System won't install windows

Trigger · 28 Dec 2006 at 23:50

Well the only other thing I can suggest is that the disk is broken

One other thing you could try is doing the install with minimal components- motherboard, cpu, one stick of ram, gpu, one hdd and an optical drive and see how that goes but I can't see that making much difference. Still, better to try everything first than shell out for a new hard drive

Dark_Angel · 28 Dec 2006 at 23:50

Throwing this out here, but a friend had some problems installing windows because his DVD drive was packing up, and misreading the CD... he tried a different drive and it worked perfectly. Not saying that will work, but worth a shot if you can.

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 00:24

Trigger said:
Well the only other thing I can suggest is that the disk is broken One other thing you could try is doing the install with minimal components- motherboard, cpu, one stick of ram, gpu, one hdd and an optical drive and see how that goes but I can't see that making much difference. Still, better to try everything first than shell out for a new hard drive

Well, i can access the disk and use it fine when i boot from the other copy of windows on the other drive, so i don't think its the disk. I suppose i'll just have to dig out a floppy drive and try the secondary sata controller.
I can get hold of another sata disk but i don't see much point as i can test this one from within windows and its fine. Windows setup picks it up fine too.

Dark_Angel said:
Throwing this out here, but a friend had some problems installing windows because his DVD drive was packing up, and misreading the CD... he tried a different drive and it worked perfectly. Not saying that will work, but worth a shot if you can.

Good suggestion, but i've already tried this. I have also had a lot of problems with windows disks before, they very often seem to develop errors. However i've also tried multiple windows disks.

Trigger · 29 Dec 2006 at 00:28

Doesn't necessarily mean it's not broken. I had a machine a while back which would not install SP2- was fine on SP1 but not 2 and it turned out to be a faulty Maxtor disk (Not surprising TBH

) with a dodgey boot sector and no amount of reinstalls, CHKDSK's, FIXMBR's and low level formats fixed it

Hopefully it won't be that though and some SATA drivers will fix it

bledd · 29 Dec 2006 at 01:24

double check the boot options in the bios

make sure in the "bootable addon cards" that the correct sata controller is set as the main boot

then in the main boot options, set it to 1st CD, 2nd Hard drive(HDD0) (or SATA if its got the option)

had this problem before and that fixed it

i've done LOADS of installs in the past and i have to say i've never seen smilies like that

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 01:43

Trigger said:
Doesn't necessarily mean it's not broken. I had a machine a while back which would not install SP2- was fine on SP1 but not 2 and it turned out to be a faulty Maxtor disk (Not surprising TBH ) with a dodgey boot sector and no amount of reinstalls, CHKDSK's, FIXMBR's and low level formats fixed it

Hopefully it won't be that though and some SATA drivers will fix it

As i say i'm able to use this disk normally from my other copy of windows on my other disk so i'd be very surprised if its broken. However if it is its not problem as it has a 5yr warranty and no important data on it, so it would be a nice simple rma job.

Out of the 10 harddisks i own theres a good reason why only one is a maxtor and its the only one to have been rma'd and replaced once.

bledd. said:
double check the boot options in the bios

make sure in the "bootable addon cards" that the correct sata controller is set as the main boot

then in the main boot options, set it to 1st CD, 2nd Hard drive(HDD0) (or SATA if its got the option)

had this problem before and that fixed it

i've done LOADS of installs in the past and i have to say i've never seen smilies like that

The sata controller is onboard so it was a simple case of enabling it in the bios. For that reason the boot order is fairly simple, it just picks up the drive as normal.

I'm not new to these sort of problems myself and i've done a fair few windows installs in my time and this one has me completely stumped.
I've had a problem very similar to this twice, both time is was entirely due to the bios on my board being unfinished, this happened with both my asus boards. They didn't impliment the sata properly in the early revisions so you couldn't boot from sata or install windows from sata. I seem to remember with this one after a bios update it all worked fine. Currently i'm using the latest bios, so i can't see how it can be that.

I suppose i'll dig out a floppy tomorrow and try this on the secondary controller. I do have a spare machine with a sata card in it which i could try the harddisk in i suppose and even install windows on it and see if it works, but thats a real pain.

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 02:11

Well this is a fine how do you do... maybe i should email asus tech support for my annual chinglish lesson.

The last two Christmas's i've bought a new pc with an asus board and both times ended up with boards with unfinished bioses amongst other things.
This is my 2nd A8n32 sli deluxe having rma'd the first because it was failing memtest (yes, the board that is) and i'd love to get this one off my hands if thats whats causing the problem.

Maybe i'll go and buy that core 2 system after all...

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 14:57

Well i just tried switching to the other cd drive i have again, and this time it won't even boot from the cd, it just gives a blank screen.

Does this give a better indication of what could be at fault?

As with the harddisk, i'm fairly sure this cd drive isn't broken as i can use it and play games from it in windows.

Dark_Angel · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:23

Joe42 said:
Well i just tried switching to the other cd drive i have again, and this time it won't even boot from the cd, it just gives a blank screen.

Does this give a better indication of what could be at fault?

As with the harddisk, i'm fairly sure this cd drive isn't broken as i can use it and play games from it in windows.

My friend had exactly that same problem, it would work with some stuff (music and the like) but the second he tried to use it to install windows there was no dice. he tried placing it in his other drive and it worked perfectly.

If you havd any old cd drive laying around then I suggest you try it, it probablly won't help, but TBH you have nothing to lose, especially if you can get one easily.

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:25

Dark_Angel said:
My friend had exactly that same problem, it would work with some stuff (music and the like) but the second he tried to use it to install windows there was no dice. he tried placing it in his other drive and it worked perfectly.

If you havd any old cd drive laying around then I suggest you try it, it probablly won't help, but TBH you have nothing to lose, especially if you can get one easily.

I have two cd drives, it seems when using one it won't boot from the cd at all now (although it did before), and when using the other one it won't start the 2nd part of setup. I find it hard to believe both are broken... :confused:

Apart from trying the other sata controller i'm a bit stuck. I suppose its time to move some hardware about.

Trigger · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:28

Joe42 said:
I find it hard to believe both are broken.

Seems unlikley... could be your motherboard going bust then, I've always sworn by Asus boards as well

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:30

Trigger said:
Seems unlikley... could be your motherboard going bust then, I've always sworn by Asus boards as well

This is what i'm thinking.

Thanks to these two i'll never buy an asus board again, which is a shame because the boards themselves aren't too bad.

I think i may try an earlier bios.

SiriusB · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:55

Did you update the BIOS yourself? It may be a case of the BIOS not working properly. Probably unlikely but it might be worth reflashing the BIOS.

As another test you could try installing something to your working Windows HDD from a CD or DVD. If that works then gawd knows. If it fails, you may have uncovered the problem.

SiriusB

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 15:59

SiriusB said:
Did you update the BIOS yourself? It may be a case of the BIOS not working properly. Probably unlikely but it might be worth reflashing the BIOS.

I'm going to try a re-flash now. I had problems similar to this when i first had the board and it was due to an unfinshed early revision bios.

As another test you could try installing something to your working Windows HDD from a CD or DVD. If that works then gawd knows. If it fails, you may have uncovered the problem.

SiriusB

I can install stuff from those cd drives, i can play games from them, only a couple of days ago i ripped 5 or 6 music cds using both drives and they worked fine. Same goes for the harddisk, i can play games installed on it fine.

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 16:05

Can anyone remember what the hotkey is for asus boards bios recovery thing?
I have a feeling its alt f4 or something...

This 2nd cd drive will boot memtest fine, but it won't boot either or my windows disks.

Edit: I'm running the hitachi bootable drive diagnostic thing. It says the harddisk is fine, and it picks up both cd drives.

However i noticed one cd drive is secondary slave, the other is primary master, is it a problem to have the drive on the secondary channel a slave, as its the only drive on that channel?

Pulse · 29 Dec 2006 at 16:20

Trigger said:
I doubt the boot order would affect it and as he is using SATA drives, there is no master/slave setting on them

it does as i had this exact problem not 2hrs ago after a rebuild and that was my problem the boot order of harddrives, the sata being before my ide (my ide has the os)

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 16:27

Pulse said:
it does as i had this exact problem not 2hrs ago after a rebuild and that was my problem the boot order of harddrives, the sata being before my ide (my ide has the os)

I don't have any ide harddisks though.

Still hunting for my bios cd... and i'll have to dig out the manual and find the bios recovery hotkey if no-one knows it off hand...

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 17:09

Ok i've just flashed it to the 1205 bios.

Just got to setup the bios then i'll have another go with windows.

I hate the way it enables pcie auto overclocking as default, thats really bad. Just to win in the benchmarks no doubt.

Edit: After the bios flash its exactly the same as before. Won't boot windows from this cd drive. I'll try the other one.

Edit2: Same with the other cd drive which previously worked. It just says 'setup is inspecting your hardware configuration' and then a blank screen and nothing.

Is it possible to install windows from within windows?
I can still boot from my other hardsisk with windows on it as far as i know.

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 17:28

Next step is to get a floppy drive and try the secondary sata controller.

If that doesn't work what do i do? I've tried everything.
I suppose i'll just have to leave it and use the copy of windows on the other disk. Unfortunately though that copy is a bit screwed up and doesn't play some games properly, hence the reason for re-installing.

Edit: I've plugged in an old ide harddisk, unplugged both sata ones. First i'll try booting from the copy of windows on it, then i'll try installing windows on it.
So this is eliminating both the sata controller and the harddisk.

Joe42 · 29 Dec 2006 at 17:53

It works perfectly with an ide harddisk. So either my sata harddisk is dead (works fine and tests fine), my sata controller is dead(but it boots windows fine, just won't install it), or my sata cable is dead(but the harddisk connected to it work fine and tests ok).

Thanks god i'm finally getting somewhere.