Cannot get windows XP (SP1) to install! ACK!

[Aiune]

Athlon 64 3200 Venice
DFI LanParty nF4 U-D
1g (512x2) OCZ EL PC4000 VX Gold (Dimm 2 and 4)
OCZ 520w POWERStream
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ 160
Maxtor 80gig IDE
X800XL

Okay. This is really wacky, and really bothersome. Windows refuses to install on either harddrives. It just freezes during the installation. Also, lots of problems with partioning the SATA, it won't load from the CD, and the boot disks tell me 'no dos detected' so they won't run either. However, even running it on the IDE, windows install hangs and doesn't finish. SATA tried in all 4 ports, clean settings in bios with only boot device changes. I can't figure out what's going on at all. Anyone see any reason why windows just refuses to install? Not a bad disc either, tried 2, also, the harddrives work perfectly. Tried and formatted both on other computers. They just won't work as a boot drive for some reason.

Is there something im missing for this mobo/proc combo? Can someone please give me some insight? This is like, incredibly frustrating. No idea why it won't install. Bios detects EVERYTHING, yet it hangs. ;(

As an utmost end to all ends, is my mobo bad? At this point it's one of the only things I can come up with. It's brand new retail though. 😵; If someone could help, i'd REALLY appreciate it! Thanks!

 

[Bozo Galora]

There was just a thread about this - turned out it was USB mouse (or keyboard)
Any strange keyboard as well.

Could be the 2 sticks of RAM - run 1 and memtest it

Clearing the cmos couldnt hurt

 

[El Brujo]

Specifically where does Windows hang during the failed installation attempts? Does it always hang at the same point during installation (e.g. Hardware detection)? Have you tried clearing your CMOS yet to see if that has any effect?

Also, is the floppy disabled in your BIOS? I know that seems like a strange question, but I experienced a similar problem installing Windows once and it turned out that it was because I had the floppy drive disabled in the BIOS. Even though I didn?t have a floppy drive installed, enabling the ?non-existent? floppy in the BIOS allowed me to install Windows. Strange?

 

[Nomada]

I had a similar problem and it turned out to be an IBM ps/2 keyboard. Took me forever to solve.

 

[ProviaFan]

Very odd... I encountered a problem with Windows XP hanging at a specific point in the hardware detection. Pulled everything, including sound card and modem (I first suspected the parallel port dongle for the CAD program, wasn't it though), to no avail. Finally, on a WAG, I unplugged the plain old Dell USB optical mouse, and setup worked great!

 

[Melectricus]

Think you guys were right, I'm helping Aiune with his rig. I put adapters on the mouse, swapped sata cables and reset cmos...... All's well 🙂

Soon as you said usb, I remembered problems on another mobo's keyboard that I had. Used same sata cable we knew worked in my rig, and reset cmos. Assume sata cable is ok but if not I'll post as a problem for reference.

Excellent help - thanks

 

[The Pentium Guy]

We might need to sticky this. Of all things I can't beleive a MOUSE would be the cause for a problem.

 

[Melectricus]

FYI Problem and solution summary:
New build computer posted fine, ran through bios settings - nothing fancy, stock settings. Could not utilize seagate utility for sata format it would lock. Could not load windows it would lock at detecting hardware. Checked everything, hardware, cables, jumpers settings all ok. Reset bios occasionally. formatted drives on a different computer. Could not get windows to install on sata or ide, ntfs or fat32, cdrom or floppy install.

Keyboard was ps/2, mouse was USB. Put ps/2 adapter on mouse cleared cmos and rebooted. Windows installed normally.

Never had a problem with a usb mouse that I can remember, but I did have a problem in the past with usb keyboard where it did not work during windows install - figured that out quick.

Assume the root problem on this DFI nf4 lanparty was any usb device was going to cause windows to lock on install.