Serious vista install problem

[FalvinP]

I just built my new machine and everything seemed to be normal. I then proceeded to install vista on a brand new Seagate 700.10 250 gig hard drive that sits on an Asus P5K motherboard..

We went through the initial screens, putting in the languages and the product code etc.

I came to the screen where you partition the hard drive. I decide to have 100 gig to C: and then I planned to have the rest the D: drive. I'm not sure what happened, but somehow we got past things without actrually formatting the drive. We were out of the room for a while and when we came back, Windows seemed to be extracting files ect. and things seemed to processing normally. Then all of the sudden the screen went crazy. We could still read some windows as they came up but ultimately we got put into a loop..... a message would appear saying that the system booted unexcpectedly and would have to reboot. I have a hunch this occurred because it couldn't see the hard drive.

The question is............... How do I get back to square one so I can format the drive and instlall Windows again? Even when I try to restart the installation dvd it does the same thing. I am able to get into the bios if I need to. At some point after looking at the bios I got a message saying that overclocking failed and to press f2 to reset default values. If I did something, I did it unknowingly.

Would clearing cmos and taking out the battery help?

I think I need a glass of wine......

[FalvinP]

Here is some further info tht may help diagnose the problem.

specs:

Intel E6750
BFG Geforce 512Mb 7950 GT OC video card
Asus P5K motherboard
Corsair XMS ram 2 gig
Corsair 520W power supply
Seagate 700.10 250 Gig HD
Lite-On 20X DVD writer

I can't get setup to start again, regardless of whether I have the Vista install disk in the dvd drive or not. I can get to the bios, but no menus.

There was a message about not detecting any drives, but it went by too fast to read. I checked the bios and it said that the "hit f1 to proceed past error messages" was enabled, but it didn't work.

Since I chose to partition the drive, it didn't automatically format the drive. I think what happened is that after I applied the primary partition, I clicked "next" instead of "format".

If you scroll down to where the partition is created in the attached tutorial link, you'll see what I mean.

http://vistahomepremium.windowsreins...tallnewhdd.htm

This build has been fun up to now. I hope it stays that way........... lol

[shadowpr]

Best bet might be to just start over. Reformat and repartition the drive.

If you can't get the vista cd to do that for you, try UBCD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html). Use that to format the drive and then see if you can proceed with the install again.

Keep us posted.

[FalvinP]

Shadow, the link doesn't work for me.

[hudson80]

Re the link to the ulitmate boot disk, delete all after com and then try it. worked for me
Like this.
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

Often if a link don't work try just the basic part first

[FalvinP]

I'm sorry if my posts seem a little disjointed. I'm having problems with the OEM Vista installation on my new build. Please see my original post here:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=188447

I've tried to repartition, reformat, and install Vista several times and the installation always stops at the same point.......... soon after it attempts to start windows for the first time.

The screen has many lines of what appear to be groups of pixels gathered together as just a few dots here and there, all the way to big lines of pixels.

The installation seems to go normally. The hard drive light blinks normally and things seem to be on track. I'm able to do the partioning and formatting of the drive. It seems to normally load windows, but just stops and says the there was an unexpected error and that I need to restart and do the installation again....... only to go through the install that stops at the same place. I've tried connecting a different monitor to the system with the same results.

I attempted to repartion and reformat ect using the ultimate boot cd. I got similar performance from the video. I could not read all the menus and explantions in the text based invironment on the disk so I couldn't use it.

I've come to the conclusion that the video card is probably bad. The BFG Geforce 7950 GT OC has a lifetime warranty, so I'll probably have to rma it. The only thing I have to try is putting another PCIe card in the machine to see if the same thing happens. I will either have to buy a cheap card to use as a troubleshooting tool or find one to borrow.

Can a bad video card stop a windows installation like this? It sounds reasonable to me. I read in another thread that sometimes a bad card can damage the PCIe slot on the motherboard. What are the chances of this ocurring and how would I determine that? Would the motherboard's warranty be in effect if another componebnt caused a failure?

Your asssitance is very much appreciated.

[Alaron]

FalvinP, I merged your threads together so we can follow along easily.

__Moderator__

[FalvinP]

Sorry about that. Since I thought it had more to do with the video card than with the actual Vista installation, I thought I'd put it into the video section so as to get replies from people who know video.......... Oops!

[Statica]

It's quite possible that a bad video card or bad video RAM might have those effects, but usually what does happen is that Windows should boot up on a default VGA mode. The problem is that since this is an entirely new set of parts, you're dealing with a lot of variables and any number of those parts or a combination of them might cause this issue.
Before swapping out the video card, is there another computer that you could pop in that video card and test? I'd also run a standard RAM test to see if that's working out ok. While it doesn't look like parts that might cause Vista issues, at this stage unless you have some other parts you can throw into the new system (like swap the video card for another one) and test to see if you can isolate the issue you'll be RMA-ing parts out for a long while.

[FalvinP]

I don't ave another computer to put the video card into, but I'll definatley try to find one. I can't do any of the memory tests on the Ultimate boot cd because I can't read the screen very well.

I tend to think you're right about the video card or video ram (which I assume is the 512Mb memory on the video card) being the culprit. Right at the first installation attempt, things proceeded normally, with the video looking normal. Then, all of a sudden the screen went crazy and produced all those crazy pixel patterns etc. Sounds to me like the card failed at that point.

[FalvinP]

With no other alternative, I had to take my rig down to a local computer shop. It took them less than a day to get to my machine and determine that the video card was, in fact, bad. They swapped a card out to another machine (card didn't work) and then put another card into my case (card worked). They were able to see my Vista installation up to the point of where the installation failed, so all seems well.

I've since rma'd the card back to BFG and am eagerly awaiting a replacement card.

The one negative on this is that the BFG lifetime warranty only ships back refurbished cards. I suppose this is OK, but with the card being brand new, it would have been nice if it was also a brand new card. Has anyone else had experience with this type of situation?