Having a hard time doing a Win 7 installation

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rebelx

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Mar 18, 2012
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I have a license for Win 7 Ultimate that I'm trying to install on my secondary PC at home. Unfortunately, my school only allows us the link to download Windows 7 for 30 days and after that, we have to pay to access it.

This is what my current issues are:

I had the OS installed, but my dad was complaining that my new system (sandy i3, 8GB ram, 60gb OCZ agility 3), was slow and that it would crash often.

I isolated the problem after checking error codes and the like to a windows installation error. I do not have another computer in the house that can burn DVDs, so I use the flash drive method (via the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool) to put the .iso on the drive and boot/install that way.

Since I wiped the computer, I have been unable to successfully install any version of Windows (XP Pro, Win 7, Win 8) on his computer without it installing/performing very slowly, or experiencing any crashes.

I randomly downloaded some .isos online from 7 Ultimate, and most of the time when I use the Windows Tool to make my flash drive bootable, I get a generic "this is not a valid iso file" error and I am unable to continue with that .iso. When I successfully installed Win 8 twice on my computer, it was running very slowly and would keep crashing. Sometimes when I install Windows, it fails while unpacking/installing the files.

My dad ran a defrag on the SSD once. Could that have been sufficient to completely ruin it? Could my flash drive be faulty (I've used it to run installations before)?

Is there any way where I can get a legitimate copy of Win 7 Ultimate (I do not need a license, I have my own) so I can try again? Additionally, is there another easy way to make a bootable flash drive without using the Windows Tool?

Tech supporting this has been a major pain and I can't figure it out. TIA!
 
Solution
dodger46
Meant a cheap replacement board! But if under warranty, different kettle. CPU the most unlikely component to die, they're pretty hardy. The MCC is on the North Bridge of your Mobo and I doubt it can be replaced. Modern AMD and Intel i7 onwards have them built into the CPU for efficiency. RMA your board, citing RAM problems that were not cured by replacing with new RAM
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I used the built in Windows memory test, but that seemed fine. The CNET link says that I have to have it burned to a CD for it to work? I can't use it any other way?
 
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Haha, I won't even be able to use the Windows version since it won't install. Would a USB flash drive boot work?
 
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I have the Windows USB tool, but it doesn't work on modified ISOs (took me so long to figure out). One one of the Windows 7 links above in the the thread, there's another tool that can be used with modified ISOs, I'll have to try that.

What exactly do I use Ubuntu to recover? Does that only work if Windows was first installed? :/
 
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Just threw in the recovery link in case you get a failed installation and need to recover data. Was assuming you'd use the download tool to install a memtest or any other bootable media to check memory (and HDD as rdc85 suggested) on your USB Flash. Once you get Ubuntu up and running you could presumably run other checks.
 
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After a thorough read-through I'm not convinced that the SSD is functioning as it should. To rule it out I would try to install Windows to an HDD, and if that works without a BSOD ...
Meanwhile scandisk/chkdsk not much use as they are designed for HDDs.
There's also a possibility of a problem with Memory Controller, yours will be a chip on the Mobo. (i7s built into CPU) but I would expect that to cause a Memtest failure. Diagnosed by having failures on more than one memory stick.
 
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Update:

I was successfully able to install Windows when I removed a random RAM module (took out on 4gb, left the other 4gb intact).

I was able to switch download and apply the MS hotfix in order to activate ACHI. However, when changing BIOS to ACHI, the computer would not successfully boot into Windows. It would just hang or bluescreen and restart. I had to switch the BIOS back to IDE, and so far, it seems to be working well.

On Monday, I'll run a memtest on the RAM (I'll place both modules back inside before I leave for work and see what happened 9 hours later). I assume that the memtest would be able to tell me which module, if any, failed/passed?
 
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Gotcha, I'll run it on the stick currently in the machine, and then I'll swap with the one I took out. It's weird, that kit worked fine for about a month on my other desktop with no issues at all.
 
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Update:

I ran the Windows built in memory diagnostic (because I couldn't get memtest to work via a bootable flash drive and I couldn't find any DVD--... oh man, I only need CD for that size! Shoot!) and I ran the first module which currently seems to mostly work with 12 passes (I know, not many, but I didn't know how long it would take) and Windows did not give me an error message when it rebooted. I ran 25 passes on the stick I believed to be faulty and Windows did confirm that there is a hardware error on that RAM stick. It's a Corsair unit and I will be RMA'ing both units.

I unfortunately can't test your SSD theory just yet because I do not have a HDD to test with (both desktops in the house only have SSD drives).
 
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Ran memtest for about six hours. No errors. Dad hasn't complained about any issues yet. Looks like we're good.

TL;DR: CHECK YOUR RAM. IT'S PROBABLY BROKEN.
 
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Now what I'm going to do when I get home is see if I can reinitialize ACHI mode on the computer. If it works now (hopefully does so with non-defective RAM), then this computer will be golden. Will post updates.
 
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Nope, no matter what I do, it always hangs at the Windows screen (with the hard drive activity light constantly on) or it bluescreens.

I applied the Microsoft hot fix previous to making the change. No idea what's wrong.

Is there a major speed, performance, or longevity issue with keeping it IDE vs ACHI? If not, I'll just leave it as is (IDE) rather than deal with it.
 
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Will attempt the manual suggestion tomorrow. I saw that as well, but I thought that the Microsoft hot fix would have done that by itself. Guess not.

At this point, I wouldn't mind doing a complete wipe and redoing everything since there's nothing on the computer anyways... I just need to get the DVD back from my friend.
 
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You won't believe this... I turned on the computer today to do the ACHI thing and it started lagging like crazy like with the RAM issue, so I restarted it and it wouldn't boot up to Windows until I had to restart it a few more times.

This is getting ridiculous. I replaced the RAM with RAM that works, now what?!
 
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How would I check the MB/PSU? All the components are under warranty and I'm not sure how I'd go about picking the right MCC or even replacing it. Should I just opt to send the entire board back to MSI and see what they do for a replacement?

How do I know to rule out the processor?
 
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