Windows 8 Not Installing

Jswan81

Honorable
Oct 14, 2012
7
0
10,510
Hi Everyone!

I'm trying to install the Windows 8 Release Preview x64 on my desktop and it won't finish the install. I know, I'm late to the party.

Here's what happens:
I get past the first step just fine. I pull the flash drive I'm installing from out so it booted from the hard drive. It keeps installing. When it reaches the end, it restarts, but all I get is black screens. I left it alone for ~30 minutes and nothing happened.

My desktop:
Asus Crosshair V Formula
AMD FX-8150 Overclocked to 4.2Ghz
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1866Mhz RAM
2 x EVGA 670 4GB
Mushkin 240GB SSD

I'd bet this is a hardware problem, but I can't get into the desktop to see what's wrong. I've also tried disabling some of the onboard chipsets to see if they were the problem (The network chipset, audio chipset, USB3.0 chipset, I even set the chipset to IDE from SASI), but it didn't help. I still get nothing but black screens.

Final notes: I did do a clean install. My previous OS was Windows 7 Home Premium x64.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone.

-JSwan81
 
Solution
Try changing the boot order in the BIOS to pick the hard drive first. When you're initially starting the install, there should be a key you can hit to bring up the boot menu, and pick the flash drive manually. When it reboots, the system will use the hard drive first, and the flash drive can be left in place until the install is done.
Try changing the boot order in the BIOS to pick the hard drive first. When you're initially starting the install, there should be a key you can hit to bring up the boot menu, and pick the flash drive manually. When it reboots, the system will use the hard drive first, and the flash drive can be left in place until the install is done.
 
Solution
Points:

1. There's NO NEED to remove your flash drive during a Windows installation procedure. Don't do it.

2. Perhaps the DVD version would work better. Shouldn't matter, but that's called troubleshooting.

3. Make sure there is only one Hard Drive or SSD in your system (the one you are installing to).
 

Jswan81

Honorable
Oct 14, 2012
7
0
10,510
Thanks for the quick responses.

So, it did install correctly. I know this because I briefly saw the 'Personalize' screen on one of my monitors. It showed up while I was switching the monitors around on my video cards. Now, I have just one monitor attached to my primary video card. It's still displaying a blank screen, but I have a cursor on the screen. I can move it, but there's nothing to click on.

Any suggestions on what to do now?

Again, I appreciate the help!
-JSwan81
 
Reconnect the second screen, or reboot the machine as is with only one display connected to get back to the OOBE portion of the setup process. At that point, Windows may not automatically switch the relevant part of the UI to the primary display which may be why you ended up with a blank screen with nothing visible.
 
check your bios rev that it the newest 1605. it could be a bios hang issue with an older bios and windows 8. a lot of the newer asus mb have had bios updates for windows 8. also on your copy of windows 8 it it from a torrent sight or microsoft own web page. a lot of the torrented windows are just full of virus's.
 

Jswan81

Honorable
Oct 14, 2012
7
0
10,510
I did update my bios to ver. 1605 before I began the upgrade. My copy of Windows 8 is from Microsoft's website. I did try a new download, burned it to a DVD, and the same problem occurred. I tried a third download and installed it with a USB drive, and the same thing happened. I did not, however, disconnect all of my hard drives but the boot one. Should I try that? Or is there any different courses of action?

Thanks again everyone!