Technology, Support, and News Forum

[mmace Profile]

OK, I'm new so please go easy, I've read every relevant thread and tried everything I can think of, but I've now been without a PC since Tuesday and it's doing my head in, been on every forum I can find and someone's just pointed me here!

my PC specs:
Foxconn 945P7AA-8EKRS2 motherboard (most up to date BIOS)
Pentium D 3.4Ghz
2x 512Mb DDR2 & 1x 1Gb DDR2 RAM
GeForce 7950GT 256Mb
onboard autio, 2x LAN, 8x USB 2.0 & Firewire
4x internal HDD's
Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray writer

I've tried installing Vista Ultimate OEM around 25 times now and I'm about to give up!

I've tried the following (and mixes of them all - which is why I've tried to install so many times!):
installation to seperate drive from within XP MCE 2005 RU2 (drive formatted with Vista DVD)
installation from DVD boot to primary master drive (formatted with Vista disc)

in BIOS turn off USB, SATA, Audio, Firewire, RAID etc etc (basically everything but keyboard, PCI-E & primary IDE)

tried leaving everything in BIOS on defaults but unplugging everything physically from the PC except graphics card, monitor & keyboard (even tried it with monitor unplugged)

tried a GeForce 7300 graphics card of my brothers (the only other PCI-E card I could get hold of)

tried a bog standard DVD-ROM drive rather than the blu-ray writer

tried repairing from DVD after attempting install (get message saying that installation isn't complete so it restarts)

tried going into safe mode after freeze and after 1st boot during installation and get same message as above

tried going into safemode at 640x480 after freeze and also after 1st boot during installation, makes no difference

tried various RAM configurations, taking some out, swapping them round, borrowing from another PC etc

tried 3 different hard drives (different makes, even low level formatting), all plugged in on their own with all other unplugged in different places in the IDE chain, none of them are patitioned, I use the format on the Vista DVD to format them

there's probably other stuff I've tried too and forgotten as I've been at it every spare minute I've had, all week!


EVERY time it looks like it's going well, it does the copying files, unpacking, installing updates etc, then it reboots and moves on to the last one "completing installation" it's there for a minute with my HDD light flashing away and the 3 full stops appearing & disappearing, then it freezes, nothing else happens, the keyboard stops responding (caps lock etc does nothing)

can anyone shed ANY light on what's happening and what I can do?

I'd ideally like a dual boot with XP for a while, but at the moment I just want Vista to install!

please, please help, I'm pulling my hair out over this and my wife's getting annoyed that I'm at my PC all the time!

tomorrow I was going to take my HDD to my brothers and (try to) install with his PC and then bring my HDD back, boot in safe mode, install my drivers, reboot & then activate, would this work?

is there another way to do it on my own PC?

[kd1966 Profile YIM]

First..... Welcome to PROnetworks!! We'll get you fixed up, not to worry. Just a few more questions though.......

- Confirm you have 4 ea physical IDE hard drives....?? This to me seems uncommon, as most setups like this DO have SATA hard drives; 2 internal IDE HDD's and 2 physical SATA HDD's
- Confirm you do NOT have a RAID array set up?

Please check your XP partition for file folders that start with $ as this indicates a Windows Installation (Vista in your case) that did not complete. You need to remove this directory (Or possibly directories), as well as these files/folders (From the root of your XP partition)

\boot (This is a directory)
bootmgr
bootsect.bak

You will need to UNHIDE system files on you XP to view them and delete them

Please also tell us HOW you created/partitioned your Vista drive/partition

[mmace Profile]

First..... Welcome to PROnetworks!! We'll get you fixed up, not to worry. Just a few more questions though.......

- Confirm you have 4 ea physical IDE hard drives....?? This to me seems uncommon, as most setups like this DO have SATA hard drives; 2 internal IDE HDD's and 2 physical SATA HDD's
- Confirm you do NOT have a RAID array set up?

Please check your XP partition for file folders that start with $ as this indicates a Windows Installation (Vista in your case) that did not complete. You need to remove this directory (Or possibly directories), as well as these files/folders (From the root of your XP partition)

\boot (This is a directory)
bootmgr
bootsect.bak

You will need to UNHIDE system files on you XP to view them and delete them

Please also tell us HOW you created/partitioned your Vista drive/partition

thank you for the welcome & reply!

I have 4 physical hard drives, yes, I have 1 normal IDE port on my motherboard & 2 RAID, but when I try to install vista I just have 1 disk plugged in to the IDE slot (and usually turn RAID off in the BIOS), none of the HDD's are SATA, all IDE
this is my motherboard & specs:
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/EN-GB/pro ... -tt0000002

I did have the $ folders from one of the first installs I tried from within XP (the last 20 or so installs are done by booting from the DVD), but for the last 20 or so I have been trying just to install Vista on it's own drive and that being the only drive attached to the motherboard so I don't think it's my XP drive as that's not plugged in when I try to install now.

None of my drives are partitioned
I have HDD's formatted in XP, but when I boot from the Vista disc when it asks me where to install Vista I choose disk options & format before installing

hope that answers your questions

I'm in the UK and it's 12:20AM right now, I'm literally stopping up for 40 more mins or so in the hope I get more suggestions on here (or questions that I can give more info to), then I'm off to bed (so if I don't reply then that's why!)

[JabbaPapa Profile]

What is your hard drive configuration ?

Some RAID/SATA hardware configs may act up as described ...

[mmace Profile]

What is your hard drive configuration ?

Some RAID/SATA hardware configs may act up as described ...

not sure what you mean by configuration, I only try with 1 HDD installed on the IDE channel as master (and the DVD-ROM drive as slave) - have also tried with it in other configurations, bit all end with identical result

nothing is plugged into the 2 RAID ports or the 4 SATA ports and I've turned them off in the BIOS but it doesn't help

is that what you're asking?

[BoomerangThree Profile]

I see you have a Blu-Ray DVD drive that your using for the install?

I would try unplugging the Blu-Ray DVD drive and using another plain jane DVD reader.

Just a thought.

[mmace Profile]

I see you have a Blu-Ray DVD drive that your using for the install?

I would try unplugging the Blu-Ray DVD drive and using another plain jane DVD reader.

Just a thought.

tried that too, same outcome (put that in the original post), thanks for the post though

[mmace Profile]

right guys, thanks for the quick early responses, I'm off to bed now, if anyone can think of anything I've not tried then it would be great if you could post them, if you post me a question about it I won't be able to respond for about 8 hours when you'll probably be in bed (but please do read my original thread, I've tried to be thorough about what I've tried and what set ups I've used), and if I can't do it by the time you guys wake up then the PC will be in the bin! (I'm that fed up of it I think I may just do it!)

again, thanks for the warm welcome to the forum, never been before but I think I'll stick around!

[mmace Profile]

no more ideas then peeps?

:'(

[mmace Profile]

I've emailed Foxconn about drivers and got this (not very nice or helpful) reply:

Dear customer! Thank you for your letter! I am very sorry for your trouble, I am afraid that I can not help you.we have not ready for the vista drivers for customer ,If you want to install the vista OS ,you need to search the drivers by yourself . Please contact with us if you have any questions,It's our pleasure to help you.