NEW BUILD PROBLEMS: Incompatible or faulty components?...

[T-800]

How far did you actually get with the install...was it after first reboot, or during initial install?

Firstly, I couldn't get into the Boot Menu. No matter how many times I hit F12 at the splash screen, it just wasn't happening.

Then, on one of my many restarts, hitting F12 did work, so I told it to boot from my Blu-Ray drive -- where my Windows 7 DVD is -- and it got as far as presenting me with the default Windows 7 wallpaper (before it asks you how you want to install Windows), then crashed.

So, I'd restart, try getting into the Boot Menu again, fail, then repeat, until it decided to allow me access to the Boot Menu, then boot from the Windows 7 DVD, which would crash at the same point every time.

This has been going on since I managed to update the BIOS, and all I want to install Windows 7 for, is to create a fresh install of Windows 10 (which I had on my previous system).

What graphics card do you have in the build?

I have an nVidia 590 GTX.

 

[T-800]

Not sure if this will help, but have you cleared cmos and loaded optimised defaults since updating the bios?

Am sure it is recommended after a bios update.

I'd loaded the optimised defaults, but hadn't cleared the CMOS since updating the BIOS. I'll clear the CMOS now, then optimise defaults again.

Try using the windows 10 media creation tool. Apparently you can activate windows 10 now with a valid windows licence. Might be worth trying!

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

Interesting. Will need to find someone with a Windows capable PC...

 

[T-800]

Regarding the issue of not being able to get access to the Boot Menu; I've noticed that my keyboard (which is USB) doesn't receive power until well into the splash screen, which more often than not doesn't give me enough time to access any of the options. Is this normal? My previous build -- which was an AMD -- powered the keyboard and mouse as soon as I switched the rig on.

 

[T-800]

I found out why the Windows 7 installation DVD wasn't booting correctly...

I'd noticed that one of the USB devices I'd plugged in -- when initially trying to find out which one was my keyboard -- was my Xbox controller. After unplugging this device on the supposed "crashed" screen of the Windows 7 installation, all the correct prompts popped up, and allowed me to go ahead with installing Windows. So, I made sure I only had the bare necessities plugged in, restarted (just to be safe), booted into the Windows 7 installation DVD again, and have now successfully installed Windows 7.

At this point, I couldn't get on the net to download anything, as none of the components were supported by my Windows 7 installation, being that it's 6 years old. So, I installed the Gigabyte drivers and utilities using the disc that came with the motherboard, got on the net, navigated to the "Get Windows 10" page on Microsoft.com, upgraded to Windows 10, burned the ISO of Windows 10 onto a blank DVD using Media Creation Tool, restarted, booted into the Windows 10 installation DVD, deleted all existing partitions, created a new partition, installed Windows 10, reinstalled the Gigabyte drivers and utilities, and now everything seems to be working OK. Well, except whenever I open specific installed Gigabyte utilities, and then I'm greeted with the not-very-helpful error message; "This driver can't release to failure!!", which I haven't yet been able to find a solution for. However, they still seem to work.

An interesting discovery with the BIOS...

When I *did* manage to access the BIOS, I turned off the "Show Logo Screen" option, in the hope I'd be presented with a proper POST screen, as opposed to the Gigabyte splash screen logo, but I didn't get to see the POST screen I would have liked -- instead just one with the "American Megatrends" logo, and the option to press either DEL or F2 to enter the BIOS -- but for some reason, with the Gigabyte splash screen logo disabled, I can now access the BIOS every time.