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Windows 7 Won't Install

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New system built today by me in four hours, 2-25-10

I boot from my Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit DVD and it loads at the bottom, "Windows is loading files" or, "Copying files" whatever it says. Then, just like when you turn on your computer and see the Windows Loading screen where the red blue and yellow colors fly in to make the Windows 7 Logo, it freezes. It has never shown the colors fly onto the screen and get past this part.

I've tried with normal BIOS settings untouched. I also tried with the OCZ RAM manufacturer's recommended timings of 8-8-8-24, 1600mhz and voltage of 1.65v.

Antec 1200 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Case - 8 Fans
GIGABYTE GA-790FXTA ATX AM3 Motherboard - Sata 6Gb/s USB 3.0
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4ghz Quad-Core
8GB OCZ AMD Black Edition DDR3 RAM 1600mhz
XFX HD Radeon 5870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 DX11
2X Western Digital Caviar Black SATA 3Gb/s 7200RPM 32MB Cache 500GB HDD's RAID 0
2X Samsung DVD Burner Black SATA Model - Lightscribe
Corsair 850W PSU
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 CPU Cooler
Sunbeam Rheobus-Extreme Fan Controller Panel
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

6 ft. HDMI cord
42 in. Dynex 1080p flatscreen tv

I'm eating right now lols but I do remember changing all the IDE settings to RAID in the BIOS. Can this cause it to freeze?

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You have to change more than just the timings for your RAM. You also need to manually set the RAM speed and most importantly, the voltage. Your RAM is rated at 1.65v, so that's what it should be manually set to in the BIOS. You should also test the RAM overnight with Memtest86+ if you're having freezing problems.

I was editing this post I guess as you were typing that reply, I did all of this, except memtest of course because I can't load the OS. It does freeze at various points though ONLY when loading the Windows 7 disk, I have two disks and tried both, same outcome. I never ever freeze in BIOS or raid setup screen.
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How long are you waiting at that point? There is a pause, sometimes for several minutes, before the screen shows up where you pick the HD. I've seen several posts where people were claiming the system was "freezing" during the Windows 7 install. Most of the time the only problem was that they weren't waiting long enough. :) 

If this helps any, I shouldn't need to flash my BIOS. It is already compatible with the RAM it seems.

Newegg comment on the motherboard I'm using:

"This is my 2nd top shelf Gigabyte mobo, the last was a M59SLI-s5 AM2. I bought this mobo to upgrade to an X4 965. Also installed 8 GB OCZ Black AMD RAM. Spent minimal time in the BIOS doing the usual boot priority, etc. Booted from an existing HDD O/S, and it figured out the rest. I was rather amazed how easily this system became fully functional w/o a clean O/S."

I think I need to change some of the settings in the BIOS that may cause it to mess up. There were a few options to set to IDE and RAID. I remember on my i7 rig i built three months ago I had to leave one setting as IDE and the other to RAID for a RAID 0 setup. Was a different MOBO though (AS Rock X58 Extreme)

I'll mess around after the memory test is done.

Memtest FAILED. Help explain them please and decide if I need to replace them.

Does a failed test mean I absolutely need to replace the RAM? Or is it just a random stutter and I could run the test again and pass perfectly?

I just opened up an OCZ support ticket to see if I need to RMA the RAM. I will test each piece individually tomorrow and set aside what works and what doesn't. If some works and the other sticks do not, then I will of course be requesting an RMA from OCZ or newegg whichever is faster and supported.

I've used OCZ a lot and not had any issues. Then again, I've never had issues with any ram so that is not a good judge. I'm not sure if it is that they have gotten worse as much as others have gotten better and surpassed them.

Truhls said:
Is it just me, or is OCZ a brand you tend to need to RMA a lot with for RAM? Seems like a lot of these posts where people end up needing to RMA their ram its an OCZ brand lol.


I got 12GB of DDR3 (Six sticks of 2GB tri-chan) and it memtests fine, never had to RMA anything.

I've written off OCZ RAM. Not only do they seem to have a higher than normal failure rate in my experience, they also have compatibility issues with more motherboards. I've been using G.Skill RAM in all my builds lately and have yet to be disappointed. I've only had one bad stick in over two years.

I will RMA what I find is wrong. If I can't figure it out, they are all going back lols.

Ran the rest for seven hours straight. It failed test 7 twice, and failed test four once. Test four had 6012mb failed compared to the picture that shows 300 something megabytes. Guess that means like three sticks?

Yeah, they are supposed to be matched sets, so you might as well RMA the whole thing.

I switched to GSkill for my most recent build (all Corsair and OCZ before) and was very impressed with their ram and support forum.

Just an update for you all that helped me; one stick of RAM was bad. I tested each individually and one was bad. I am expecting a replacement by next week. I did get Windows to install though with the bad RAM out. Was a pain though because I had to install via USB because Windows 7 couldn't find drivers to read my CD LOL. I loaded to USB and it then asked for RAID drivers. I installed the 64 bit drivers from my motherboards website and those didn't work. I tried the 32 bit RAID drivers and those worked for some reason idk it's all silky smooth.

My graphics card did take a dump last night for no apparent reason though. I was browsing the web then BAM my display went out, but the computer stayed on. I tried the card in another computer and made sure that was the problem. I am now expecting a replacement by next week.

On my laptop for now. DANG THE TECHNOLOGY.
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