Windows 7 won't re-install after SSD failure

Greggertron

Greggertron

Greggertron

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I've had my current set-up for a couple of years and have been running an overclocked i5-750 since the initial build with no problems up until X-Mas day. I'd bought a second hand OCZ 60GB SSD a few months ago from a friend of mine for running the OS from and a few programs as well as a couple of games. Everything has been fine until I installed Metro 2033 and when after a couple of weeks playing the SSD failed on X-mas day, Metro had started borking with huge areas of the textures missing and the game shutting down. My screen froze which I then had to force restart the machine.

Now Windows 7 won't reinstall on any drive. I get to the final leg of the install, in some cases, where the OS installs fine but when I come to the part where I have to name the PC neither the mouse nor keyboard works but the cursor blinks in the text box. Tried different drives, still no go, and finally bought a new Crucial 64GB M4 SSD, again won't install. Tried installing the 64bit OS on my friends system with my RAM plugged in thinking that might work and again on the windows start up screen, with the swirling windows logo, just freezes.

Can anyone hazard a guess as to what's going on? Its not the RAM as the RAM works fine on my friends set-up, I don't think it's the GPU as it runs fine in Ubuntu Live. So I have a feeling the Motherboard's failed (Asus P7P55D) with the SSD failure as well but not sure.

Many Thanks
Greggertron
 
Welcome to the forums.

Have you tried installing Windows without the overclock in place or cleared the CMOS?

Greggertron said:
Tried installing the 64bit OS on my friends system with my RAM plugged in thinking that might work and again on the windows start up screen, with the swirling windows logo, just freezes.
Click to expand...

Greggertron said:
Its not the RAM as the RAM works fine on my friends set-up
Click to expand...

Have you tried a different Windows disk?
 
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Tried plugging the SSD in to a different SATA port and with a different cable? Have you set the controller to run in AHCI?
 
What makes you sure the SSD failed? What you describe happening with Metro sounds more like a graphics card faliure.
 
Can confirm the SSD is definitely borked, tried it in my PC last night and the BIOS won't even detect it.

Greggers, definitely try resetting the CMOS - do you know how to do that?
 
Enter the BIOS and select "restore factory settings"

Or remove the BIOS battery for 10-15 minutes

The other option would be the 3 pin jumper on the mobo, I think its beside the mobo power supply cable/battery but not 100% sure :( ask soemone else on that bit or try the manual for your mobo.
 
How much ram do you have in your machine? I only ask because when i built my most recent build a couple of years ago win 7 x64 would not install with 4GB of ram in. I took it down to 2 GB did the install fine then put the ram back in and everything worked fine then. May be worth a try...
 
Just a quick thought ... have you checked the condition of your Windows 7 disc for finger prints etc, as I had the same kind of thing where the OS install went on fine but then found out that the finger prints meant it didn't install correctly.

Deffo clear ya CMOS and try the 2GB only of RAM as the first detection sometimes fails the boots if the sticks aren't matched.....

If that doesn't do it, then you may have to start looking at your GPU and Mobo, I would start ot the GPU first as this is the easiser of the two if your Mobo supports on board grachics.
 
Thanks for the advice. I can't install just 2GB of RAM in there as my modules are 4GB each. To isolate the GPU issue I've already ran the Live OpenSuse CD on the machine a number of times to access the hard drives. The OpenSuse ran fine though I couldn't detect the drives that way, and if I could they were reading blank. Will I be able to run the Ubuntu Live CD as well? Would that be worth a try? If not I'll have to test the GPU (Flashed Radeon 6950) on another machine. I really hope its not the card I've only had it for over a year.
I could reset the CMOS, would physically removing the battery be more efficient than resetting it through the BIOS?
I've also tried booting from different SATA sockets and still the same thing. I think the CDs we're using are fine and seem pretty clear to me.
My current MoBo has no on-board graphics to my knowledge.
Thanks again
Greggertron
 
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Have you got a external HDD or a large pen drive ? you could try a few Linux based OS's from a usb device see if they can detect the drives, if they do you can then try an bootable USB version of Windows XP (or 7 which can be abit of a arse to say the least).

Also as a foot note make sure that your ram is installed in both the blue sockets A1 & B1 I think.

And the battery way would be answer to clear your CMOS if don't have a clear button on your MoBo (can't remember if the P7P55D did or not :( )
 
Yeah had forgot to change the SATA settings to AHCI instead of IDE, I'm a bit forgetful with that kind of thing. The overclock settings were turned off after the drive failed.
Anyway I'm having peripheral issues: keyboard working but can't get the mouse or even the Wacom tablet to work. Any ideas?
 
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