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Windows 7 - Refusing to boot after adding a DVD drive
Windows 7 - Refusing to boot after adding a DVD drive
- Hi,
I've been running Windows 7 x64 now for a couple of weeks without issue. This afternoon I decided to install my DVD drive via an IDE to SATA adaptor, having installed the OS via a borrowed external USB one.
Everything seemed to be working okay, the BIOS detected it etc. However when it came to the Windows logo it just hung there and did nothing. I rebooted and tried again, same thing. I then removed the SATA cable going to the DVD drive and it still refused to boot. I booted in to Safe Mode and everything seemed to be fine. I couldn't see anything specific in the event logs so rebooted and it still wouldn't load.
In a fit of pique I backed up what I wanted to an eSATA drive and decided to re-install. Everything seems to be working okay, including the first reboot. However when it reloads and tries to complete the installation I end up on a black or blank screen with a flashing cursor at the top left of the screen and that's where it stays no matter how long I leave it.
I removed my sound card and moved the graphics card, an Nvidia 9800 GX2, to another slot and tried the install again. Same thing.
I can't think what the ____ has gone wrong here. IIRC when I installed Vista and Win 7 before the screen flashed to that black screen briefly twice. I suspect that this is where it is detecting the graphics card. If so why is it now hanging at that point since all I did was plug in a SATA cable?
I should point out that the installations I was doing were with the power turned off of course!
Any suggestions at this point would be great i.e. is my mobo or gfx card broken!?
All Replies
- The IDE to SATA adaptor is mostly likely cause.
Not so obvious is the fact that your BIOS settings may need to be changed.
Look for a BIOS option like: Legacy mode, Enhanced or SATA/IDE mode. One of these options should fix the problem.
JS - Yes, the first thing I did was to unplug the DVD drive and then reboot. It hung at the exact same point, where the new Windows logo appears and it says it is loading Windows. That should have sorted it but hasn't. I have also reloaded BIOS defaults and that hasn't helped. The motherboard has diagnostic routines built in to it and also has a mini diag card that plugs in to the TPM socket. All these things come up clean.
- Try changing some device manager settings
Remove your SATA controller in save mode and reboot. - Nice idea. But if you follow the thread you will have noticed that I am trying to install the OS, and since it hasn't finalised there is no way to go in to safe mode. If you try it just tells you that it hasn't finished installing and that safe mode is not available.
The last things I have tried, with the absence of hardware to swap out, is to use the clear CMOS jumper and to rebuild the RAID array. Neither of which helped and when installing it still hangs on a black screen with a flashing cursor at the top left of the screen, after the initial install and first reboot.
My money is still on the graphics card or perhaps the motherboard. But it still makes no sense to me either way. I can't see how it could have been static damage as the motherboard was fitted to the chassis and the power cable plugged in but not switched on when I fitted the SATA cable.
I'm going to see if I can borrow a spare PCI-E card from work and try that. If that doesn't work I will have to contact my supplier and see if they will swap the motherboard out.
Oh, I did make a backup of the entire disk when I first installed the OS the week before last. This image had all of the drivers installed but nothing else. For some reason this image failed to restore properly, saying that no bootmgr could be found. I had noticed that it had created the 100MB system partition was created but I included that in the image and still it failed. But that is an aside to what appears to be hardware failure of some kind.
EDIT: I installed the GPU I borrowed from work, an old Nvidia card, and I was able to install Windows! As soon as it was up and running I shut down and swapped the card back again. I also swapped power cables and the rails they connect to on my PSU, just to be sure. It loaded Windows but without the right drivers, Win7 installed its inbox ones, and then rebooted. It then hung again. So it clearly doesn't like my GPU. Either it really is broken, or there is something odd with the motherboard.
EDIT2: I hooked my old motherboard up and plugged the GPU in and it hangs in the same place in the same way so its definitely had it as far as I can see. I'll see if XFX will exchange it.
