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Windows 7 Ultimate x64 install freezes

G

gredhead

Member
I'm putting together a new system, with an ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard, Intel i7-920, GeForce GTX-260 video card, and an Intel X25-M 80 GB SSD. The Win 7 DVD boots, and I went through a couple screens to select language, time, date, etc. Then it continued, but arrived at a point where the monitor is black (still a signal from the GTX-260, but all black) and there is no other activity. Powering down and back up, Windows starts booting from the hard drive, but arrives at the same black screen.

Please, any suggestions?
 
start swapping parts out to see what's not working right?

make sure no other bootable devices (usb sticks) are present during install.
 
Its a lightscribe SATA DVD drive, on SATA 6 port, reads the DVD fine (it appears), and the 80 gb SDD is on SATA 1 port. Only USB devices are keyboard and mouse. No IDE devices, no floppy.

I have a 1 TB SATA mechanical drive for the system, but wanted to install windows on the SDD alone before installing the data drive.

Everything, mobo, proc, video card, monitor, DVD, etc seems to work before the hang, don't have extras of any of those to swap with.

Thanks for your interest - gredhead

(Should I install the mechanical SATA drive and see if windows will install on it? No other ideas to try first?)
 
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You can probably get this by process of elimination.

What is the SATA controller mode set to in the BIOS, is it AHCI or IDE/Legacy?

I think you would definitely want to be on AHCI since Windows 7 supports it on your motherboards chipset.
 
you didnt say if HDD is recognized during boot bios screen - you may have to disable fast boot bios option to see it
might try a dual link DVI vid cable
also a dif port on vid card, sometimes one or the other is default

actual correct SATA port for boot drive is SATA 0

and yes you def want to dump Intel AHCI (RST) drivers on a usb stick and access during win 7 install with bios prev set to AHCI
heres the latest (10 series) that fix most probs (note the separate full driver and additional floppy X86 or X64 downs
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+Rapid+Storage+Technology+%28Intel%C2%AE+RST%29

Also make sure drive is set as first boot in bios after CD after you get it recognized

I hate to mention the ugly word "alignment", but you really should pre partition the drive with Win 7 DVD cmd prompt diskpart so that first part will be aligned properly for SSD which has no sectors - just 4096 pages. If you can partition that means the drive is alive and seeable by bios, but perhaps not O/S

diskpart
sel dis 0
cre par pri
format fs=ntfs quick label=DSK0_VOL1

(if you dont add the size=xxxxxx in cre par pri line it will just make one big partition)
 
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First, let me thank you for your advice, taking the time to share your knowledge and experience.

The BIOS was indeed set for SATA to be IDE, which I changed to AHCI.
The 80 gb SSD is indeed installed on SATA 0, and is recognized by BIOS and the partial win7
The boot order is set to DVD/floppy/SSD, and I cannot remove or move the floppy after SSD
I downloaded the drivers to USB stick
I boot from win7 DVD, after selecting English/USA, get choice of installing or repairing
I select repair, and get the choice to repair or install drivers, but not for command prompt
it shows a win7 drive D of 76216 mb

When I select install drivers, I get an explorer-like window with all drives.
It shows 3 HDDs: System Reserved C:, empty
Local disk D, with folders for prog files, users, and windows
Boot X:, with folders for prog files, sources, users, windows, and a setup program

It shows 3 devices with removable storage:
floppy A
CD drive E
removable F (usb stick with drivers)

I don't know -
why 3 HDDs show up - only the 80 gb SSD is there
why a floppy shows up, there is none
Why I don't get an option for command prompt so I can use diskpart

Also, while all splash screen from bios and win7 are fine, and all other win7 screens are fine, the text messages I get saying hit any key to boot from DVD, are partially garbeled with lots of $ symbols on the screen, etc.

Please, what next? - gredhead
 
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name the machine. win7 may assume you have TRIM supporting controller, a non-trim supporting controller will hang. Some older bridge (PATA 2 sata, poor sata) will do this. the only solution is to clone a hard drive to the ssd (thus the install of win7 has trim disabled).
 
gredhead said:
Also, while all splash screen from bios and win7 are fine, and all other win7 screens are fine, the text messages I get saying hit any key to boot from DVD, are partially garbeled with lots of $ symbols on the screen, etc.

Please, what next? - gredhead
Click to expand...

That's not a good sign. Back in the day, that would indicate a bad IDE cable or drive. But since you are using SATA, I don't know what to make of that.

Is the name of the drive in the BIOS (AHCI boot screen?) also scrambled, with every-other letter incorrect?
 
those arent 3 HDD they are the 100MB Win 7 reserved partition, the system active partition D and X is the DVD

boot order is fine

you can get to command prompt from "repair your computer"
16c5750.jpg


kajkf7.jpg



looking more like vidcard issue
Is the card TOTALLY DOWN?
The retention screw sometimes keeps the card up a bit, cases have sloppy dimensions, take it out and push down, leave it out for now

you are gonna have to round up another vidcard to try from somewheres
get the cheapest lowest performance garbage you can find
there is also a setting in bios on which type card to boot first - PCIe or PCI something - you want PCie

You should also download memtest 86+ V 4.0 and put it on a floppy, insert in PC and boot and it will start itself
http://www.memtest.org/
 
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Updates: Don't have floppy, so downloaded Memtest86+ iso image, but don't have blank CD right now (live in Atlanta, working in Memphis motel on computer). So from recovery tools, told it to do the windows memtest, which it did on reboot. All 12 gb test fine.

Reseated video card - no change, but the BIOS screens with settings, and all Windows loading, selection, tools screens are fine. Only the screen saying press key to boot from DVD is scrambled.

Could not find setting in BIOS on which type card to boot first - PCIe or PCI something

The names of all the drives, and their descriptions are not garbled in bios or windows.

I'm having trouble loading the Intel AHCI (RST) drivers. I understood it was hit F6 on boot, but that doesn't do anything.

The P6T has an intel x58 chipset, but I can't find anything on intel's web site or through google that tells me yea or nay if P6T supports TRIM.

I really don't think the video card is a problem, as another computer with ASUS motherboard I had also garbled the CD boot screen, but everything else was always ok.

Want to get the AHCI drivers in and see what happens then.

Thanks
 
Yeah, I wasnt thinking when I gave you the link for the very latest Intel AHCI Vers 10 drivers.
They are only about a week old and they wont load from the DVD install
Plus your mobo is what 2 years old?
They wont even load from the .exe after you get Win 7 in. You have to go to update driver in dev man, and have the drivers already extracted

So go back to that link and go down a bit to the next older drivers - 9.6.0.1014
and download the F6 floppy .zip for whatever 7 you are using - X86 or X64

Then format your USB stick - i always do ntfs with the HP (HPUSBFW.exe) utility - dunno if that helps over FAT32. W means windows vers no W means dos
Create a folder "AHCI" and dump the floppy files in there
wb85fp.jpg


Now i also want to do something else to get rid of your current 2006 MS IDE divers and non AHCI related stuff. This is important. Sometimes windows doesnt like to get rid of stuff thats working. Lets start fresh
I want only the one SSD HDD hooked up
Boot to your DVD and go to command prompt (like I showed you above - the square black icon)
Then type the following 3 lines and hit enter after each. Diskpart command may take a few seconds to show

diskpart
sel dis 0
clean

(Clean answer must be successful)
Reboot insert USB and start install, custom install, load drivers icon on lower left, browse to USB stick, click on AHCI folder and wait bout 15 sec, should pick up your AHCI drivers.

I just tried them on a drive I have and everything went okey dokey
ONE FINAL POINT - you MUST disable all other SATA controllers in bios FIRST before you do anything here - Marvel/JMicron/SiliconImage etc - whatever you have, enable ONLY INTEL!!!!
(until you get going)

n6euxh.jpg
 
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Thanks for all the help bankster. But please tell me a site that can be trusted to download HPUSBFW.exe. I went to the top google results (in Spain they say they're going to "ask Saint Google") to download. But some of the sites had suspicious pop-ups, and none of the file sizes are the same. CNET downloads doesn't have it, and I couldn't find it at hp.com.

After a bad experience with a virus on my work laptop, my trust level is diminished, for all my computers.

Oh well, every little bit helps - gredhead.
 
Sorry to be a pest. I had downloaded from 4shared, but used you link. The file I got from your link was a different size (368K) than the 4shared file I got the night before from google (370K) and from other downloads, but I tried to run the file from your link.

I got a message - the publisher could not be verified, are you sure? - and I answered yes.

But then I got "permission denied - admin rights are required. But I have admin rights, I have the only account and use of the laptop.

Suggestions?
 
Are you using Win 7 XP or Vista to make USB stuff for 7 X64 install?

And stop implying there is some evil thing going on with the downloads
if you dont trust me or them, then just format the thing with windows by right clicking on the stick.
I didnt say you HAD to NTFS format w/the hewlett packard utiliy, I just said thats what I do.

Remember what F.D. Roosevelt said:
"the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

In XP you are not in admin unless you have made a password for the admin acct
then you can right click the HPusbfw.exe and run as admin and give pw

In Win 7 and Vista:
You can try right clicking the HPUSBFW.exe and click on "run as admin"
You can try right click HPUSBFW.exe "compatibility mode" and then XP mode

in Win 7 and vista...............
there are 3 levels of admin

slimy admin - no pw, only one account
less slimy admin - pw protected admin + user(s)
real admin
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/507-built-administrator-account-enable-disable.html?filter

Then you can move UAC slider down to off
http://www.petri.co.il/disable-uac-in-windows-7.htm
(Ignore all the wuss pussies who say the boogieman will get you)
 
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First, let me say I truly appreciate your assistance. I am always simply amazed that people like you are willing to expend valuable time, as well as knowledge and experience, to help people like me.

Second, I would term my attitude more careful than fearful. I have always been tech support for my sister, who has clicked "suspicious links", and I cleaned up after. Then, recently I got a virus, I don't know how, on my work laptop. It claimed I was infected and needed to buy their fix, and would not allow me to run any executable. It established a proxy on the browser, and also periodically sent it to porn sites. And many people in my company, contract to a govt agency, and in the agency, have been fired for going to porn sites. I found how to get rid of it, but needed to boot in safe mode. My IT support in Washington DC would not give me the password to boot in safe, although they agreed they would use the same two tools I had found. I had to ship the computer to WDC and wait a week to get it back restored.

I hope I haven't lost you. A family crisis came up tonight, and I will go back to Atlanta tomorrow for that. Hopefully I'll be back here Monday to continue my efforts to install win7 on this new system.

Please be patient and stick with me - I will be trying to do "what you do" to accomplish the goal.

Thanks again for all your support - it is truly appreciated. - gredhead
 
Formatted USB stick, loaded drivers, used win7 restore tools to format SSD, reinstalled win7 with drivers, same result - blank screen.

Bought Geforce 8400, installed it, reinstalled win7, was first time got to screen "optimizing video", several reboots, had registration screen, registered, win7 finished installing.

I guess I need to start another thread over in hardware, video cards, to see if I can get some help figuring out what the deal is with the geforce GTX 260. It's a new card, find it hard to believe it is defective.

Maybe the next step is to put the GTX 260 back in with windows installed?

Thanks everyone for all the help - gredhead
 
bankster55 said:
you are gonna have to round up another vidcard to try from somewheres
get the cheapest lowest performance garbage you can find
there is also a setting in bios on which type card to boot first - PCIe or PCI something - you want PCie
Click to expand...
gredhead said:
I really don't think the video card is a problem, as another computer with ASUS motherboard I had also garbled the CD boot screen, but everything else was always ok.
Click to expand...

good observation, illiogical conclusion

but with computers any win is a win
:hmm:
 
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