Unable to install Windows, or anything for that matter!

dannyboyee82 · 26 Nov 2009 at 20:34

I'm doing this on behalf of a mate of mine, he's asked me to take a look at his rig.. and because I sold him my motherboard, CPU, RAM and GPU, I felt obliged.

Ok, the problem has got me stumped..

He can't install Windows, usually he will get a blue screen crash before it has even got to the initial Windows loading screen. The error message looks like this:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF789E63C, 0xC0000034, Ox00000000, 0x00000000)

The only way to avoid this happening is to go in to the BIOS before it has chance to read anything, discard and exit any changes and then strangely it will read the Windows disc, but then stop working anyway.

Initially I thought it must be a DVD Drive issue, so I swapped his drive for mine and still the same problem. Then I thought it could be the PSU, but still no change. However, with both my DVD Drive and PSU the POST screen will say 'no hard drive detected'.

Is this a hard drive issue? The hard drive is visible in the BIOS, I've also tried swapping over the SATA cables. No difference.

Is this a Motherboard issue? Or perhaps a combination of DVD Drive, motherboard and hard drive?

I can assure you that the components I sold him were in full working condition when I took them out for my new parts. I only bought them May this year as well. The good thing is that if it does turn out to be an issue with any of my parts they are still covered with manufacturers warranty.

Spec is:

ASUS P5Q Pro
Core 2 Duo E8400
4gb Corsair Dominator DDR2
Hiper Type M 580W Psu
Samsung HD154UI hard drive
Unknown DVD

Any help is appreciated, I don't think I've missed anything out but if I have I'll edit it in. Ask any questions you like. This has baffled me!

danb21t · 26 Nov 2009 at 20:51

got some other memory to try?

Mr Gimp · 26 Nov 2009 at 20:54

Try a clean install on another hard drive. It's going to be one of those cases of solving by elimination I reckon!

danb21t · 26 Nov 2009 at 21:03

could also try another sata cable and sata port

Geek. · 26 Nov 2009 at 21:24

i would go back to basics then start putting parts back in to see where the problem lies!

mjd · 26 Nov 2009 at 21:34

Which 'Windows' are you using?
Also which SATA connector are you using on the board?
Looking at the Asus website 6 of the connectors (red) are governed by an an intel raid controller whilst the other two (orange and white?) are tied to a silicon image controller. So I'm guessing anything hung off the raid controller will need the raid driver.
This would explain an inaccessible boot device.
If the drive is hung off the silicon image controller then it probably doesnt need a driver to run setup, but this would point to a problem with the disk itself. Perhaps try a linux live cd or PE cd. If you get a useable machine, then it would certainly narrow the problem down to just a disk related issue.

TUNSTALL_NICK · 26 Nov 2009 at 22:05

hard drive problem!

subzero · 26 Nov 2009 at 22:39

I have experienced this problem mostly when there is a SATA HDD involved and a RAID controller.

To rectify this problem, you have to get into BIOS, find the SATA Menu and change in to Legacy mode (or ATA mode).

OR just disable AHCI. (in AHCI menu)

Worked for me anyway worth a shot ...

will0812 · 26 Nov 2009 at 22:58

I am having a problem like this with my pc as well at the moment, it hasnt got a proper windows install, it formats the HDD fine, and does the first part of windows setup but as soon as it gets to the first windows user interface it hangs on the 39min remaming on setup, so i cant even install windows atm. I dont think its the disk and i think its the harddrive, but i just cant understand it, going to attempt what Subzero said and see what happens

Edit: Couldnt really find what subzero was talking about, but i have no idea what im doing in Bios, new PC time for me

subzero · 27 Nov 2009 at 08:01

under your bios options for sata controller,advanced options for running the controller you need to check that AHCI mode is not selected,if it is you need to change it to IDE mode or ATA could be IDE Mode, Compatibility Mode or Legacy Mode - different BIOS use different terms.You only really need AHCI mode if you are going to be using raid with multiple drives,then you would need the raid drivers as well.

dannyboyee82 · 27 Nov 2009 at 08:53

Thanks for your replies everyone, muchly appreciated.

got some other memory to try?

No, only other memory I have is my DDR3.

Try a clean install on another hard drive. It's going to be one of those cases of solving by elimination I reckon!

I've said to him to get another hard drive, but an IDE drive instead of SATA.

could also try another sata cable and sata port

Tried this in my testing already, no difference at all.

i would go back to basics then start putting parts back in to see where the problem lies!

I'm out of options where that is concerned really, I've already tried a most of the different configurations. It always boots, gets past POST but it seems to be a data reading issue. Either with the motherboard, DVD drive or hard drive. I doubt it is his DVD drive as it did the same thing with my DVD drive, it could be the motherboard or hard drive.. but I don't have any spares to test it with.

Which 'Windows' are you using?
Also which SATA connector are you using on the board?
Looking at the Asus website 6 of the connectors (red) are governed by an an intel raid controller whilst the other two (orange and white?) are tied to a silicon image controller. So I'm guessing anything hung off the raid controller will need the raid driver.
This would explain an inaccessible boot device.
If the drive is hung off the silicon image controller then it probably doesnt need a driver to run setup, but this would point to a problem with the disk itself. Perhaps try a linux live cd or PE cd. If you get a useable machine, then it would certainly narrow the problem down to just a disk related issue.

This sounds interesting, he has used the red ports.. port 1 for his hard drive. I have tried a different port on the red SATA connections but no joy. I'll try the orange and white ones to see if that helps at all. I'm trying to install Windows 7, well.. I'm trying to see if anything works to be honest. So far we have used Windows XP, Windows 7 RC, and my Windows 7 64bit and 32bit discs.

hard drive problem!

I'm beginning to think this, although there may be more to it. It is a brand new drive, I know from first hand experience that brand new drives are just as easily knackered as 10 year old ones so I'm not ruling it out.. but from what mjd and subzero have said it may be something to do with the motherboard configurations.

I have experienced this problem mostly when there is a SATA HDD involved and a RAID controller.

To rectify this problem, you have to get into BIOS, find the SATA Menu and change in to Legacy mode (or ATA mode).

OR just disable AHCI. (in AHCI menu)

Worked for me anyway worth a shot ...

I have tried both AHCI and IDE mode on the motherboard, ATA is greyed out if I remember rightly.

I am having a problem like this with my pc as well at the moment, it hasnt got a proper windows install, it formats the HDD fine, and does the first part of windows setup but as soon as it gets to the first windows user interface it hangs on the 39min remaming on setup, so i cant even install windows atm. I dont think its the disk and i think its the harddrive, but i just cant understand it, going to attempt what Subzero said and see what happens

Edit: Couldnt really find what subzero was talking about, but i have no idea what im doing in Bios, new PC time for me

I don't even get that far, the options before you format the hard drive is where this install fails.. or it just brings up a blue screen before even reading the disc.

So all in all, I'll try putting the drive into either the orange or white connections.. I'll see if that works, and then get him to buy a IDE drive and see if that works. After that though, if it still keeps failing I am way beyond my knowledge.. I've already learned a few new things doing this.