I can't install windows 7 and I don't know why (SOLVED)

archonwarp

I recently purchased windows 7 professional through the internet with a student discount. After downloading and burning to a DVD, i tried to install it on my desktop (custom build machine; Gigabyte P35-DS3R motherboard) only to have no results. What I mean is that after 'pressing any key to boot from CD', my monitor displays a "NO SIGNAL" status and powers off. My computer is still running, and all of the fans are on. I can hear light chatter on the hard drive, but not enough to tell if any serious business is happening, and the DVD is still spinning. I then made a bootable USB install of the ISO (first manually, and then with Microsoft's automated tool) and had the same problem. I tried the DVD on another machine and found that it worked fine as a boot disc. I also tried my dad's Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade DVD in my machine only to have the same issue. Oh and I'm using a SATA hard drive with an IDE DVD drive.

I tried several ways of getting it to work, including updating my BIOS to the latest version, and nothing was successful. I even resorted to calling Microsoft, only to have a foreign tech support agent tell me that I should consider buying a new computer. This is really frustrating me, so I've come here to ask for help. I'm considering this a full House (CS) level problem, so any type of suggestions, no matter how off-the-wall the possible fix sounds, are totally appreciated.

*EDIT* Solved by swapping my hard drive into another machine, installing the OS, and moving the hard drive back prior to configuring windows.

MoSiAc

Have you tried booting from other types of boot cd's like ubuntu, things of that nature?

archonwarp

Yes. I can boot my windows XP CD just fine. I don't have any other boot DVDs to try, but I can check. It may be my DVD drive, as it sometimes crashes my computer when I try to burn a DVD/CD, though I can READ any type of CD or DVD 100% of the time (including my windows 7 DVD) in windows. Still, that doesn't explain why it would fail to boot from USB.

MoSiAc

Well I'm just curious if for some reason Windows 7 doesn't like some specific piece of your hardware. It's a rare issue, and I was going to mention to try using a different optical drive if you have one around, but since you tried off USB and it still didn't work it leads me to believe that windows 7 just doesn't like something on your machine.

Satsumomo

Is the machine currently up and running? Because I had this happen to me once, and it turned out it had bad memory. Vista/XP cd's would boot up and start installing, but usually fail halfway. The Win7 CD would just not make it to the installation screen. I removed the bad memory module and voila, it worked.

archonwarp

The machine is currently running fine on XP with an nLight install. I'll try cycling out each of my two memory modules and checking. Would that possibly keep the computer from even entering the install screen?

*EDIT* RAM seems to be okay.

Ruckus

What kind of graphics card do you have, and is there a firmware update for it?

archonwarp

I have an ATI 4870. There might be, and I'll check that now. I reseated and cycled the two ram sticks only to have the same problem, so that's not it (unless they're both bad? :P)

Satsumomo

archonwarp wrote: »

The machine is currently running fine on XP with an nLight install. I'll try cycling out each of my two memory modules and checking. Would that possibly keep the computer from even entering the install screen?

*EDIT* RAM seems to be okay.

It happened with that specific computer I was using, as soon as I pressed the key for it to enter the Win7 installation, it would just restart. THe XP and Vista installations would at least make it halfway.

archonwarp

RAM is okay, and the graphics card is updated and the issue still persists. Keep the suggestions coming!

*EDIT* I just swapped out the DVD drive, with no luck in fixing the problem.

pacbowl

Have you tried running the setup from the usb drive while in windows instead of booting from it?

I had problems booting from the MSDN version of Ultimate and tried running it from within XP. After it copied the setup files to a ram drive, it formatted, rebooted and continued the install.

Bionic Monkey

archonwarp wrote: »

Yes. I can boot my windows XP CD just fine. I don't have any other boot DVDs to try, but I can check. It may be my DVD drive, as it sometimes crashes my computer when I try to burn a DVD/CD, though I can READ any type of CD or DVD 100% of the time (including my windows 7 DVD) in windows. Still, that doesn't explain why it would fail to boot from USB.

Stupid "is it plugged in" question, but did you unpack the file correctly, or did you just burn the exe to a disc?

archonwarp

pacbowl wrote: »

Have you tried running the setup from the usb drive while in windows instead of booting from it?

I had problems booting from the MSDN version of Ultimate and tried running it from within XP. After it copied the setup files to a ram drive, it formatted, rebooted and continued the install.

I can't even load it up, since I'm running XP 32-bit and the new software is 64-bit. Setup tells me it isn't a valid Win32 application.

Bionic Monkey wrote: »

archonwarp wrote: »

Yes. I can boot my windows XP CD just fine. I don't have any other boot DVDs to try, but I can check. It may be my DVD drive, as it sometimes crashes my computer when I try to burn a DVD/CD, though I can READ any type of CD or DVD 100% of the time (including my windows 7 DVD) in windows. Still, that doesn't explain why it would fail to boot from USB.

Stupid "is it plugged in" question, but did you unpack the file correctly, or did you just burn the exe to a disc?

Not at all stupid; I appreciate any advice at this point. It's actually an ISO, and it's burned on the disc correctly (it will boot up on my dad's laptop and prompt me to go through the full upgrade process), and the USB drive was made using Microsoft's ISO-to-flash-drive-tool: http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool

MoSiAc

Ok only other "stupid question" I can think of, you have a 64 bit processor right?

Sir Red of the Manti

I once used this dirty trick to install 7. Typically this works better on a multi-partition setup as you can clear off a partition and only have the install files sitting on it while pulling the bootsect setup for it from a partition with your previous OS on it. If you have a means to alter your boot sector without an installed OS you can pull this off on a single (otherwise empty except for the necessary install files) NTFS partition. You can not pull this off on a partition with an existing OS, and you can not format the drive as part of the install for obvious reasons.

Carnarvon

Anecdotal, but maybe it will help: when I put Vista64 on my dad's computer(using an IDE dvd drive), it would, for whatever reason, not see his sata drives.

When I later replaced his IDE DVD with a SATA and tried to install Vista 64 again, it wouldn't recognize his IDE drives!

Try replacing your dvd drive with a sata, or put an IDE drive there.

archonwarp

Sorry for the delayed response; finals, work, and sickness got the better of me. Yes, my processor is 64-bit. I tried taking out my sata hard drive and putting an IDE one in, but I have the same problem. :-/

DrFrylock

Given that the machine remains on but the monitor loses signal, it makes me think there's something going on in your graphics card or setup or whatever. Could be driving your monitor at an unsupported resolution, could be not sending signal to the monitor, could also be trying to send signal somewhere else. I looked it up and it doesn't look like your motherboard has integrated graphics, but is there any other place the system might be sending a graphics signal? Secondary card? Onboard whatchamahoozit? Anything?

Zeon

You should still be able to run the setup file from windows. When you pop in the disc there should be an option that comes up (If its the same as the beta, its not immediately obvious) that it will begin an installation. I had the same problem, no matter what i did i could not install from the bootable cd. I started the setup through windows and it worked no problem.

user

I'm guessing your download didn't come with an ISO file. I had the same problem, purchased mine from Digital River through their student offer, luckily I paid a bit more for a physical disc to arrive in the mail.

If you bought it from Digital River then they can supply you with an ISO file for making the disc bootable. Just follow this link and the instructions included therein.

http://windows7.digitalriver.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=ContentTheme&Locale=en_US&SiteID=mswpus&pbPage=Upgrade&resid=xNuzqQoBAkcAABV%40DZ8AAAAR&rests=1261212672406

If you got it elsewhere then I suggest asking them to provide you with the necessary file.

Enos316

user wrote: »

I'm guessing your download didn't come with an ISO file. I had the same problem, purchased mine from Digital River through their student offer, luckily I paid a bit more for a physical disc to arrive in the mail.

If you bought it from Digital River then they can supply you with an ISO file for making the disc bootable. Just follow this link and the instructions included therein.

http://windows7.digitalriver.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=ContentTheme&Locale=en_US&SiteID=mswpus&pbPage=Upgrade&resid=xNuzqQoBAkcAABV%40DZ8AAAAR&rests=1261212672406

If you got it elsewhere then I suggest asking them to provide you with the necessary file.

He said that the disk he has boots fine on his Dad's laptop. So it doesn't sound like a problem with the disk. I would go with others here and say try a different dvd-drive. You could also try and upgrade the firmware on your dvd drive.

rfalias

Ok, he gets the press any key dealieo, so I'd say it's just his videocard that it's not agreeing with for some reason. Even if he updates it, if the windows 7 does not see it in the pre-boot environment then it won't display.

Try a different videocard, or if you have onboard video plug it into that and enable it in the bios.

Aridhol

DrFrylock wrote: »

Given that the machine remains on but the monitor loses signal, it makes me think there's something going on in your graphics card or setup or whatever. Could be driving your monitor at an unsupported resolution , could be not sending signal to the monitor, could also be trying to send signal somewhere else. I looked it up and it doesn't look like your motherboard has integrated graphics, but is there any other place the system might be sending a graphics signal? Secondary card? Onboard whatchamahoozit? Anything?

I am betting on this, given what you describe. Do you have another monitor or video card to try?

archonwarp

I tried it with my TV and still had the same problem. I grabbed my old rig and swapped the hard drive into that, and it worked for a bit, but it had issues recognizing a SATA drive and an IDE DVD... I finally got it to work by conning my father into letting me hack open his case, switch his hard drive, install on his machine, move the hard drive back into my computer, then "setup my new computer" from my box. It runs like a dream now. Thanks for all the suggestions guys!