New Build - NTLDR Missing

[VirtualLarry]

Yes, it is a USB KB. The KB seems to be intermittent if it works past the POST screen or not. There is an option in the BIOS for USB Legacy and it was Enabled by default. I moved it to 'Auto' and the next restart it detected the keyboard on the "Press any key to load from CD or DVD". It then loads files from the DVD but appears to have frozen on the "Starting Windows" screen. It has frozen on that screen a few times now and I haven't been able to get any further than that. I also noticed the keyboard had turned off at that point, and I also know that Win7 is rather hardware/software specific during install, so perhaps that is the reason it froze?

Does it freeze during the same exact spot every time? Or just randomly sometime inside the setup program?

Can you try an Ubuntu LiveCD/DVD and boot that? Also try booting a memtest86+ disc, and letting it run overnight.

Was this Biostar mobo known working before? Or do you know if it ever worked.

Edit: Windows 7 setup can freeze detecting the HDD if it is defective or has failed in certain ways.

 

[Matt1970]

??????? This belies my own experience. Ironically, not long ago, when the new/used WD Black drive I am writing from right now--- got it on ebay, arrived, the vendor said it had been wiped, of course, and I hooked it up, in Drive Manager, I saw clearly, a tiny, occupied partition remained. I assumed it was the MBR.

I just deleted the partition, formatted again just to make sure the drive was empty, tho my eyes said it was after I deleted the partition.....and went from there.

What you probably saw was the 100 meg partition Windows creates which has bootmgr, but that is not a mater boot record. If you were looking at only the Master Boot Record it would have shown up as 512 bytes or 1/2 a meg. I am assuming you used Disk Management in windows? When you deleted the volumes, you were in fact deleting the partitions. When you selected "create simple volume" it created new partition and writes a new master boot record at the same time. Windows just gives you the option to format at the same time however a simple format does not affect master boot records.

 

[Virgorising]

What you probably saw was the 100 meg partition Windows creates which has bootmgr, but that is not a mater boot record. If you were looking at only the Master Boot Record it would have shown up as 512 bytes or 1/2 a meg. I am assuming you used Disk Management in windows? When you deleted the volumes, you were in fact deleting the partitions. When you selected "create simple volume" it created new partition and writes a new master boot record at the same time. Windows just gives you the option to format at the same time however a simple format does not affect master boot records.

Yes, all of the above my take forever. I always use Windows to get this done.....so far, rarely any third party app. Only twice zeroed drives out using Boot n Nuke when I gave the systems in question away.

I din delete the volume in the event in question....I did what I shared when I looked and saw tiny, occupied partition remaining before cloning my original drive to this WD Black.

 

[E6BAV8R]

I picked up a USB-PS/2 Converter and now the keyboard is recognized everytime and I have no issues with pressing the key to get it to load from the DVD. However, and as I was stuck before, it still freezes on "Starting Windows".

Does it freeze during the same exact spot every time? Or just randomly sometime inside the setup program?

Can you try an Ubuntu LiveCD/DVD and boot that? Also try booting a memtest86+ disc, and letting it run overnight.

Was this Biostar mobo known working before? Or do you know if it ever worked.

Edit: Windows 7 setup can freeze detecting the HDD if it is defective or has failed in certain ways.

Yes, it freezes in the exact spot every time I load from the DVD - it loads Windows Files from the DVD and then the "Starting Windows" + Logo (the dots that form into the Windows logo) Screen comes up and it freezes there. It actually just froze while the logo was only partially loaded. It doesn't even get into the setup program.

I don't use Ubuntu.

Yes, the Biostar mobo has been known to work before, as I used this exact configuration for about a year. The only thing that has changed is the HDD I'm using (which is the one I'm wanting to format and use as the main HDD).

 

[Virgorising]

Sorry I am unclear on this: did you format the drive in the other system? And, if any partitions remained, delete those?

Also,might you have have a spare drive you can try?

 

[E6BAV8R]

OK - I've taken out a stick of RAM, so that there is only 1, and then it progressed just fine. I got the drive formatted and Windows installed. I remember having to take out a stick of RAM the last time I installed Win7 on this board, although I've never actually had any errors or failures with it. Once Win7 was installed I just place the stick of RAM back in and all is well.

Very weird problems I've never had in building PCs, so thank you all for your help.

 

[Virgorising]

OK - I've taken out a stick of RAM, so that there is only 1, and then it progressed just fine. I got the drive formatted and Windows installed. I remember having to take out a stick of RAM the last time I installed Win7 on this board, although I've never actually had any errors or failures with it. Once Win7 was installed I just place the stick of RAM back in and all is well.

Very weird problems I've never had in building PCs, so thank you all for your help.

Wow. Thank goodness. And congrats. But you may have an iffy RAM stick in need of replacing, cause what you describe having been required, now for the second time.....not normal.

Have you run Memtest? Are all yr sticks compatible with the board?

 

[Ketchup]

OK - I've taken out a stick of RAM, so that there is only 1, and then it progressed just fine. I got the drive formatted and Windows installed. I remember having to take out a stick of RAM the last time I installed Win7 on this board, although I've never actually had any errors or failures with it. Once Win7 was installed I just place the stick of RAM back in and all is well.

Very weird problems I've never had in building PCs, so thank you all for your help.

It's not Corsair per chance, is it?

Glad you got it working!

 

[Matt1970]

OK - I've taken out a stick of RAM, so that there is only 1, and then it progressed just fine. I got the drive formatted and Windows installed. I remember having to take out a stick of RAM the last time I installed Win7 on this board, although I've never actually had any errors or failures with it. Once Win7 was installed I just place the stick of RAM back in and all is well.

Very weird problems I've never had in building PCs, so thank you all for your help.

Could be a suspect stick, board or just one of those things. If all is well when you put the stick back in, then it's just one of those things..... It's kinda like a guy that goes to the Dr. and says it hurts when I raise my arms this high. Dr. says then don't raise your arms that high.

 

[Virgorising]

Could be a suspect stick, board or just one of those things. If all is well when you put the stick back in, then it's just one of those things..... It's kinda like a guy that goes to the Dr. and says it hurts when I raise my arms this high. Dr. says then don't raise your arms that high.

The physician in question did not have Virgo rising. I would no way employ this physician.

 

[E6BAV8R]

Wow. Thank goodness. And congrats. But you may have an iffy RAM stick in need of replacing, cause what you describe having been required, now for the second time.....not normal. Have you run Memtest? Are all yr sticks compatible with the board?

I'll run a Memtest on it again but I've never had any issues with the RAM itself. I've since put the 2nd stick back in and it booted up into Win7 and is running just fine. This PC is being built for my parents so it really doesn't matter that much.

It's not Corsair per chance, is it?

Nope. It is 2x sticks of Kingston HyperX 1024MB.

 

[Virgorising]

I'll run a Memtest on it again but I've never had any issues with the RAM itself. I've since put the 2nd stick back in and it booted up into Win7 and is running just fine. This PC is being built for my parents so it really doesn't matter that much.

Well, I think it does matter, cause for me, what you describe is a symptom of something amiss. But thas just me. What does total and available ram read in the system?

Open Resource Monitor and hit Mem tab and let us know wut is there.

I would would also try to switch the sticks and observe the results of that if any doing what seems to bring the problem to the fore.

Edit: as per this:

 

[Matt1970]

I'll run a Memtest on it again but I've never had any issues with the RAM itself. I've since put the 2nd stick back in and it booted up into Win7 and is running just fine. This PC is being built for my parents so it really doesn't matter that much.

You are all set then. You could spend hours trying to diagnose a problem that only seems to present itself when installing windows.

 

[Matt1970]

The physician in question did not have Virgo rising. I would no way employ this physician.

Oh I am sure if he saw you coming he would immediately claim to not be taking new patients.

 

[VirtualLarry]

OK - I've taken out a stick of RAM, so that there is only 1, and then it progressed just fine. I got the drive formatted and Windows installed. I remember having to take out a stick of RAM the last time I installed Win7 on this board, although I've never actually had any errors or failures with it. Once Win7 was installed I just place the stick of RAM back in and all is well.

Very weird problems I've never had in building PCs, so thank you all for your help.

RMA your RAM, it's bad. Or your mobo BIOS is buggy.

 

[Matt1970]

RMA your RAM, it's bad. Or your mobo BIOS is buggy.

It's a problem that only presents itself during a Windows install. It could be a bad ram stick, defective memory controller, bad Windows 7 DVD, bad SATA cable, flaky BIOS. I still say leave it alone.

 

[Ketchup]

Windows setup uses a portion of the memory as a RAMDisk during setup, so the issue may be more pronounced at that time. TBH, if I were in the same boat, I can't say for sure that I would want to go through the RMA process either.

 

[Virgorising]

Oh I am sure if he saw you coming he would immediately claim to not be taking new patients.

Try not to project your truncations onto luminous professionals or other humans.

 

[Virgorising]

Windows setup uses a portion of the memory as a RAMDisk during setup, so the issue may be more pronounced at that time. TBH, if I were in the same boat, I can't say for sure that I would want to go through the RMA process either.

Wow. I had no clue re this, how Windows uses RAM during setup!

My core concern here is simple: does the system have access to the amount of RAM installed or not?

And I can not understand anyone who does not share that concern, it's so logical and so basic.

 

[Matt1970]

Wow. I had no clue re this, how Windows uses RAM during setup!

My core concern here is simple: does the system have access to the amount of RAM installed or not?

And I can not understand anyone who does not share that concern, it's so logical and so basic.

And this is why you should not be flooding the computer help forums with advice. You are a person with slightly above average computer knowledge trying to act as if you have been working on computers for years, yet these are the threads you start.

You don't know the advantages of a Fan Cooled GPU. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2360350&highlight=
You don't know if you should keep Spywareblaster. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2360319&highlight=
You don't know which Windows Services you should keep. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2358908&highlight=
You don't know if Java is necessary. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2356953&highlight=
You don't know if you should keep Realtech Audio Manager. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2358047&highlight=
You spent 4 days chasing the lack of a post beep. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2356219&highlight=

 

[Virgorising]

And this is why you should not be flooding the computer help forums with advice. You are a person with slightly above average computer knowledge trying to act as if you have been working on computers for years, yet these are the threads you start.

You don't know the advantages of a Fan Cooled GPU. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2360350&highlight=
You don't know if you should keep Spywareblaster. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2360319&highlight=
You don't know which Windows Services you should keep. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2358908&highlight=
You don't know if Java is necessary. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2356953&highlight=
You don't know if you should keep Realtech Audio Manager. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2358047&highlight=
You spent 4 days chasing the lack of a post beep. http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2356219&highlight=

The number of lifeminutes the above must have taken, speaks a real, rage based obsession.

More to the point, Matt, alas, it is entirely consistent with the true despotism of your ongoing premise that ANYONE is meant to be some ARBITER of what any other human should think, chase, do, BE.
And, in any life arena, no exceptions.

Forget what being blindly hell bent to do that says, forget sacrifices.

 

[Matt1970]

The number of lifeminutes the above must have taken, speaks a real, rage based obsession.

More to the point, Matt, alas, it is entirely consistent with the true despotism of your ongoing premise that ANYONE is meant to be some ARBITER of what any other human should think, chase, do, BE.
And, in any life arena, no exceptions.

Forget what being blindly hell bent to do that says, forget sacrifices.

Simple search under your username. And I could care less what you think about me, the type of threads you start here shows your lack of computer knowledge, yet you constantly flood the help forum with your advice. I am not the first to point this out to you.

 

[Virgorising]

Simple search under your username. And I could care less what you think about me, the type of threads you start here shows your lack of computer knowledge, yet you constantly flood the help forum with your advice. I am not the first to point this out to you.

Last sentence is a sad, desperate, wishful thinking fabrication belying truth.

Neither I nor anyone I choose to be in my life has some sick need to be other than who were are; we are all works in progress. The ONLY worthy teachers in any arena are intact humans with no pathological need to convince others they are somebody or KNOW EVERYTHING. Healthy humans celebrate NOT KNOWING as much as knowing, learning, and delving, and being open about all of it. They do not waste their lives on despotism or making things which are NOT contests into contests to mitigate some feeling of inadequacy. Worthy teachers are healthy humans who are also students. And, I mean simultaneously.

Same is true within any professional arena! My famous and worldclass OB-GYN here recently retired. She snailed every female in her patient base a long missive. She said---tho we all knew, it was the linchpin of her brilliance and health---what she is most grateful for beyond any other thing. is all she learned ongoing from every single patient. One of the healthiest, most incandescent, brilliant humans ever. Her retirement is a huge blow (we are even kidding about starting a support group) given she was a true paradigm.

Again, we are LIVING BEINGS using technology/computers. Again, the pathology of authoritarianism is polar opposite of humans who celebrate connecting, honoring, LEARNING every second, and who also contribute.

 

[Underclocked]

Actually, Vigor, it would be much wiser to realize that Matt is speaking the truth. No malice intended.

 

[Virgorising]

Actually, Vigor, it would be much wiser to realize that Matt is speaking the truth. No malice intended.

Alas, VIGOR [SIC], is all outta Purina Troll Chow and has no plans--OR NEED-- to get more.():biggrin: