Clean Windows Instal Issues on Old Rig

Jonathan Day

Jonathan Day

Jonathan Day

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Hi All,

Have been trying to clean install Win X on an old Rig that was running Win X for years and am running into issues.

Old Rig is Gigabyte X58A-UD3R MoBo, 980X Intel CPU, Samsung SSD, Corsair PSU, Corsair DDR3 RAM.

Win X gets stuck half way through installs and went into the tragic doom loop so I tried installing Win 7 Pro off DVD - this worked fine. But ... for some reason Win Update wont work at all ... all LAN / Chipset drivers installed off original disc that came with MoBO and devices all (apart from one - Network Adaptor?) show as ok. LAN is connected directly to router and works (using it now on new PC) ... but despite showing as connected and having internet connectivity 1) Windows Update doesnt work at all and 2) internet explorer barely works or connects to any web sites / pages.

I tried upgrading Win 7 Pro using USB again to Win X but got stuck - so suspect a hardware compatibility issue (??) - but then again I was running Win X for years just fine (but that was with incremnental updates) ...

Any ideas as to what I can try next ... I'm just trying to get this thing working to donate to an old friend in need of a PC to run Windows / Office ...

Thanks in advance,

J
 
How old is the Windows 10 ISO? Use the latest one which will include better hardware support. If the install is hanging after the first restart with the spinning wheel then it does seem like a driver issue.

Windows 7 is no longer supported. There used to be an update you needed to manually install before you could get the later updates but I'm not sure if Windows Update even services Windows 7 now.
 
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Agree - Win 7 I think no longer supported but was hoping that might at least work as a stepping satone to Win X ...

Using latest Win X installer off USB ... unless there is a better way to do it?
 
Do you have a link to this Win X so I can have a look at it? Google isn't pointing to me anywhere useful, other than Android apps.

I'll have a play with Windows 7 on a virtual machine later. I'm fairly sure you can still get Windows Update going by installing some updates - I'll let you know my findings later. I found it useful to install Firefox on a bare bones install of Windows 7, but make sure you use uBlock Origin to help avoid nasty pop ups etc that Windows 7 might be more vulnerable to these days.
 
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Last I checked x58 chipset and 980 cpu aren't supported in windows 10.... no drivers. Some people have supposedly got windows 10 working but it was very hacky so if it was working before it must have been from upgrading from 7 and it using old drivers.

Actually it doesn't look like it would work on windows 8 either based on the lack of drivers on gigabyte site.
 
For Windows update not working on a clean Windows 7 install, it's usually because you need to manually install a couple of fixes. If you don't do this it will just check for updates and never find.
I actually don't remember the exact files needed to fix this, but I see I have KB3020369 / KB3102810 and a KB3125574-v4 in a Windows 7 folder on my NAS so I'm assuming it's these... :D

Windows 10 should clean install on this hardware, as I've definitely installed it on older. Is it running the latest BIOS? Could be worth re-flashing it even with the same version, and re-trying. Reset everything to default afterwards.
 
Just go straight to windows 11 bypassing the restrictions. Just use rufus to do it as it gives you the option of bypassing restrictions.

Stop messing about with 7 and 10 that either isn’t supported (7) and (10) wont be soon.
 
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Tested on a Windows 7 32-bit virtual machine this morning and the ISO I used already has SP1 pre-installed. The two updates below are what got Windows Update working for me:
KB3050265 - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3050265
KB3020369 - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3020369

w7.png
 
Hi All,

Thanks for the additional input - much appreciated. Apologies too for any confusion I caused by referring to Windows X - I did mean 10!

I just tried using an old ISO that I found but that got to 51% and then hung reversed back to Win 7.

Let me try installiong the two updates in the links (thanks Darael) and with a new ISO (will download fresh now from Microsoft).

Will report back on how far I get (or not) later.
 
Jonathan Day said:
Meant to add - old machine is not Win 11 compatable on many levels so thats not an option either ...
Click to expand...

Whilst technically true, at least officially, you can run Win 11 on such hardware (as @GaryTheSnail highlights you can use Rufus to create a bootable medium which has the necessary bypasses) as I have run Win 11 on my Rampage II (X58) / X5650 machine. It has been a while since I used it like that but from memory it just installed fine and then updated fine. Performed as you would expect with the CPU at some stupid suicide run like overclock (4.4Ghz rings bells) - which turned out to be day to day stable... :cry:

Added a USB3.0 PCI-E card and outside of specific use cases it ran the basic day to day tasks as well as my desktop (which IIRC was either a 3950X or 5900X at the time).
 
Yeah basically if it will run 10
It should run 11
As mentioned rufus will sort the this machine
Doesn't meet requirements part
And as just mentioned in another thread
Latest Rufus should also be able to sort the no Internet
And can't make a local account problem with 11
During installation
Which I got the other day even with a new b650 motherboard
Surprisingly no WiFi or ethernet was available during install
 
Ok - so latest is still no joy ...

Thanks for the tip to use Rufus - it's great and much easier so thats a great find. However despite trying new ISO downloads for both Win 10 and 11 it still hangs halfway through. I unplugged DVD ROM and all other hard drives as well which doesn't seem to have solved it.

I did test RAM and no errors ...

All I can think of now is that this must be a hardware issue - so to unplug everything else possible and limit down to bare minimum for RAM periphers etc and try one last time ...

But if I'm missing something else obvious I'm all ears ...

Thanks in advance ...
 
Have you tried another HDD\SSD or a new sata cable\port?

If I remember the X58 boards had a Marvel controller and Intel (Marvel was sata 3 where Intel where sata 2), Have you tried using the Intel ports or if currently using them trying the Marvel ones?

I had a number of issues using the Marvel controller on my x58 board so stuck with Intel
 
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Long shot - but have a look at any BIOS settings relating to floppy drives. Either completely disable them if they aren't already, or go the other way and set them to enabled/auto etc.

I've known this to be a rare issue where the installer hangs (although last time I saw it was Windows 7 I think)
 
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