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Hi there. Recently, I bought/assembled a computer. Unfortunately, it crashes on me trying to install Windows. It'll show the Windows Loading Files screen, then it'll freeze. Occasionally it makes it to the part where it needs to restart, but after restarting, it always freezes when trying to complete installation. Sometimes, it'll also just restart randomly mid-installation. It's not the SATA ports or the hard drive, as I've tried switching in a hard drive that I'm sure works. I've updated the BIOS, tried installing via USB and CD, tried updating the drivers... And no luck. Any thoughts on what it could be?

Build =

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996585

AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor Model HDX925WFGIBOX

Antec 500W EarthWatts EA500 Power Supply Unit

Sapphire HD 4670 512 MB w/ HDMI Graphics card

GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

ACPI v. IDE mode setting mismatch?

Computers which freeze (hard lock) for no (apparent) reason are usually: BIOS settings (eg, overclocking), Hard drive failure, processor (or other component) overheating, corrupt/incompatible software, damaged/incompatible peripherals (USB/Parallel), or just electronics failure (in that approximate order of likelihood , by my best guess).

--Patrick

Things to try:

1. Check all cables and connections to make sure they're firmly and correctly attached. Also check for any shorts (my last build wouldn't power up because I had forgotten to remove a riser my old mobo used and my new one didn't).
2. Remove / Disconnect any components you don't need to install windows (sound cards, tv tuners, memory card readers, printers, etc.)
3. Disable unecessary components in the BIOS (onboard sound, firewire, etc.)
4. Reset BIOS to safe/default settings.
5. Run a memory test. The Windows installation disk should have that option, if not burn an Ubuntu CD and use that.
6. See if a Live Linux CD will run without problems on the system.

More extreme options:
7. Reinstall the processor and heatsink, checking for any bent pins and making sure you're correctly seating the heatsink.

Hm. Tried resetting the CMOS and reloading the BIOS to the factory ones. Also made sure everything was hooked up properly.

A thing I forgot to mention, when the Windows installation gets past the initial black and white screen, it can take up to ten minutes for the next popup to appear. So I can't really run the memory diagnostic quite yet, otherwise I would be.

Not overheating either... Doesn't get above 40 degrees celsius. -shrug-

PatrThom said:

ACPI v. IDE mode setting mismatch?
... damaged/incompatible peripherals (USB/Parallel), or just electronics failure (in that approximate order of likelihood , by my best guess).

--Patrick

Click to expand...

Good catch!

Turns out the motherboard was defective. Thanks for the help regardless. Now just gotta wait a couple weeks for Newegg to send the replacement.