Stuck at Mobo Screen. Don't know why.

[Duey_Decibel]

I have a major issue that I've been fighting for a week with little to no change and no solution.

My PC apparently crashed, it was built January this year, running windows 7 home premium. My boot sectors were malfunctioning, occasionally sending me to the blue screen while in the middle of a gaming session, but it never gave me issues starting back up.

I am now attempting to install windows 10 from a bootable USB drive created successfully on my friends windows 8 laptop.

I want to wipe the drive and do a new install of Windows 10, but I can't get passed the Asus mobo screen. It stares at me with white dots spinning. After that, black screen forever.

I can access the bios screen, but fiddling with any of the settings produces no change. I've breadboarded this build and have found no post issues. Always a single beep. I'm currently trying to boot with one RAM stick and no mouse. So far, nothing.

If my specs are relevant to the issue
Asus m5a97 r2
AMD fx-6300
Sentey MBP750 psu
WD Blue 1 TB HDD
GTX 950oc
Everything else is unplugged accept for my RAM which is a PNY 4gb stick, but I normally run 24gb of RAM, 2 are pny, two are Kingston Hyperx 8gb sticks.

(Note, for the first time since the beginning of last week, I reached the setup screen, but I wasn't able to get the setup to actually start. I was instructed to remove the media, restart so that windows boots normally, then to reinsert my media. I have never seen that screen again. Every troubleshooting forum I see has people trying to startup repair or command prompt, but those are not an option for me as I can't get to anything but the bios screen. )

Any fixes for this? Any advice?

 

[Ralston18]

Have you tried removing the CMOS battery for a few minutes?

Maybe reseating the memory module. Try another memory module even if the existing memory module is known to be working elsewhere.

 

[EchohcE]

Make sure in BIOS you have "Other OS" selected so it doesn't block legacy connections. I'm not sure how Asus handles it, but my Gigabyte 970 board would force UEFI if I set the OS Type to Windows 8/10, etc.

 

[Duey_Decibel]

I didn't reset the battery, but I did do the the jumper pins and reset the settings after the American Megatrends screen prompted me to press F1. I've since narrowed it down to the WD 1tb hdd. I'm at the windows install screen now, and I'm using an old seagate 80gb HDD to install windows 10 home. But after formatting the drive and correctly partitioning it using the methods I've found on many forums, I'm consistently getting error code 0x8007025D. I'm going to try troubleshooting my RAM to see if that's a problem. If not, I'm stuck again.

 

[Duey_Decibel]

@Echohce Really? I was looking at that. Looked at it a few times and left it set to uefi because I thought it was a mandatory format for the windows OS. Let me try that real quick.

 

[EchohcE]

Are you using an install dvd or a usb to install Windows 10?

This might be of some help: https://www.tenforums.com/installation-setup/19807-clean-install-rog-error-0x8007025d-cannot-install-required-files.html

 

[Duey_Decibel]

Using a USB drive I created just last night. Windows 10 gave me no error indication when I made it using the media tool. Said it was successful and did its clean up, then sent me on my way.

 

[EchohcE]

Burn the iso to a dvd if you can, and try it that way.

 

[Duey_Decibel]

Ok. I'll use my brothers laptop. I already burned multiple copies using imgburn and isobuster, but it wouldn't do anything because it's likely my bios settings were t set right. I'm currently trying to install after setting to other OS. If this doesn't work, I'll do the DVD again.

 

[Duey_Decibel]

For some reason, all it does is give me a blinking underscore in the top left corner.

 

[EchohcE]

Where did you get your installation iso from?

 

[Duey_Decibel]

Microsofts website. They were giving windows 10 out for free. (Didn't want it, but kind of little choice now until I can afford a key for 7 ultimate.

 

[Duey_Decibel]

Think I'm looking at a corrupt ISO?

 

[Ralston18]

Or perhaps the validity of the ISO to begin with.

The upgrades were originally "free" - you still needed a valid/legitmate key.

But I think that the free upgrade option has even expired....,

Is the following link the source of your ISO?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

Asking because I saw another website that was trying to be "Microsoft-like" but only one of the links actually went to Microsoft.

Here is another Microsoft link:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/search/result.aspx?q=Windows+10+upgrade&form=MSHOME

Check what you have done/downloaded etc. to date. May not be on the correct upgrade path. Or, if so, you may have missed some interim requirement.

 

[Duey_Decibel]

You're probably right. That's most likely what happened. I've dug up an old ISO that should work and I've been able to boot it from disc with no issue whatsoever. I'm going to see if it gets through without this error and I'll let you know. Usually, I can't pass 15%. It's at 5 so I'll let you know soon.

 

[Duey_Decibel]

You were absolutely correct, Echo. It was a combination of 1: My WD HDD was janky.
2: My bios setting wasn't ticked to "other OS"
3: My ISO file was corrupt. Now I'm running windows 7 ultimate and everything is fine. Thank you so much for this advice. I hope this helps others troubleshoot.