Windows 7/Vista Installation Fails

[Britt]

I'm back with another issue. I'm setting up a PC for recording TV and it needs Windows 7 or Vista as the OS (since they come pre-installed with Media Center). This is the PC. The specs are also included:

Shuttle XPC Barebone

It contains 2GB DDR2 ram and a 500GB Seagate HDD.

During the windows installation (either Win7 or Vista) three things can happen:

-When the disc boots up, the GUI of the installation freezes and hangs indefinitely.
-When windows begins to install and expand the files, the PC will reboot randomly.
-During install, the screen will go black with only a few red pixels present.
*This happens with both 32/64bit installations.

I tried putting in a different video card to see if that was the issue, but no dice. Also, I know this system can run windows vista/7 because my father is using the same exact PC model (SN68SG2) and is running Vista ultimate 32bit just fine.

I have already diagnosed the RAM and HDD and they are in working order. For some reason, the only OS that installs without issues is XP. Worse case scenario, I can get XP media center edition, but I'd have to obtain a disc or iso to even test it out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. My Win7 computer experienced a 0xf4 BSOD. Google gave me nada on it. Any ideas what caused it?

 

[theog]

Have you cleaned the HD?

 

[Britt]

Yup. Made no difference.

 

[theog]

Are all parts new.

Is this a brand new Windows 7 DVD you are using.

 

[Britt]

The shuttle PC is a couple years old, but it was bought brand new, so were all the components. A previous XP OS has been running in it and I've experienced no problems whatsoever during its use.

The windows 7 disc is a backup copy of my genuine DVD (I make backups of all my discs). Sadly, I lost the genuine DVD during a move, but this disc has worked perfectly in all my other projects. It has no scratches.

 

[gregrocker]

The installer is still the prime suspect. Try writing the ISO to flash stick using this tool with Win7 in the dropdown menu: USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create - Windows 7 Forums Then boot it under USB or HD's using one-time BIOS Boot Menu key.

If you don't have a flash stick until you can obtain one try burning another DVD using ImgBurn at 4x speed.

Try resetting the CMOS: Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS

While In BIOS setup make sure SATA controller is set to AHCI.

Unplug all other HD's and peripherals.

 

[Britt]

The shuttle pc doesn't support booting from a usb flash drive. Is there a workaround for that?

As for burning, does it matter that I use ImgBurn or not? I have PowerISO and I always burn at 4x speed. Never got a bad disc from it. And the windows 7 disc was used on another physical hdd a few days ago, and it had no issues.

But I'll try and find another ISO.

 

[gregrocker]

Sometimes the bootable flash stick shows up as a HD, or else it will be under USB or Removeable. Try and see in both BIOS setup and one-time BIOS Boot Menu.

Have you reset the CMOS yet, and how did you "clean" the HD? SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

You can use HashTab... is the coolest thing ever!
to check the ISO integrity against Windows 7 RTM SHA-1 hash - checksums

 

[Britt]

Yes. I have reset the cmos to the default settings. I changed the sata controller to ahci and that made no difference. I cleaned the hdd using the techniques you linked to, but to no avail.

I'll try making a bootable usb, but I have doubts that it will work.

 

[gregrocker]

You can also try running Win7 installer from XP to see if it will install to overwrite XP, or install to a separate partition - we can later help you remove XP.

Another last resort is to install HD in another computer alone, install to it, then SysPrep the HD so it starts up on other hardware, swap it back to target machine: SysPrep to move HD to another computer

 

[Britt]

No good. I was able to get the bios to read the USB stick as a hard disk, but when it booted up to install Win7 it failed when it was expanding the files (I got that black screen with the red pixels again).

I'll try installing the OS on the HD using another PC then.

 

[gregrocker]

If you don't want to go through SysPrep you can also adapt any Win7 installation for your version to start on other hardware using Paragon Adaptive Restore CD. This will also work on an image which is reimaged to your HD, just point Paragon CD and run it.

 

[Britt]

Okay. I switched the motherboard with the other shuttle PC I have and the installation worked the first time. I guess there was something malfunctioning on that board. It's times like this I wish I knew more about hardware.

But tell me this. For the hell of it, I switched the PATA optical drive with a SATA drive and I was unable to boot the setup for any of my windows 7/vista discs, but it worked just fine with the parallel drive. I know the sata drive is working because it is perfectly functional in my brother's HP machine for booting the same discs, etc. Are additional drivers needed, or is there a setting in the CMOS that needs to be changed?

 

[baarod]

Okay. I switched the motherboard with the other shuttle PC I have and the installation worked the first time. I guess there was something malfunctioning on that board. It's times like this I wish I knew more about hardware.

But tell me this. For the hell of it, I switched the PATA optical drive with a SATA drive and I was unable to boot the setup for any of my windows 7/vista discs, but it worked just fine with the parallel drive. I know the sata drive is working because it is perfectly functional in my brother's HP machine for booting the same discs, etc. Are additional drivers needed, or is there a setting in the CMOS that needs to be changed?

Shutdown. Unplug. Disconnect all drives. Boot. Enter BIOS. Make sure they're gone. Change to Native AHCI if it's not already. Save BIOS. Shutdown. Unplug. Connect only the SATA optical drive. Boot. Enter BIOS. Make sure drive is recognized. Choose drive for boot. Save BIOS. Reboot.

 

[Britt]

Thanks. I will be sure to check for that in the future.