Failed WIndows Install Help

[silentwolf]

I have jsut set up my new computer (parts list below), and so far it has just be plagued with setbacks. To make a long story short, I am currently looking at a box, that fails to even install windows.

I had windows running on the computer a few days ago, and had all drivers installed, antivirus and firewall isntalled, and was in the process of updating windows to SP2, when the system crashed with blue screen, and a missing file. I could not replace the file, so I went ahead and tried another clean install of win XP pro.

Here is where the problem is at. Windows runs through its initial isntallation setup with the low level blue screen setup, where it copy's the setup files to the hard drive. After writing the files to the hard drive, the system reboots itself. At this point, the system should go straight back into setup, and actually start installing windows. However, my computer never does that...

After the restart, my computer re initiates the low level windows setup. It does not even act like I installed the setup files, it jsut goes straight back to the initial setup. I cant figure out for the life of me how to fix this... I have changed the boot order of the devices on the system, reformatted my drives, rebuilt my raid... None of it works. So, can someone please help me figure this out, because microsoft wont answer their danm tech support lines to help me out here. Thanks.


Components:
DFI NF4-sli dr expert mobo
opteron 170 CPU
2GB Gskill DDR 500 ram
2x evga 7800 GT video cards
SB x-fi fatality sound card
WD 320GB sata hard drive
2x 74 GB WD raptor drives on silicon image 3115 raid controller in raid 0, 32Kb chunk size
OCZ 600 W power supply

 

[silentwolf]

anyone?

 

[djnes]

My first suggestion is one you won't like. RAID0 is worthless on a desktop, but that's not the point of this thread. Pull one of the Raptors and set the BIOS to disable RAID completely, and then try again. If you still have the same problem, start testing and replacing other hardware. Test the memory out, one stick at a time with memtest. It's definitely a hardware issue, so you are just going to have to test the different parts out.

If you get everything up and running with a single drive, you could venture back into the hype/myth that is RAID0, if you desire, but eliminate it at this point. If you have a problem with one Raptor, try the other.

 

[silentwolf]

Tested the memory with memtest, came up with 40 errors when using both sticks, never had time to try each stick by itself. However, isntalled ram from a friends comp, which I know is functioning, and I still have the same install problem.

I will try getting rid of the raid, and possibly jsut pulling an old hard drive from another system on IDE to see if its a SATA problem...