New windows 7 reinstall leaves me with (not responding)

[gibbey531]

After dealing with a nasty popup virus, I decided that doing a clean new install on my rig would be the safest bet...but I've been regretting it since I did it 5 days ago. The install goes just like normal, not the speediest process in the world, but the install completes and windows starts up. Now out of no where, every window I have open will stutter and lag, at times showing the (not responding) error indicator in the mix, and after installing the IMPORTANT updates for windows, after I'm told windows has to restart to complete the installations.
This I'd the last time I'm able to use the computer. Windows will reboot eventually, typically after letting her run all night at a blank screen with just a mouse cursor. Since the first attempt I have reinstalled windows completely and I do not install the windows updates first, but every other driver CD for my video cards and mobo... but after I restart my computer for the drivers to take affect, I am back at a version of windows with (not responding) all over again.
I am stumped. I've done several computer builds and installations before, but I'm drawing a blank on this one, and am even just saying acre it and jumping on the windows 8 band wagon thinking that since its the flavor of the month, there might be a little more support... But windows has impressed me before this way (Vista). So I turn to you guys for advice... Anything really. My rig is in tell i5 2500k, dual gtx 460 ski, 12gb corsair vengeance ram, hitatchi 1tb HDD, and 700w psu.
Sorry for the wall of text, but you guys are my last resort.
Thanks!

 

[Hawkeye22]

Try installing with minimum hardware first: CPU. 1 GPU, 1 hard drive, and 4 gig of ram. After windows is installed, install all the chipset drivers and video driver. There should be no yellow exclamation points in your device manager, otherwise you are missing drivers. Once you have that working, then install any remaining video cards, ram, and hard drives, and install the windows updates.

When installing the OS, you may want to have it delete all partitions on the drive and create a new OS partition, just to make sure all the junk is wiped out.

 

[drifter77]

There are several scenarios here. First, are you sure that Windows copy is good? Have you tried it on other computers? You can start by getting a fresh copy of Windows 64bit (since you're running on 12GB of RAM). Also, after installation, don't open up the other partitions on your drive as they might still be infected.

Your best bet is to do a clean format again, install a fresh copy of Windows, and disable your windows update, as some fixes actually screw up your system. Get a Service Pack instead. Then install your drivers and install a strong Antivirus like Kaspersky Internet Security and make a full scan.

You might also want to check your hardware, just to make sure nothing is overheated.

 

[gibbey531]

My copy of windows is a legitimate paid installation CD, so I don't think that's where the issue stems from, but taking out the second card and some ram is my next attempt. I'll be doing this later today once I'm off work. Keeping my fingers crossed no doubt.
On a side note: what do you guys thing about windows 8 on a rig that's gaming centric? If none of these fixes works that's next in line, I'm just trying top get some personal feedback. Currently I do not know anyone personally who is using it or had to install it.
Thanks again, you guys rock!

 

[drifter77]

My copy of windows is a legitimate paid installation CD, so I don't think that's where the issue stems from, but taking out the second card and some ram is my next attempt. I'll be doing this later today once I'm off work. Keeping my fingers crossed no doubt.
On a side note: what do you guys thing about windows 8 on a rig that's gaming centric? If none of these fixes works that's next in line, I'm just trying top get some personal feedback. Currently I do not know anyone personally who is using it or had to install it.
Thanks again, you guys rock!

I'm using Windows 8 only on VMware (virtual machine) but truthfully haven't fully tested it. I think without a touchscreen hooked to our rigs, we're missing out on the experience. But you can definitely use Win 8 as a host for your gaming hub.

 

[gibbey531]

So after removing one gtx 460 and two 4gb memory sticks, insert the windows 7 CD and bout from CD/DVD I get stuck at the windows installer screen. It says its copying files to hard drive (which was reformatted as well during this phase) and will stay at 0%. If I let it do it's thing it will eventually complete (we are talking almost 5 hours, which never was the case when I first upgraded to 7) and the rest of the install will complete, but I still get to windows with programs not responding and a consistently choppy experience. One thing that comes to mind now that i forgot in the first post is that my hdd was taken out of an old gateway prebuild from best buy... Not sure if this has any weight on thisissue since its been completely reformatted, but none the less just maybe....Now on a side note, a coworker of mine is doing a windows 7 upgrade from vista, and he too is having the same issues with not responding windows ( this is a pre-built OEM computer)
I'm still open to ideas here, but I'm thinking that maybe a windows 8 install on a brand new hard drive could be in order, unless someone has some prophetic vision as to what I'm supposed to do here.

 

[drifter77]

So after removing one gtx 460 and two 4gb memory sticks, insert the windows 7 CD and bout from CD/DVD I get stuck at the windows installer screen. It says its copying files to hard drive (which was reformatted as well during this phase) and will stay at 0%. If I let it do it's thing it will eventually complete (we are talking almost 5 hours, which never was the case when I first upgraded to 7) and the rest of the install will complete, but I still get to windows with programs not responding and a consistently choppy experience. One thing that comes to mind now that i forgot in the first post is that my hdd was taken out of an old gateway prebuild from best buy... Not sure if this has any weight on thisissue since its been completely reformatted, but none the less just maybe....Now on a side note, a coworker of mine is doing a windows 7 upgrade from vista, and he too is having the same issues with not responding windows ( this is a pre-built OEM computer)
I'm still open to ideas here, but I'm thinking that maybe a windows 8 install on a brand new hard drive could be in order, unless someone has some prophetic vision as to what I'm supposed to do here.

Taking out the video card and extra RAM is a good start. You might also want to take out your optical drive.

It sounds like that piece of information was missing in action. It's possible that your hard drive is faulty. Even with a clean format it could be damaged or have bad sectors. Another thing, you say it's taken out of an old prebuild, is it an IDE or SATA drive? You can get a new hard disk and use that same Windows copy to test. Then use Windows 8 on that old drive, just to know what exactly is causing the problem.

You say the same thing happened to your colleague while trying to upgrade, the question is, was he using that same Windows CD? It's quite rare that two separate machines would have the same problem unless there's something in common.

Try a new hard drive and a new Windows copy. Surely there's something faulty in either of the ones you have. Keep us updated, I want to know what is causing that hiccup.

 

[Hawkeye22]

You may want to do a full format on that drive instead of a quick format. It sounds like it may have bad sectors on it. At the very least boot to a live cd and run some tests on the drive.

 

[gibbey531]

A full format was done late last night and the choppyness is still there even when boring in safe mode. My coworker is using his own separate builders CD, so nothing out of the ordinary there. The issue seems top be that windows explorer is failing or not responding. I looked into the issue and every post about it never had the original poster say the issue was resolved, just a lot of ideas that could cause it. Also, when i try top load drivers via flash drive, the computer doesn't even recognize the drive, just sits at loading device software. And would be CD/DVD drive be bad if I can still open the disk to view files? I can see the setup program when I choose to open the disk, but auto play is a no go and the image for the CD drive is that file icon that windows shows if there isn't a program available to open. I'm going to pick up a copy of windows 8 and maybe just 250 or 320 HDD, I'm going to install 8 and see where that gets me, hopefully to where I can return the hard drive and get money back. I'm very frustrated with this as everything checks out to be working, it's just windows explorer failing and not responding "appears" to be what is causing all of these errors.

 

[gibbey531]

Well good news everyone. My headaches are over! After troubleshooting with windows it turns out that there was info from vista that my windows 7 install salvaged, apparently to stabilize some .exe compatibility issues. That was one part. The other part was from my mobo's power saving bios program. From what I'm told ("expert" representatives on the phone) the smart 6 program utility auto-clocks the cores, without the settings saved from vista, paired with win7's core parking power save feature. core parking would disable two or more cores, and since the win7 install took so long it would auto clock down for a basic process, leaving me with one core, with no prior install info from vista.

Personally I think that's a little too much blame on vista...but hey i could be wrong. A new hard drive install allowed windows to recognize no old files were present, so it installs what it needs automatically. There must have been just breadcrumbs from vista putting ex lax in my coffee, so to speak.

I'm still hoping to go to windows 8 eventually...and Im borrowing my buddies cloud account to save a current .iso image of my install ATM.
Much thanks for everyone's ideas and input! cheers to you all!

 

[gibbey531]

Best answer selected by gibbey531.