Windows Setup Hangs When "Setup Is Starting Windows" is displayed

Well, I have absolutely no idea about the E0 or not, how can I tell? And what exactly does that mean?

I'll read through the motherboard manual and update the bios anyway, because they are old regardless... All I can see is that doing good.

EDIT: I updated the BIOS, it was actually really easy... It doesn't seem to have changed the problem however.

EDIT: I found where it gives me the temp readings for the CPU. It says it's running at 58C

Sorry my lack of knowledge, and thank you.

Well I found a solution to my problem! Apparently all I had to do was click F5 when windows was installing so I could choose a specific type, and then choose generic machine or something along those lines (It was like 2 AM last night, forgive me). So now windows is installed! Hurray!

It seems everything is working fine now... Well besides nothing working such as USB ports on the motherboard... I'm sure it's just drivers or something software wise, I'm sure I'll be fine from here on out.

Thank you for the help

Guys, come one...

does somebody knows the answer of this? I really need to install the OS...

How long did you wait ? In some cases Vista 64 may take 1/2 hour or longer before it continues on.

Hello everyone, so i had a issue installing Windows 7, my screen would freeze on the "Starting Windows" and the 4 different colored lights would not show up. After some time of doing some research, i finally was able to solve my issues.

My Specs: Asus a8n-sli deluxe Motherboard
VGA: 8800 GT x 2 in SLI
4 GB DDR 400 RAM
AMD Opteron @ 2.6 GHZ Dual core
WD Raptor 74 GB

Those are the important specs. After reading for several hours, i discovered that many people have a few components similar to mine. The majority of the fixes were not solving my problems either. So i decided to try a few things.
Here is what i did.

I disabled a lot of things within my BIOS, mainly the USB, and all other ports that were not in use. I unplugged everything that was not in use. This did not solve it.
At this point i began to use a PS/2 keyboard.
I dropped my hyper transport to X1 instead of auto. This did not solve it.
I disabled my Floppy Drive. This did not solve it.
I then began to wonder if my video cards were the issue. So i disabled the SLI from within my BIOS, and set it to single card mode. This finally solved my issue!! So i am now installing windows 7 without a problem, i hope this helps someone else in need

I recently had the wait (and waited for 45 minutes) at the pretty colors. I removed many things from my system. The things that solved it was disconnectiong an old IDE CD drive. Since I'm going to replace it next week, I've just left it unplugged. Worth disconnecting hardware that you can install Win7 without.

ASUS M4A78 Plus with AMD7850
Windows 7 Home Premium
WDC WD10001FALS 1TB
MSI NX8400GS 256MB

So I removed the Grafik Card and made huge progress, got through the 4 colors screen and came to setup. And clicked for my settings and started it, now it's stuck again. At the "Setup is starting..." Have the "Asus - M4A785TD-V EVO" Motherboard. Any hints? Thought I should be done when it got further then the 4 colors but now I'm stuck again

Hello,
I have been doing a lot of OEM builds with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.
I experienced the same problem initially but found a easy solution. What a lot of people seem to be missing is: Most BIOS' come with floppy drive set to 1.44MB. This will cause slow install performance and will make Windows Setup hang at "Setup is Starting" Simply go into your BIOS and check your drive configuration and If you don't have a floppy drive, set it to none. Viola.

Worked for me thanks!

DUMBER THAN DUMB: I just reconfirmed this. Now with Windows 7 64 installed, it will hang on boot if the USB 2.0 controller is enabled, with the option set to full speed. If I knock it down to High Speed, the Windows will boot, but Mouse & Keyboard, both USB, won't work. If I disable the USB 2.0 controller in the BIOS, Windows is happy!

Hey - it might even be happier if I connect my old monochrome green monitor!

hi, just wanted to let you know: I fixed the problem by disabling USB in BIOS. I connected my USB keyboard using PS2 connector/reduction. Now Windows Setup is formatting the partitition. After setup is finished I'll enable USB in BIOS, hopefully it will work....

OS: WinXP x64 SP2
2x GTX 260
XFX 790i Ultra SLI (BIOS ver P09)
2GB DDR3 OCZ3P20004GK
Intel Quad Extreme QX 9770

good luck.

I am using ASUS P7P55D-E as well and encountered the same hanging problem. I used the solution you suggested, and it works! Thank you so much.

I have an acer aspire 5532 laptop . and tried to restore to factory settings today , and it got stuck on setup is starting , then a window would popup and it said it couldnt install windows , ?????????

Jarrodstar, do you have Acer recovery disks or did you create them? I know there is a partition on my Acer 5720 that has the OS too, but I would use disks if you are having problems. If you don't have disks, can you get back to your old system and create them?

update:

disabling pci busmastering didn't do anything nor did changing the drive setting in the bios from auto to cd/dvd. disabling ide controller in the bios lets me boot though.

I had the same problem.

Case – Moneual Labs 972, MB – Asus P7P55D-E Pro, PSU – Enermax EES620AWT, CPU – I5 750 2.66, RAM – 4GB (2x2) GSkill GSK F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ, GPU – MSI 5450, W7 Ultimate 64bit


Problem#1
I put the computer into sleep from the power button on the case, killed my TV/Monitor assuming things would go as usual, went to bed. Next day, turned on my TV and noticed HTPC’s power was still on, with both the case and TV screen displaying only a black screen, and the HDD indicator on case was pegged (accessing/thinking). Couldn’t get W7 to come back and only option was to hold power button for 5 sec to turn off. Then nothing worked at all, like it was fried. Opened case and the only signs of life I could get was a green led on the MB and one on the back of the touch screen. Jumped the PSU and it worked so that was ruled out.

Fix #1
Reset CMOS. Refer to the MB manual for instructions. Just moving the jumper didn’t work for me, so I had to remove the battery too. Computer fired up first time after resetting, but…



Problem #2
…when starting W7, computer freezes on the Windows logo pulsating splash screen. The 4 colored orbs fly into place and pulse for about 5 seconds, then freeze and no longer pulse. I tried just about everything under the sun in BIOS settings, startup options, PS/2 keyboard w/ no mouse, etc. I could get W7 to load but only in safe mode, however the same problem always occurred when trying a ‘normal’ boot. Also tried booting/reinstalling from W7 disc with same problem.

Fix #2
Powered off computer. Removed 2nd RAM chip from MB. Started computer and worked first time. Then powered off computer and reinserted RAM. W7 loads, works as it should, and all 4GB RAM show in BIOS.

Removing Memory Worked for Me.

Was installing Windows 7 on an XP Home system and it kept freezing at the "Starting Windows" screen, before the windows logo would even begin to appear (you know the colored balls that fly into the center of the screen). For me it turned out to be removing two older memory chips from my Dell Dimension 9150 (actually removed the original 2 512mb chips it came with) and left the 2 1gb upgrade chips. Worked like a charm. Who knows precisely why..who cares.

I have spent three days trying to install windows 7 64bit on a ASUS P7H55-M-PRO with no luck, not until I removed all but one stick of RAM...Viola, it is in the process of installing right now. Thanks a bunch for the tip, I was about ready to take a hammer to the thing.

stevek1...

Hello There!

Im trying to upgrade a Gateway M-73 series laptop (not sure the actualy model since it isn't anywhere) from Vista to Win 7. Problem is current windows installation is corrupted so I cannot get into windows (safe mode or not).

When I boot from Win 7 CD it hangs right after "starting windows" screen.. Well it doesn't really hang, let me explain. It comes to a black screen and I can move the mouse around the screen but that is all I see, a mouse pointer. I've let it sit there for quite some time and all it does is spin up the fans every so often.

I've tried going into the bios and disabling the USB ports and played around with disabling the LAN and Wireless with no results.

Was thinking maybe I should patch the BIOS but could not find any on Gateway's support web site.

Thanks in advance, if anyone has any suggestions I'm all eyes!

I wasn't a member of this forum but i had to sign up just to confirm that this method of disabling the fdd 1.44 works a treat.

I know how frustrating computer problems can be and this solution is gold, thanks for your knowledge mate

Yeah, umm... So I wasn't a member or anything, but I had tried a few of these suggestions.
I didn't have the Floppy Disc option in my bios, so I couldn't turn that off. I did take out the second stick of RAM; didn't do anything.

I noticed that this had happened once before when I was plugging my system back together from a previous PC screwup. It finally had turned on for some reason, but when it was on, I saw that I hadn't plugged in two of my fans. This next time around, I unplugged one of my fans - it started up just fine! Twice!

Then I realized that I still only had one stick of RAM plugged in...
*takes break from writing*
*plugs in other sticks of RAM*
*3 sticks of 2 gigs of RAM plugged snugly back in*

OK, one of my sticks must also be going bad... "No Signal" keeps displaying. Let's switch it up now... Pretty sure I found the culprit (that solves the issue that caused my first PC screwup). Back to one stick of RAM, everything starts up fine. Stick in the 2nd one (really wish I could fit another one into that second bit.

*plugs in 2nd stick of RAM*

Windows starts up just fine. Hmmm...

Let's plug the fan in and see what happens. I wonder if it's a power issue, or maybe it's just plugged in to the wrong place for some god-awful reason... It gets back to the Starting Windows screen... *suspense* And it starts up again. What the?!

Ok, so the solutions to my Intel-based, Asus mobo'd, crossfired pair of HD 4850s problem could either be that my stick of RAM was causing two separate problems, OR I had a bad connection. Funny that it would turn on after unplugging my fan after 7 failed attempts with 1 stick of RAM. As I typed this, it successfully booted a second time.

So my suggestion: try each stick of RAM by itself in two full rotations, just in case to see which may or may not work. Also, maybe unplug a fan or two... for spite's sake. Maybe it could work!

Gigabyte EP45D-UD3LR motherboard
Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz @ 3.40 GHz
4GB OCZ PC12800
EVGA Nvidia GTX 480 superclock


Hey guys. I just had this issue. Windows 7 did an update and then windows wouldnt start, it would freeze on the windows is starting screen. so i decided to reinstall windows 7 64-bit home premium

This is the second time im installing Win7 on this computer and the first time it went fine with NO problems.

First windows would freeze during the Setup is Starting screen during installation.
I disabled the FDD and it went into the setup but it wouldnt see any of the HDDs and would freeze at the screen where you choose which HDD to install windows on.
I recently got a new video card so I switched the GTX480 with my old Asus CuCore ATI 5770 and then windows is installing ok so far

Hey guys,

Been having the same problem, and worked all the afternoon to try and get rid of it. Finally, I have read something that pointed me to the problem: the wrong voltage was selected into my BIOS for the RAM (2.65V instead of 2.60V). The MOBO is a MSI K8N Neo4, and the BIOS is loaded with overclocking features. I tryed almost everything listed here, and to this point USB and floppy are still disabled.

I hope nobody ever read this post, because since it's way down in the thread, it must mean that you're in serious trouble. But if so, man, I sincerely wish you good luck.


(Oh, yeah, I forgot: did the install from a SATA DVD reader instead of IDE too.)

Just letting anyone know the original post about setup is starting and would just stall.
I was using a laptop and went into bios and set sata mode to compadiblity mode and turned off wireless just incase and it worked for me.