Gutted but hopefully with your help it'll get sorted

[Phalanx]

Hi guys,

I got my PC delivered on Saturday and due to a baby shower yesterday and a christening today I have only just got around to setting up the PC and there seems to be a problem.

The first thing I noticed was the rear fan wasnt working (I have the Maelstrom T900) although the cables seem to be connected and then when it starts to load up the following happens:

First I get an Asus Motherboard page then it goes and I get the c prompt which states Detecting Drives, No Drives Detected the starting windows message comes up followed by Setup Is Starting Services and a small windows box comes up saying

"The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error windows installation cannot proceed. To install windows click ok to restart the computer and thenrestart the installation".

Click on OK and it just happens again and again. Any ideas? Help in laymans terms please guys.

Thanks.

 

[Sleinous]

Firstly, the "No Drives Detected" is usually nothing to worry about - this usually occurs when you have an extra (seperate) SATA controller, my ASUS R3 does, it has the Marvell ones, and, a JMicron Controller. I suspect that your motherboard has a similar setup, with 2 different brands. So, if there is no drive connected into the JMicron controller, you will always get, no drive detected, but, ofcourse, you have the HDD in the other controller brand, Marvell, Intel, whatever it might be.

Moving on, setup is starting services, this is the post-entering all your info bit, that PCS can not do for you. Sometimes, when Windows installs, it doesnt seem to like not restarting straight away and getting you to input your details, so, by the time you get the PC, and switch it on, its not working. The simplest way to get round this, is to pop the disc back in, when it says "Press any key to boot from disc" press a key, then, select, custom install, go through the options selecting your HDD to install to, wait for Windows to expand, install files etc and let it restart multiple times, now you should eventually get to the setup is starting services bit, enter your details blah blah, enter keycode, then windows is preparing your desktop for first use and hopefully voila! Let us know how you get on.

 

[Phalanx]

Thanks Sleinous I've entered the windows disk but it just keeps looping as I have stated before. I never get the option to boot from disk.

 

[Sleinous]

Right, this time, keep hitting del when you start the PC, until you get into the BIOS screen, then, look for Boot > Device Priority, find the DVD drive, and move that up to the top of the list (slot 1)

 

[Phalanx]

Yeah thanks Slenious, its installing now. Touch wood thats its, i'll come back and let you know. Thanks mate.

 

[Maestro]

Dont need to go into bios, just keep tapping the f8 key as soon as you have started the pc and the boot menu will come up. Select the dvd drive (with the os disc in it) and off you go.
The issue is the sysprep program that we have to use to put the pc back into the first time user state after we have finished installing all the drivers etc. Sometimes in a very small number of cases the sysprep program screws the installation.
A simple repair / re-install of the os is all that is needed. Frustrating I know but nothing at all to worry about and something we can help you with on here or over the phone tomorrow morning if needed.

P.S Full details for repairing and re-installing are in the welcome booklet.

 

[Sleinous]

Dont need to go into bios, just keep tapping the f8 key as soon as you have started the pc and the boot menu will come up. Select the dvd drive (with the os disc in it) and off you go.
The issue is the sysprep program that we have to use to put the pc back into the first time user state after we have finished installing all the drivers etc. Sometimes in a very small number of cases the sysprep program screws the installation.
A simple repair / re-install of the os is all that is needed. Frustrating I know but nothing at all to worry about and something we can help you with on here or over the phone tomorrow morning if needed.

P.S Full details for repairing and re-installing are in the welcome booklet.

+rep, never knew F8 did that, very useful to know!

 

[Phalanx]

Thanks guys, im getting to the desktop now so the reinstall worked, its just on start up it gives me the option of two windows 7 to choose from instead of just loading it up but thats not the end of the world.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Maestro]

Yes thats because during the re-install at the point where you tell the os where to install itself you didnt format the drive so the previous installation is still on there. It shouldnt make a difference, just choose the correct installation at start-up. If youve got time however, and want it to be perfect you can do it again and delete the previous installs and any partitions.

 

[Sleinous]

To get rid of the previous install --> Go to disk cleanup, run it, then, tick the check box that says "Remove previous windows installations"

 

[Maestro]

Or you can do that.

 

[Sleinous]

Or you can do that.

hur hur for once its a surprisingly useful tool.

 

[JSG10]

Just a quick thanks for all the useful info in this thread! Will no doubt come in handy, wish I'd known it before!