Long story short, my mother has a PC I built for her a few years ago. It was running fine with WinXP but it needs a fresh OS. She purchased Win7 64-bit. Been trying to get it to work for the last 2 hours...no avail.

Specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-945P-DS3
CPU: Intel Pentium D 950
GPU: XFX GeForce 7950GT
RAM: Kingston DDR2 800 something or another
HDD: Hitachi SATA 80GB

I had a hell of a time getting it to boot from CD/DVD and when it does finally boot, the screen takes forever to come up. When it finally comes up it's as if the computer has frozen up. Mouse/keyboard doesn't work and it's otherwise lifeless. I tried removing the USB mouse and keyboard and plugging in a PS/2 keyboard and no mouse. Still nothing. I've let it sit for 30 minutes even...still nothing.

So, I'm ready to try anything at this point. It's starting to aggravate me.

Is it a 64 bit processor?

Quote from: adidasguy on March 06, 2014, 01:06:17 AM
Is it a 64 bit processor?

To the best of my knowledge, yes. It's one of the last versions of the Pentium D series that came right before the Core 2 Duo series.

Been a loooong time.... I would think its a motherboard (age) ... Or RAM (not enough) issue ...

Also possible .... HDD is having issues finding a boot sector .... It's part of the startup sequence that still impacts on the cd/DVD startup IIRC ...

You might need to look into the info provided in the CMOS setup/boot menu ... And compare what you have available with what WIN7 wants ....

Sometimes windows installations take a while ... But 30 mins just to progress 1 step is pushing the limits... 

Also .... Again IIRC ... XP used fat32 HDD formatting??? .. While win7 DEFINITELY uses NTFS formatting (I think it really means Not The Friggin Same!!) .... It may take a boot disk to get to a c: prompt then reformat to NTFS and set your partitions again.... IF the HDD was set up as fat32 with multiple partitions ...(NTFS was used for larger than 32 gb partition sizing)

Sorry about the vagueness .... It's been... A decade? .... Hopefully one of the current whizz kids will chime in for ya eh! 

It seems like the processor is 64-bit: http://ark.intel.com/products/27521/Intel-Pentium-D-Processor-950-(4M-Cache-3_40-GHz-800-MHz-FSB)#

How much RAM is installed? Windows 7 64 bit needs at least 2 GB: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/products/system-requirements

If it is a bad image then you can download and burn a fresh copy here:  http://www.w7forums.com/threads/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads.12325/

I am not sure if the pentuim D can handle windows 64 bit, but even if that is the case the disc should start and at some point you will be told it is not compatible.  Unless you have more than 4gb of ram 32 bit would be just fine.

To just test and make sure things work you might want to download a linux live CD such as Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

You can run linux without installing.  See if it does load, and see if things all work.

Just curious why install 7? What's wrong with Xp?


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Edit the wording: Kingston DDR2 800 is probably only 2GB RAM... Which would seem pretty low to run 7 
Only say that because the 2GB is very common.

- Bboy

Quote from: Kijona on March 06, 2014, 02:01:25 AM

Quote from: adidasguy on March 06, 2014, 01:06:17 AM
Is it a 64 bit processor?

To the best of my knowledge, yes. It's one of the last versions of the Pentium D series that came right before the Core 2 Duo series.

afaik it is a64.try a different hdd. and although time consuming, do a THOROUGH SLOW format. and partition that pig if not already done. cause a virus will only affect the OS.

Quote from: BockinBboy on March 06, 2014, 11:45:22 AM
Edit the wording: Kingston DDR2 800 is probably only 2GB RAM... Which would seem pretty low to run 7 
Only say that because the 2GB is very common.

- Bboy

i have 2gb on my 7pro install. runs great. the hdd size concerns me tho

Quote from: BockinBboy on March 06, 2014, 11:45:22 AM
Edit the wording: Kingston DDR2 800 is probably only 2GB RAM... Which would seem pretty low to run 7 
Only say that because the 2GB is very common.

- Bboy

It's 4GB (2x2GB) matched set.

It's like this:

Boot from CD/DVD > Black Screen for ~ 5-6 minutes > Language Selection Screen > Dead

I let it sit at the language selection screen for about 30 minutes and came back and it STILL was not accepting any commands. I can't get anywhere with the install. Not even to format.

I went ahead and installed WinXP back onto it for the time being. I always use the slow format.

ntfs/fat32 issue?

Quote from: yamahonkawazuki on March 06, 2014, 02:48:26 PM

i have 2gb on my 7pro install.
Gotcha, good to know.

Quote from: Kijona on March 06, 2014, 07:45:21 PM
It's 4GB (2x2GB) matched set.

K. You might have been judged a little if you built yourself and only had one 

- Bboy

There are many things that can cause this issue.
The most common are optical drive problems, RAM issues and hardware compatibility.
Since the system was running fine using Win XP I am leaning more towards either optical or RAM problems.
My main concern here is the RAM. That mobo, depending on its revision, is only rated to handle speed up to 667. So even if your RAM is working, it is only working to a max of 667 speeds.
Win 7 is what is termed an "intelligent" OS. What I mean by that is that when it first comes up it scans the PC hardware and starts compiling a list of components. That way it can connect to the internet and download the proper drivers for the individual components for use during installation.
So, what I am getting at is that Win 7 may be seeing the RAM and the connected mobo northbridge/southbridge architecture and is attempting to make it do something that is messing everything up.

(I hope all this is making sense. I am trying to explain this in as basic of a sense as possible)

Anyways, The best order for troubleshooting this issue is this;
1 - Download the Ultimate Boot CD and burn it to disk (NOT USB). http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html (be sure to scroll down near the bottom of the page for the downloads. DO NOT click the "download" button near the top of the page.
2 - Be sure PC is set to boot from CD first in the BIOS and reboot PC.
3 - If it boots quickly and completely into the UBCD, then your optical is probably OK. If not, replace your optical drive, they are really cheap.
4 - Once into the UBCD run the Memtest 86+ (in the 'memory' section). Let it run through a complete pass. This can take an hour or more depending upon the speed of your PC.
5 - If Memtest 86+ passes with no errors, remove disk and insert Win & disk then shut off PC and remove one stick of RAM. Boot up PC and try to load Win 7.
6 - If Win 7 loads OK, then continue with format and load Win 7. Once Win 7 is completely installed, shut down PC and put back in the second stick of RAM.
7 - If Win 7 still will not load, post back here and I will walk you through further troubleshooting.

There was a typo in my original post. I just caught it.

I'm running a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3

It's a Rev 3.3 board. Supports C2D processors.

I double-checked the RAM. It's DDR2-800. I also ran memtest on both sticks twice. Both sticks are good.

I've pretty much used up all my patience with this damned computer. I put WinXP back on it and the first thing that happened was it started to not recognize the wireless adapter (PCI), even though it was working fine previously. I ultimately determined the card had gone bad because I took the one from my computer (the exact same card) and it worked flawlessly. Ordered a new card and it should be here soon.

well unlike 7 xp usually doesn't auto install drivers for accessories. if you decide to try 7 again, iu can send you the dell recovery and key. it WILL work. ive used it on this computer before. got 3 valid copies. all are 64bit though

I have an old HP DC7600 minitower serving as a media PC which has a pentium D processor.  As far as I know all the Pentium Ds were 64 bit compatible, and I have installed windows 7 on mine with just 2Gb of ram.

All I can recommend is removing any surplus hardware (just ram + ROM + HDD + graphics), disable any onboard features not necessary for the install (onboard NIC, graphics, USB etc).  If XP goes on there it indicates your ROM and HDD should be working fine for the install, and it is likely an interupt or hardware conflict that is causing it to freeze up and lose the plot.

Plan B is always a nice install of Linux..   
(seriously though - just chucked Linux Mint on my N10J netbook and it was the most painless install I have ever done - image includes a full suite of apps which get installed at the same time).

Quote from: Kiwingenuity on March 09, 2014, 03:45:28 PM
I have an old HP DC7600 minitower serving as a media PC which has a pentium D processor.  As far as I know all the Pentium Ds were 64 bit compatible, and I have installed windows 7 on mine with just 2Gb of ram.

All I can recommend is removing any surplus hardware (just ram + ROM + HDD + graphics), disable any onboard features not necessary for the install (onboard NIC, graphics, USB etc).  If XP goes on there it indicates your ROM and HDD should be working fine for the install, and it is likely an interupt or hardware conflict that is causing it to freeze up and lose the plot.

Plan B is always a nice install of Linux..   
(seriously though - just chucked Linux Mint on my N10J netbook and it was the most painless install I have ever done - image includes a full suite of apps which get installed at the same time).

had same pc a while back. did same thing. it ran fine.

Well, at this present time, my mother is happy running Windows XP. She bought Windows 7 because of a miscommunication about what was needed to fix the computer. It originally had two HDDs with two copies of windows on each one (for a total of 4...). Needless to say, I wasn't involved when the copies were made. I explained we needed to wipe everything and start over with a fresh copy of windows.

At any rate, I guess I'll revisit this at a later date if she decides she wants to put Windows 7 on it.

Quote from: Kijona on March 12, 2014, 12:31:00 AM
Well, at this present time, my mother is happy running Windows XP. She bought Windows 7 because of a miscommunication about what was needed to fix the computer. It originally had two HDDs with two copies of windows on each one (for a total of 4...). Needless to say, I wasn't involved when the copies were made. I explained we needed to wipe everything and start over with a fresh copy of windows.

At any rate, I guess I'll revisit this at a later date if she decides she wants to put Windows 7 on it.

when or if you do it will take it. just a hardware issue. a minor one. love windows 7 now. when I was working our shop would sell used windows 8 computers, id update that with a windows 7 start menu. do like xp though. im used to it.