A little trouble trying to boot my PC...

[scotty1700]

Mkay, so I took it upon myself to try and build a computer and get it up and running with a little help from my (slightly) computer inclined brother but unfortunately I've hit a wall of sorts. I'm not too good with computers uhh..I'm trying to install windows 7 from scratch and I'm a little lost as to what I should do. I read up on my mobo manual and it says when installing windows 7, I need to change some BIOS settings and add some drivers pertaining to SATA RAID/AHCI and I sorta have no clue what this means. It'd be greatly appreciated if anyone could walk me through what I need to change my BIOS settings to and stuff.


Uhh...not sure what information I need to supply so ask if I'm missing something lol.

 

[kenrivers]

Please supply the maker and model of the motherboard. This will help in giving the exact directions you need to change the BIOS settings.

 

[smorizio]

Beam me up scotty there no intelligent life down here!!! most new mb the sata ports Are set to achi by default. you wont need to change them if they are. (you mb guild will tell you the default settings of the sata ports). the other option are ide (for old os and hardware and raid (where set two disk up to copy data from one to the other on the fly so you dont lose work if one drive dies.) (simple exp of raid). the only thing on a new build in the bios that need to be check or changed is that the mb is running the right cpu and ram speed. most mb if set to auto from the factory will read both right. on some mb and ram you have to turn on xmp profile to get your 1600 or faster ram to run. to install windows 7 set the boot order to cd-rom/hard drive and put the windows 7 cd in the cd-rom drive. when you power up and the cd-rom reads the windows cd it say "hit any keep to boot from cd-rom). hit the any key to boot into the windows 7 cd. windows 7 will ask for the oem number then it read the hard drive info. if there no partion all you have to do is hit enter and windows 7 will make 2 new partion for you the system partion and the data partion. if there a partion on the hard drive you have to go into advance mode and delete it and then reboot. once windows 7 installs itself and reboots dot hit the any key on reboot (on the second reboot windows 7 will install itself). then it ask you to set the time zone and some other simple questions. when you get into the desktop for the first time. your going to be missing drivers (sound/mb chipset/network card.). What i do is go to another pc with a usb stick and download the intel chipset drivers if it an intel mb or amd drivers. then i look online at the mb driver info page for the network card and sound card drivers. I got to those vendors for the newest drivers. for your video card download the newest drivers from nvidia or amd.
install the intel chipset first..reboot.then video card drivers..reboot. then sound and network drivers. (make sure speakers plugged into the right port on the mb. play an audio cd or mp3. if you get sound your fine.if not make sure your speakers are in the green port. (most mb it the default sound port). you then want to go into windows device manager look for any yellow!!! or missing drivers. if there are none..install an anti virus software. if there is a missing driver...look at your mb cd driver or mb vendor to see if you missed installing it. (read the device id under !!!) the ngoogle it for the missing info.
you then want to download flash..java...your web browser of chose. run windows updates. (go to bed or take a nap)
on a clean install there going to be a few you may want to start them and watch tv.
as your installing stuff run openhardware monitor and watch your cpu/gpu temps they should hold steady and not run away or get to high.

 

[scotty1700]

most new mb the sata ports Are set to achi by default. you wont need to change them if they are. (you mb guild will tell you the default settings of the sata ports)the other option are ide (for old os and hardware and raid (where set two disk up to copy data from one to the other on the fly so you dont lose work if one drive dies.) (simple exp of raid).

I'm flipping through my MB guide and it's not saying what they're default set to unless you're referring to the BIOS setting as it's defaultly set to "native IDE".

the only thing on a new build in the bios that need to be check or changed is that the mb is running the right cpu and ram speed. most mb if set to auto from the factory will read both right. on some mb and ram you have to turn on xmp profile to get your 1600 or faster ram to run.

I think everything involving the CPU and Memory in BIOS is set to auto.

to install windows 7 set the boot order to cd-rom/hard drive and put the windows 7 cd in the cd-rom drive. when you power up and the cd-rom reads the windows cd it say "hit any keep to boot from cd-rom). hit the any key to boot into the windows 7 cd. windows 7 will ask for the oem number then it read the hard drive info. if there no partion all you have to do is hit enter and windows 7 will make 2 new partion for you the system partion and the data partion. if there a partion on the hard drive you have to go into advance mode and delete it and then reboot. once windows 7 installs itself and reboots dot hit the any key on reboot (on the second reboot windows 7 will install itself).

I'm currently trying to boot windows 7 from a USB via a ISO I got from mydigitallife.info and used the windows 7 USB/DVD download tool. Whenever I restart my PC, I hit f12 to select to boot from my USB flashdrive, the windows 7 starts, and I delete all partitions and I have the option to load drivers before I start. Now, I know I'm not in need of the raid drivers on my mobo driver/install disk but I'm not sure again if I need the AHCI drivers. I believe when I tried installing before, I used Native IDE in bios and when it installed it blue screened. Then I switched bios to AHCI, installed the AHCI drivers via the mobo disk, and the windows 7 installer got to "finishing installation" and sorta got stuck on that screen. The process is a little different in order, I was oddly enough never prompted for a OEM key or time/date as it didn't finish.

Everything else in your post isn't really applicable yet as I'm still stuck here but hopefully we can get past that haha.

Also, to Kenrivers. My motherboard is a gigabyte 990XA-UD3.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Make sure you're not plugging the USB stick into a USB 3.0 port. The Windows 7 installer does not support 3.0. You must use the USB 2.0 ports during install (Installation media, mouse, & keyboard)

 

[scotty1700]

Make sure you're not plugging the USB stick into a USB 3.0 port. The Windows 7 installer does not support 3.0. You must use the USB 2.0 ports during install (Installation media, mouse, & keyboard)

I'm for sure using a 2.0 port as it starts installing but either blue screens partway through or stalls at the "finalizing installation" part. Another thing that has me puzzled is that during the windows 7 installation, it has to restart as part of the installation, and when it does, I'm not sure if I should have it boot from the USB flashdrive I'm using or the HDD I'm attempting to install windows 7 to....granted no matter which one I choose, it gives me an error stating the computer was restarted during installation or an unexpected error has occured. No matter what I do after that it still restarts after I hit OK on the error message and reboots only to give me the error again.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Change the boot order in BIOS to ensure that the HD is ahead of USB, that way you only have to select USB during the initial boot to begin the installation. And you should have your SATA ports set to AHCI instead of "native IDE". You may also have a stick of bad RAM. Download and run memtest86 (at least 3 complete cycles).

 

[scotty1700]

Change the boot order in BIOS to ensure that the HD is ahead of USB, that way you only have to select USB during the initial boot to begin the installation. And you should have your SATA ports set to AHCI instead of "native IDE". You may also have a stick of bad RAM. Download and run memtest86 (at least 3 complete cycles).

Mkay, I'll try one more time after changing to AHCI and the boot order. Might I ask why bad ram would affect it?

Edit: Oddly enough, when going into the boot manager it asks "Choose an operating system to start, or press TAB to select a tool:" It lists windows 7 so 1) does that mean it actually installed and 2) Under tools it lists "Windows memory diagnostic". Can I use this instead of memtest86 as it sounds like it'd uh...test if I have a bad stick of memory just like what you were talking about.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Spontaneous reboots can be caused by bad RAM. Everything will be just fine until the bad area is accessed. memtest86 is a far more thorough test than anything either built-in to the motherboard or Windows.

 

[scotty1700]

Okay, good news. I finally got windows 7 installed but I keep getting two different blue screens every so often. One for MEMORY_MANAGEMENT and another that just supplies an error code (will provide when it happens again). I've installed all the drivers from my motherboard disk (excluding the excess stuff as a google search says the extra programs from gigabyte contribute to problems) and I'm trying to install my graphics card drivers again but it blue screened with the unknown error code partway through. Anyone know what the memory management is caused from and how to fix it?

edit: Also, is there any other important stuff I should do now that I have an OS installed that I'm missing that could contribute to errors.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Have you thoroughly tested your RAM as I suggested earlier? I'd wager you've got either bad or marginal RAM there (mismatched sticks perhaps?)

 

[scotty1700]

Have you thoroughly tested your RAM as I suggested earlier? I'd wager you've got either bad or marginal RAM there (mismatched sticks perhaps?)

I've got two matching sticks but I was having some trouble with memtest but I'm following a guide now lol. I'll share the results in a second.


Edit: 2 passes down plus one that got 65% of the way done before a weird display glitch occurred with not a single error detected. Anything else that could be causing this?

 

[smorizio]

download cpu-z and hardware monitor. then turn off the pc and unplug it from the wall. make sure all the stick are seated and clips locked down. check that both the 24pin atx and 8 pin power are connected and locked in. power up and run cpu-z and read your mb info. (bios rev) and ram speed. the z77 mb there been a few updates for cpu..ram and usb devices. make sure your bios rev is the newest one. (dont use the windows flash updater...a lot of times this will brick your mb..we seen to many new users with bricked mb..use the bios updater in the bios or download the flash rom update program to a usb stick and boot from the stick and update it.). also with cpu-z check the speed that the ram is running at to the speed the ram is rated (spd tab).
most times 1600 or faster ram on new mb without xmp prifile turned on will default to 1300 or slower speed. with hardware monitor watch your gpu and cpu temps. to se that there both staying cool. new pc that just sitting still in windows screen or webbing should stay around 38-45c depending on the cooler and the case and the room temp. if the cpu temp is higher them 50c at idle then the heat sink may not be on right.

 

[scotty1700]

I've got it up and running it seems but everything freezes or blue screens every so often. I googled how to fix freezing and someone suggested I disable some services and startup programs in msconfig. I have 1 thing in startup and that's not affecting it (google update as I got chrome) and the computer behaves differently depending on which services I have enabled. Should I just go to blackviper and see what services I can eliminate and go from there?


Edit: So I set all my services to that of what blackviper suggested and it didn't crash as often but it still did. Someone on a different forum said to run more memtests (minimum of 7) so I started and it crashed during memtest86. My brother suggested I just take out a stick of ram and it /seems/ to be running flawlessly so I'll try and confirm if the stick I removed is bad and see what happens from there