vista not finishing install

draxi · Dec 27, 2008

Hey all,

I'm having some trouble doing a clean install of vista on my machine. I had already installed it once back in January of 2008, and was going to do a clean install here last night.

I formatted my hard drive, and start the installation it will go through all of its steps until it states that it needs to restart. It restarts then goes to the part where it says it is "completing installation" and then it just hangs.

Things I've tired:
unplugging anything usb, and using a ps2 mouse / keyboard
took out 4gigs of ram so I only have 2gigs left in the system
removed all pci slot cards except the graphics card.
removed all except my main hard drive

and im still having the issue.

my system specs are:

intel Q6600 2.4 quad
normally 6 gigs of 800mhz ddr2, currently only 2gigs
320gig WD sata2 hard drive
Foxconn P9657AB Intel Crossfire Motherboard socket 775
ati radeon 3870 512mb
lg ide dvd drive
600 watt pwr supply

Is there anything else I could be doing or should be doing to get this to install again? I'm getting a bit frustrated with this.

lordbob75 · Dec 27, 2008

have you tried restarting the machine when it hangs? I had the same problem and i just restarted it and it worked... Try that if you haven't.

~Lordbob

draxi · Dec 27, 2008

When I try restarting when it hangs it gives me the error

"An unexpected error has occurred or your system shut down unexpectedly and is unable to finish setup. Please restart your computer, and restart the installation."

or something along those lines.

bruce2 · Dec 27, 2008

Hi draxi, welcome to the board.

May I ask that the reason you reinstall Vista is frequent hanging? If it is, it seems to be your hard ware problem such as HDD data accessing problem.

How about first check your SATA cable connection buy wiggle, shack and tug on the connection at the HDD. Then, try to boot it up. It might work a few time until you replace the cable with an aftermarket one. Bad SATA connection is a know cause for rendom freezing. You may need to reinstall after making sure the connection is well seat.

Good luck and hope it is that simple. Post back to let us know what happens and we'll start from there.

draxi · Dec 27, 2008

The reason that i am reinstalling vista was just to clean everything up and start with a new slate.

Tried checking the SATA connectors, making sure they were secure, but its still a no-go.

bruce2 · Dec 27, 2008

Hi draxi, so it was working problem free until you reinstall Vista.

You have BIOS up to date.

How do you know the SATA connection is check to be good if you didn't reinstall window again?

Now, installation failed with minimum components except the graphic card. I suggest you start the installation all over with graphic card removed. Put it back in after everything is okay and install up to date driver. I still think it is bad SATA contection connection at the HDD, replace it. Other wise it is your HDD turned bad in a suddent which is not likely. Make sure all the connections and rams are set and secure. I don't think it is something went bad during installation. But who knows; may be you have a crapy PSU that took out something.

Post back.

draxi · Dec 28, 2008

I replaced the sata cables. and it is still freezing at that point in the installation.

I'm not able to take out my graphics card as my motherboard doesn't have onboard video, making it rather difficult to input my copy of vistas registration key, etc.

I swapped out my ram and made sure they were secure, yet the installation still will hang after that certain point of when it says it is "completing the installation".

bruce2 · Dec 28, 2008

Hi draxi, you must have waited on the "completing the installation" for a long time.:D
You are right that this mobo has no on board graphics.

Are you confident with this HDD? Are you willing to try to install on another one? The BIOS must be okay since it was working fine before. I couldn't come up with anything else other then the HDD. Try another SATA port. If anything else is wrong, you wouldn't be able to install up to this point. Have you formated and rebuilt your partition during installation?
I hate to point finger to the mother board this early. If nothing work, eventually, bench test, resetting BIOS and start from scraps at the point as if you first build the computer would be recommended. May be try another copy of Vista installation disk from a friend? Did I cover everything?:D

Sorry, please post back.

draxi · Dec 28, 2008

Yeah the pc has two HDD's in it, one is a 320 one is a 250. Each time I try to restart the installation I delete and create a new partition. Ive tried basicly all the sata slots, and both HDD's.

I am going to borrow a xp disk from my brother tonight to see if xp will install. I'll post back later to let you know how that goes.

draxi · Dec 29, 2008

Ok so I installed XP on my first try without a hitch...This is rather annoying, So Im going to guess from the fact that I can install win xp that it was not a hardware issue.and assume that my copy of vista became corupt or something? There are no scratches on the disk so im a little puzzled why it would install for me 6 months ago, but not this time.Guess I may have to get another copy of vista / wait on windows 7.any other thoughts on what might be causing vista to not finish installing?

bruce2 · Dec 29, 2008

Hi draxi, it is really stange this happened. Glad at least you have come to a conclusion. Have try the Vista disk again without touching anything? It may work now. Try a copy from a friend?
Have a good one.

lordbob75 · Dec 30, 2008

I think it sounds like the disk is bad. Try installing from another disk.

~Lordbob

draxi · Dec 31, 2008

Ok so I found a disk from a friend of mine that I tired to install with.Its hanging at the same place. This doesn't make sense that two vista disks hang at that spot, yet xp will install with no problems.

bruce2 · Dec 31, 2008

draxi said:
Ok so I found a disk from a friend of mine that I tired to install with.Its hanging at the same place. This doesn't make sense that two vista disks hang at that spot, yet xp will install with no problems.

Hi draxi, this is really strange. If your BIOS is not up to date or the system is Vista incompatible, it wouldn't have been working before. Is your C: formatted in "basic" type instead of "Dynamic". Seems it gets stuck when it try to write to the HDD. Hope someone will come up with an answer for this.

draxi · Dec 31, 2008

Hey guys just one final update to help others out if this ever happens to them.

In my bios settings for this motherboard there was a setting in the "advanced bios options" area that said "stop on errors" and it gave you these options: "keyboard, system, none, all" It was set to "all" for basicly all my attempts I'm guessing. So when vista was installing in ran accross some kind of an error and it just stopped up the system.

I switched this to "none" and the install went through without a hitch.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'm glad I found this forum. I think I'll stick around and see if I can be of some help for others.

-Draxi

bruce2 · Dec 31, 2008

There's something new to learn all the time. Congrat draxi! Happy new year!!!

lordbob75 · Jan 1, 2009

Glad to see you got it solved!

Happy new year!

~Lordbob

vista not finishing install

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