Ok so I had win 7 working fine on my rig untill I changed settings in bios and it all went wrong. Since then it has not worked. I have reset bios and everything. Formated C:\ When installing I get to the Starting windows screen and some times a little more but then it just crash's. I have left it for some time but still nothing. I have taken out everything but one HDD and DVD and still the same happens. CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) Dual Core Processor 4850e, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.5GHz MEM: 2GB not sure buy who MOBO: ASUS M2A-VM HDMI HDD1: Maxtor 6YO80M0 80GB SATA HDD2: Samsung F3 1TB 32MB Cache SATA-II OPTICAL1: Samsung SH-S223C/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer TFT: Samsung 22" 1680x1050 KEYBOARD: Eclipse Multimedia Keyboard MOUSE: Logitech RX1000
Did you turn on RAID in your bios? Possibly something with your SATA settings? I would start by disabling the RAID and disabling extended sata settings and see what it does. Not sure this will hep, but it's just a thought.
If what Straha said does not help you then try to get a newer bios. My friends computer did the same thing and all we needed to do was to update the bios.
Have you reset the CMOS? You will have to remove the motherboard battery for like 1 hour but that will reset everything. Maybe even downgrading the bios. Sometimes bios updates give you more problems cause they have different bugs in them.
You can't change the SATA mode once Windows is installed, its not just RAID than can be a problem, its the compatible mode which was useful years ago when SATA first came out, when installing the original XP, but now it should never be used! Unless you have a RAID system AHCI mode should always be used, as compatible mode disables some performance features of SATA. Whichever its set to at the moment, try changing it and see if it helps. If it is compatible mode that works, try moving off all the files you want to keep then to a complete reinstall in AHCI mode
Done the CMOS and the AHCI am now looking for the BIOS update is it bets to place this on disk or USB or on c drive????
I have got XP to install but have none of the drivers for the mobo installing them via the web I got this far (1) copying files - 100% - Ok) earlyer but then it crashed again screen goes all bitty???
To flash your bios it really depends on your specific mobo because they all have different means of flashing. Most likely a Floppy driver with Afudos or a cd with the same and the bios file. Also with your screen going black does it say anything? It might be a problem with your video card too. Kinda a different problem but I flashed my nvidia graphics card with a newer bios revision and I was able to get the RAM that it took because of a bug so you never know these days. Maybe even something like a virus messed some bios thing up too cause I know that can happen.
Using the onboard VGA and it works fine in XP so thats ok still cant find the latest bios for this MOBO. Plus I have never updated my BIOS befor So really scared on doing it. I might get hold of a copy of Vista as it is going to be the misses PC as I am upgradeing to a I3 rig soon I just need to get this working and stable as it will be for her office.
@jayzeewood, if XP is now working when you said it was not before. That tells me that it is your video card that making your pc freeze. Probably either a bad card or a bad bios inside that card that is messing you up. I would try reinstalling windows 7 with the onboard VGA card. If that works then you will know for sure that it is your other vid card that is giving you problems. It could have been the AHCI too though
Ok Ok a bad bit of info on my part. Try again. I have got XP working fine just missing a load of drivers that I am downloading. When I try and install win7 it gets to the part just befor the install screen and crash's and screen goes funny. So all in all XP=fine (30days to activate) Win 7 not installing with RAID AHCI or IDE settings in BIOS????
Did you check here for the bios in the bios mod section? Maybe one is already done for you. They have a lot of them there
Ok So I have ver.2302 have changed to AHCI in BIOS boot from Disk still crashing out just after I select region. when I see Setup Is Starting Am downloading the ISO from time surfers post the 32-bit one. Will try that one once downloaded. If any one has the same modo and win 7 maybe you could post all the settings so I can copy them to see if I can get it working.