New CPU/Mobo/Ram refusing to boot windows 7

[Peregrine7]

Hello, I just installed an i5 3570k into a brand new ASRock Z77 motherboard (with 4 DIMM slots) and added one stick of DDR3 8GB ram to test the setup out.

I get through the BIOS just fine, but the windows 7 boot crashes with a bluescreen when the four rainbow dots are still very small (i.e. practically instantly).

I have tried: More POWER! 750W power supply now plugged in and running fine...

Moving the RAM around, didn't change a thing.

Changing the SATA connection, I don't know which connection I should have it plugged in to, but no matter what I did I could not get a boot.

Running the hard-drive on another computer + chkdisk came up with no problems.

I've taken out the graphics card and successfully ruled that out as a cause.

Still no boot.

Because I'm new to this BIOS I'm unsure how to change any settings, or what to change. Any help would be appreciated, if you require more details then just ask, I really want to get this fixed!

Thanks for any and all help!

EDIT: Complete stats: ASrock Z77 Pro4-M; I5 3570k, ATI 6870 1GB (unplugged currently), 1x8Gb DDR3 Ram, 750W CoolerMaster PSU, Ye Olde Style spinning HDD (230Gb).

EDIT2: Same issue using a completely different hard-drive running WinXP. The issue could still lie in the SATA connections though...

 

[alexoiu]

Hi, The issue is actually in the SATA setting.
I guess that you installed Windows in a different system with SATA set to IDE.
With the new board, SATA is set to AHCI by default.
Look in BIOS for SATA configuration and change from AHCI to IDE.

 

[bryonhowley]

OK are you trying to install Windows 7 or trying to boot into Windows 7 that was working on a previous build? If the latter is the case it will probably not work as Windows does not like motherboard transplants. As for witch SATA port to use your boot drive should in most all cases be plugged into the first SATA port on your board. It is usually marked as SATA Port 0 so look in your manual for the correct port.

 

[Peregrine7]

OK are you trying to install Windows 7 or trying to boot into Windows 7 that was working on a previous build? If the latter is the case it will probably not work as Windows does not like motherboard transplants. As for witch SATA port to use your boot drive should in most all cases be plugged into the first SATA port on your board. It is usually marked as SATA Port 0 so look in your manual for the correct port.

I'm redownloading windows now but I believe you're spot on.


I've added the new steps I've taken to the edits.