Rate 200 200 51 0 ok
(09) Power On Hours Count 87 87 0 9817 ok
(0A) Spin Retry Count 100 100 51 0 ok
(0B) Calibration Retry Count 100 100 51 0 ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 100 100 0 106 ok
(C0) Power Off Retract Count 200 200 0 66 ok
(C1) Load Cycle Count 200 200 0 132 ok
(C2) Temperature 104 102 0 43 ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 200 200 0 0 ok
(C5) Current Pending Sector 200 200 0 0 ok
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 200 200 0 0 ok
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 200 200 0 7719 warning
(C8) Write Error Rate 200 200 51 0 ok
Health Status : warning


Since seeing this, I've switched the cables between the HDD and the DVDROM. Could this be a bad SATA port on my MB and if so, can I switch the boot drive off of port one? I know very little about SATA as I stopped building PC's during the EIDE phase and do NAS storage at work. Any information would be great!

 

[JMack89427]

Well, figured I might as well just keep updating this in hopes of someone finding an answer. Switched the HDD from port 1 to port 2 on the MB and turned AHCI back off. Reinstalling again now...

 

[JMack89427]

I removed the Geforce 250 GTS for the previous install and tested the HDD using HD Tune and the random access test ran just fine. Reinstalled the card without the drivers and the test ran fine again. Going to install the drivers and test again.

 

[JMack89427]

Installed the drivers for the Geforce 250 GTS and test came back clean again. Running Windows Updates now and will test again when all up to date. If that works, I'll post what I believe to be the solution, although I find it hard to believe that anyone will ever run into this same scenario ever again

 

[JMack89427]

Windows updates installed and back to the same situation...

 

[Adrian]

BUMP

 

[JMack89427]

BUMP

Thanks for the bump

I'm updateless again and all seems ok. Going to do some testing quickly and then try and do each update individually to see if I can find out what's going on...

 

[Adrian]

Clean Install

Jmack, may I suggest the following:

• Remove all external drives.
• Update your MOBO chipset.
• Update your bios
• Change bios settings from SATA to IDE
• Make your optical drive boot priority "First Boot"
• Load your windows 7 installation disk
• Select complete "Clean" Installation option

I'm suggesting that you are performing a complete overwrite of your hard drive. Contrary to belief the upgrade version that you have will allow you to perform a complete install in addition to an upgrade.
A possibility exists that the install may hang because it will be unable to identify your optical drive. Also we may have to re-set the bios back to SATA.
Let us know how it goes.

Adrian

 

[Adrian]

BUMP

Thanks for the bump

I'm updateless again and all seems ok. Going to do some testing quickly and then try and do each update individually to see if I can find out what's going on...

I don't know what you mean by updates, but perform the install and see if its stable.

Adrian

 

[Adrian]

Motherboard Intel G33 express chipset
What is your MOBO make and model?
What is it chip socket?

 

[JMack89427]

Motherboard Intel G33 express chipset
What is your MOBO make and model?
What is it chip socket?

As best as I can tell, it's a Gateway rebranded Intel G33M05G1 motherboard. I've already done the stripped down install straight from the disk but just to be clear, you're telling me to do an upgrade from Windows 7 and do a clean install, correct?

Here's the information that I could get:

1394
VIA 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (6/21/2006)


CD and DVD Drives
ATAPI DVD A DH16A6S ATA Device (6/21/2006)


Hard Drive Controllers
ATA Channel 0 (6/21/2006)
ATA Channel 1 (6/21/2006)
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller (6/21/2006)
ATA Channel 0 (6/21/2006)


Hard Drives
IOI CF/MicroDrive USB Device (6/21/2006)
IOI MS/MsPro USB Device (6/21/2006)
IOI SD/MMC USB Device (6/21/2006)
IOI SM/xD-Picture USB Device (6/21/2006)
Seagate FreeAgent USB Device (6/21/2006)


Hidclass
Microsoft HID-compliant consumer control device (6/21/2006)
USB Input Device (6/21/2006)
USB Input Device (6/21/2006)
HID-compliant device (6/21/2006)
USB Input Device (6/21/2006)
USB Input Device (6/21/2006)
HID-compliant device (6/21/2006)
HID-compliant device (6/21/2006)
USB Input Device (6/21/2006)


Input Devices
Microsoft HID-compliant mouse (6/21/2006)
HID Keyboard Device (6/21/2006)
HID Keyboard Device (6/21/2006)


System
Intel ICH9 Family SMBus Controller - 2930 (6/21/2006)
Intel 82802 Firmware Hub Device (6/21/2006)
Intel G33/G31/P35/P31 Express Chipset Processor to I/O Controller - 29C0 (6/21/2006)
Intel 82801 PCI Bridge - 244E (6/21/2006)
Intel G33/G31/P35/P31 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29C1 (6/21/2006)
Intel ICH9DH LPC Interface Controller - 2912 (6/21/2006)
Microsoft File as Volume Driver (6/21/2006)
Microsoft Composite Bus Enumerator (6/21/2006)
Microsoft High Definition Audio Controller (7/13/2009)
Microsoft UMBus Enumerator (6/21/2006)
Microsoft UMBus Enumerator (6/21/2006)
Microsoft UMBus Root Bus Enumerator (6/21/2006)
ACPI x64-based PC (6/21/2006)
Microsoft System Management BIOS Driver (6/21/2006)
High precision event timer (6/21/2006)
Microsoft Virtual Drive Enumerator Driver (6/21/2006)
ACPI Thermal Zone (6/21/2006)


Universal Serial Bus (USB)
(USB Hub) Generic USB Hub (6/21/2006)
Compatible USB storage device USB Mass Storage Device (6/21/2006)
Intel ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293C (6/21/2006)
Intel ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2934 (6/21/2006)
Intel ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2935 (6/21/2006)
Intel ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2936 (6/21/2006)
Intel ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2937 (6/21/2006)
Intel ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2938 (6/21/2006)
Intel ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2939 (6/21/2006)
USB Root Hub (6/21/2006)
USB Root Hub (6/21/2006)
USB Root Hub (6/21/2006)
USB Composite Device (6/21/2006)
USB Composite Device (6/21/2006)
USB Root Hub (6/21/2006)
USB Root Hub (6/21/2006)


Unknown
Multimedia Video Controller


Video
NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 (Microsoft - WDDM v1.1) (5/14/2009)


Volumesnapshot
Microsoft Generic volume shadow copy (6/21/2006)


Wpd
IOI G:\ (6/21/2006)
IOI J:\ (6/21/2006)
IOI I:\ (6/21/2006)
IOI H:\ (6/21/2006)


Display: Generic PnP Monitor
Size: 27-inch diagonal (55mm x 34mm viewable)
Max. Resolution: 1600 x 1200 pixels
Serial Number: 1415000630
Manufactured: 10/2008

 

[Adrian]

"As best as I can tell, it's a Gateway rebranded Intel G33M05G1 motherboard. I've already done the stripped down install straight from the disk but just to be clear, you're telling me to do an upgrade from Windows 7 and do a clean install, correct?"

OK, I'm getting confused here. First you are putting to much info in your post.
Do you have a stable install of Windows 7?
If not, yes you can perform a complete Clean installation from your upgrade disk.
So as "Eagle 1 says, Maverick, call the ball"! LOL