Windows install seems to be going nowhere

[Clueless101]

Hi,

I apologise for asking but I have been sitting about wasting a good few hours so far and have no idea if I am getting anywhere.

I am trying to install and update win 7 on to my new ssd drive but it seems to just sit there the disk drive activity light blinks on and off slowly but all I have on the screen is a picture of the windows logo sorta wallpaper/backdrop.

So far I have,

Connected the ssd to my system, it's the only drive.
Gone into bios changed the onboard sata to ahci mode, and the boot priority to cd...then hd.
Put in the windows disk, it's a few years old so won't have any updates.
Installed windows in about 20 mins.
Restarted and booted into windows.
I have an internet connection (4MB per sec) so it auto updated, indicating it had a made a couple of changes and required to be restarted to apply a couple of security updates. No mention of any service pack or large update and download couldn't have been that large.
I restarted the machine but it just sits at the wallpaper/background.
I left it for over an hour went back and it seemed like my PC had gone into sleep mode. I moved the mouse, PC started back up and the picture reappears. When I first got into windows I changed the power settings so it wouldn't go to sleep...or I thought I had anyway.
I then left it again for over an hour,and same thing happened.

This is my second attempt, having got to this stage yesterday and leaving the PC on overnight and untouched for 8 hours and the same result, I figured I had made a mistake somewhere and restarted the procedure but am right back where I was last night looking at the aforementioned backdrop type image. No counter or message.

I know windows install and update takes a while but I expected some sort of indication of progress by now.

Can anyone advise me on what to do pls, I apologise as I asked about this yesterday but since then have got nowhere and feel like I am wasting my time.

 

[jitpublisher]

Sounds like maybe a bad SSD, but its just a wild guess too because you didn't give us enough information to really help you out!
List of hardware please?

 

[Clueless101]

Sounds like maybe a bad SSD, but its just a wild guess too because you didn't give us enough information to really help you out!
List of hardware please?

Hi thanks for your interest in my thread, here is a list of my hardware

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 (Deneb 125w) stock cooler
MB: Gigabyte GA-770T-USB3
RAM: G Skill Ripjaws 4 Gb (2x2Gb) F3-12800CL7-2680 (PC3-10700)
GFX: HIS ICEQ Turbo 6950 2048MB running at 840Mhz Core 1280 Mem Clock
Power: XFX 850W
Main HD: Seagate 500GB standard drive
Case: Antec P180

The new ssd is a Samsung 840 pro 256 GB

I hope that info will help, I should have added it to begin with.

(To add to this when I removed my sata cable from my current hd it pulled the plastic part off that it connects to so only the metal 'foils' are there, I have managed to reconnect the cable but obviously it is temporary and the drive has prob no future. I am not heavy handed with my stuff, far from it tbh, and I removed the cable very carefully when this happened. Though that is a problem for another day, it just makes switching back to my older setup tricky)

 

[Clueless101]

Had a poke about and found out that I think my motherboard doesn't support sata3. Could this be the issue, I figured it would work but would limit the speed? I have used a sata3 cable as I was under the impression that all the cables were compatible? To be honest I am learning this as I go, have i simply made a stupid mistake and connected it incorrectly in some way, perhaps to the wrong place? fyi this is the motherboard

 

[simmons33]

Make sure your Sata mode is set to AHCI in your Bios

 

[Clueless101]

Make sure your Sata mode is set to AHCI in your Bios

Yeah it is set to AHCI thanks. This is confirmed when I run Samsung Magician.

 

[himnextdoor]

I think that the fact that you can get Windows to run in the first place might indicate that your system is up to the job so I have a couple of suggestions.

Firstly, I would install Windows again from scratch but I wouldn't set up the internet connection during the install. I would 'Skip' it.

When the computer runs for the first time, I would turn off 'Automatic Updates' and then I would connect to the internet.

I would then check 'Device Manager' and make sure that all the drivers for the system are installed. If they weren't, I would sort that out next by tracking down specific drivers.

Then I would probably look at the 'Power' settings and select 'Never' from the options to turn off devices after they've been idle for a specific amount of time.

Then I would start 'Task Manager' with Ctrl-Alt-Delete, click on the 'Performance' tab and start the 'Resource Monitor' from there. I'd resize it and place that window where I can observe the graph activity that is being displayed.

If the system 'Hangs' during this process, there may exist a clue or two as to why it happened since there will be a graphical record of what the computer was doing when it crashed.

When I was sure that the computer wouldn't go to sleep, that is when I would select 'Windows Update' from the 'Start Menu' and proceed to manually update Windows.

The first thing that should happen is that Windows will want to update its update software and I would let it do that.

If all was well and the computer restarted successfully, then I would go back to 'Windows Update' and when it found the updates available to me then I would check out the 'Optional Updates' first, there is often some useful hardware updates available on the first visit, which I would select. In fact, I would probably choose all of the updates in this list.

Once I'd 'Checked' these with a tick, I would go to the 'Important Updates' where I would 'Un-Check' all of the options by selecting the 'Check-Box' at the top of the column of check-boxes two times.

I would then download and install just those optional updates.

Each time the computer restarted, I would bring up the 'Resource Monitor' just to keep an eye on what is going on with the different parts of the system.

If all was still well, then I would track down and install Windows 7 Service Pack 1.

Now, this is a big file, just under a gigabyte for the 64 bit version so it could take a while to download even at your connection speed and also, the installation process can take more than an hour to complete. And when the system shuts down and restarts, the re-configuration process seems to go on forever so you should allow at least a couple of hours for this part of the installation procedure.

Once I get this far I would then go to 'Windows Update' one last time and after checking and selecting any further 'Optional Updates' I would go through the hundred or so 'Important Updates' and select only those that deal with compatibility or stability issues, those that deal with .NET issues and Internet Explorer 10. I wouldn't bother with the 'Windows Security' updates, any that deal with issues about certificates or remote users (I would have circumvented such problems by disabling remote access to my system in 'Services') and I certainly don't install any updates that tell me that they cannot be removed once installed.

Once I was happy that my Windows installation was stable and still under control of the user, I would then switch off the Windows Update services from the Services interface which is accessed by Right-Clicking 'My Computer' and selecting 'Manage'.

I think that by dividing the installation process into a set of smaller tasks, modules, if you like, you can build a system that has a pattern and structure that can be more easily understood in terms of its parts, This enables one to 'home in' on a problem and sometimes, every now and then, we can avoid problems altogether. Although, for me at any rate, it is actually the problems that make computers interesting. As long as they are solvable, that is.

I know I'm rambling a little and they probably have quantum desktop computers by now but I have found that by taking an individual approach to computers, by expecting them to differ from each other in certain ways, I am able to solve many kinds of problem that do actually turn out to be due to an idiosyncrasy of a manufacturer, Intel, for example, or a producer, Acer, perhaps.

Install in steps and enjoy each step along the way. The computer has to walk the same journey and you may as well take it together since you have to arrive at the end at the same time.

I hope you can get your system to go with you and evolve.

Good luck.

 

[Clueless101]

Hi, thank you very much for your great answer, the amount of detail really really helps 🙂 . I will try this out and post back with my results