cont....from psu thread pc wont install.....

[Gavin78]

basically I ordered a new tower case (Antec darkfleet DF-85)

simple all it was just a port from the old tower to this one....however true pc style is wont install windows.

I had a SSD as main HD running windows 7 64bit although it was a crap SSD so kept getting random blue screens (memory dump)

Didn't think much of it on this case I have a hot swap drive at the top for 2.5ich SSD drives. I put it in and windows booted up but it kept locking up. so decided to make my 500gig master and take away the SSD and went for a reinstall. the win7 is an upgrade so usually have to install xp then win 7.

123456 attempt it locked up at 20% format of drive although it was really slow getting to the F8 bit to accept took about 5 mins managed to get it to install windows XP as far as driver.cab froze at that.

I tried again a few times after that and all it does it lock up at 20% if I go for the full format it gets to 100% and freezes.

I have 8 gig of ram took out 6 gig to see if that made a difference and it didn't and a took out the sound and usb connecters that are part of the tower.

Still made no difference I also removed the cd drive and used the external one I have and that blue screens on me when it starts to load windows.

So basically I am stuck now what i should do next.

Tomorrow I am off work so will get a chance to try a different graphics card make sure my other wasnt botched and also take out the creative sound card and try installing from basics.

I might as well add that I had to flash the bios to run the AMD x4 965BE. it seemed to ge well and it was working for the last 2 days in my old tower unless its decided to screw up now. bios has a backup to copy over just incase.

my last option would be to go back to ,my old tower, CPU x2 7850BE and retrace my old steps.

If all else fails its a new Mobo (proper AM3) and some DDR 3 ram.

you did try it with a different stick than the first one?

does the mobo have more than 1 sata controller? if so try a different controller?

[Gavin78]

No its not something I have tried but I will do tomorrow. I tried the SSD also in raid and ahci mode.

makes no difference when I tried to install windows 7 on its own it gets as far as the background image and stays at that never moves I might also add that when it gets to that part and XP gets to the 20% the HD light stays on never moves and I have waited to see 15mins if it would get pass that but no.

Tomorrow I have 2 other GFX cards I can try make sure one of them hasn't decided to go. but I do have 1 SSD drive, 3 HD's 1 500gig and 2 160's so lets say the SSD is fubbered and the 500 gig the others I can't see.

Failing that the only thing I can think of is that I flashed the bios with no problems of course and the CPU worked great. I'm only hoping that the CPU is not on the blink although I do have another I can try.

Failing all of the above if none work I can only put this down to the motherboard....I do have another pc in the house i can check all the HD's with which I might do.

The mainboard went in the new tower no problems infact the copper mountings were already in place and fit all the holes the cpu and fan were still attached to the board. I've not taken out the creative sound card yet the pc might not like the slot its in or it might not be sat in there right but I did check it....

Back to basics as already said I'll take teh board out and put it back in the old tower with the old power supply see if that helps if not I'll have to order a new mobo and ram from Ebuyer

Seen a AM3 board and 4 gig of ram with next day postage for around £120

I'll update when I can, its a good job I have 4 other pc's in the house to access the net

[Gavin78]

update>>>>

Ok so far managed to get xp installed on the 500 gig but it took ages longer than it did when I had my x2core 7850 and in the process of installing service pack 2 but its been 20 mins and its only 1/2 way installing....

device manager picks up the 4 cores ok, once sp2 is intalled I'm going to try windows 7 64bit....it could be the HD playing up I dont know but failing that I'll buy a new motherboard it might be that my bios is a beta (from the gigabyte sight) and not fully able to use the 4 cores as my version is version 1.

I'll play around a bit more I might try one of my other HD to see if that is slow and failing that I'll try my old CPU and if that is any faster I know it was the quadcore.

I tried a different sata port and ram athough I left it longer this time when it got to the 20% and it passed that bit after 15 mins hence intallation of xp

[idi banashapan]

you don't need to install XP to install the 'upgrade' version of Win7. XP cannot be 'upgraded' to Win7 directly. even MS say that the upgrade route from XP to Win7 is to copy all your important files, then build Win7 from scratch and copy back files. you CERTAINLY cannot upgrade 32 bit XP to 64 bit Win7 (or any other 64 bit), so you will have to install straight from the Win7 disc after formatting. you should only need to present the XP disc or license to Win7 during its install. so my advice is to skip the whole XP part and go straight to Win7. you are basically wasting a lot of your time!

[Gavin78]

ok this is what I did,


XP took a stupid amount of time to install the quick format got to 20% then waited there for around 15 mins then went to 100% the whole process of installing xp took around 45/55 mins.

Before hand I could install XP in around 20 mins, windows 7 took forever and when it came to installing that it stopped at 12% and stayed like that for 30 mins.

This board is an AM2+ but AM3 ready and I had to update the bios in order to run the 965 BE I was aware of some people saying that the bios update was a beta but it never said that on the site. installation of the bios seem to go well and teh quadcore worked like a charm.

When I took the mainboard out of the tower case to put in this new one I took everything off apart from the CPU and fan installation went well I've installed boards before.

So I had no look with this board messed with it all day from a different GFX card to different ram on different slots I also set default back to bios and took out the sound card and just had basics to install and no look.

I have another desktop AM2 5000+ so I tried the 500gig and SSD on that machine put the XP disc in and tried to format the HD got to 20% then 5 secs after went to 100% and installed XP in around 25 mins....little bit quicker with my SSD drive.

So I thought it was down to maybe my DVD writer going faulty so I took the drive out of the other and tried it on mine and no luck the same thing was happening as said at the start of this thread.

So I decided to order a AM3 board and 4 gig of DDR3 ram for £118 coming tomorrow and I read up that this board takes the 965BE out the box no bios updates.

So anyone who has or thinking of getting a gigabyte ma770-ud3 version one just be carefull if flashing the bios because I'm pretty sure I screwed this board up doing that.

I guess tomorrow we'll see what happens when I install this board.

your board supports dual bios why don't you take it back to the old one???

[Gavin78]

sorry forgot to mention I tried that didn't make a difference thats why I think the bios is messed up or the only other thing I can think of is that some where when I installed the motherboard I damaged it in someway. I think once I get these other parts and it working I'll use the other tower unit and old cpu and play around with it a bit see if I can get it going but I think its fubbered

if the bios was messed up the spare would kick in and take over thats the whole point. Unless you bad flashed both of them

[idi banashapan]

out of interest, have you tried a different SATA cable at all?

[Gavin78]

Hi yeah I tried different cables I have around 8/9 different ones.

So this is the Story so far....before I start all I can say is for years I have built PC's with very little problems but this by far has to be the worst time ever.

I got my New AM3 board on saturday along with 2x2gig of DDR3 ram 1333, I installed the board along with the new PSU I got....I also installed the AM3 CPU 965BE.

Board boot up and CPU fan kicked in along with DVD light coming on, black screen and rebooted as heard dvd drive reset and then again 4 seconds after reset and kept doing this.

Odd I thought so I checked all the connections and it was still doing this so I tried individual sticks of ram in different slots and same problem. So I tried a couple of stick of DDR 3 my brother has, named ones that are listed on the gigabyte site as compatable with the board and it was doing the same so I though um maybe its the power supply.

So i took out my old 850watt cheap crap brand I got for £25 and it did the same with that. so *******s I've had enough of this.

I then tried my old PSU on my old Board that I have been having problems with especially installing windows and what do you know perfect works like a charm.

The problems I had with it sticking at 20% went away and installs no problem I did also try a couple of different bios updates with the board but it was still locking up untill I tried my old PSU and works like a charm.

SO I went back to try this new PSU on the board and back to locking up again. I've just built the new tower with my old board, quadcore cpu and old PSU that doesn't fitn this new tower right as its massive had to have PSU half in the case for power cable to reach but it works.

So really I dont know what the problem is....I've contacted Ebuyer asking to return the PSU (RMA) with fault problem but I have to ring them now its submitted....

As for the AM3 board I think it maybe DOA powers up as said but thats as far as it goes just stays as a black screen and keeps re-booting....I've had to contact Ebuyer and report that as faulty.


Not too happy makes me look like a right amateur I've built 3 desktops in this house no problems and upgraded mine so many times I've lost track.

[Gavin78]

All sorted now it must be the cheapo ram that I got. I tried my brothers corsair dominator installed xp and win 7 no problem and the new power supply works ok with this board.

Not 100% sure why the PSU hates my old board but as long as its happy with the new one I dont care.

Time to re-order some better memory will look at the Gigabyte website and order what they have tested.