Windows 7 Can't install Windows 7, getting black screen with cursor

[jaym]

I’m having some problems with my PC, and suspect it MAY be related to Windows 7. Yesterday I was using my PC and it started crashing. It would either freeze, show me a blue screen error and reboot, or just flat out reboot. I believe the problem is one of three possible things: Windows 7 problems, bad motherboard, bad CPU.

I’ve been using this PC in this configuration with no changes since November, 2009 when I upgraded my PC, and haven’t had any problems with it until recently. I have an upgrade disc, and I always do the ‘Clean Install’ option. I tested it with different video card & sound card configurations, and with a single memory stick in different ports, etc. I’ve also downloaded and ran Seagate’s SeaTools program to do a hard drive check and it came out clean. No matter what hardware configuration I tried, it still crashed. It would work for about 5 minutes, then crash. Strange thing is, it would not crash if it were in safe mode, which led me to believe it was a problem with Windows or possibly some drivers.

I tried to do a system restore and, as usual, it didn’t help at all. I finally decided to just try and wipe the hard drive and do a clean install. Every time I try to install Windows 7, it goes through the install process until it gets to the last step, reboots, then when the progress bar is about 3/4 of the way through, I just get a black screen with my mouse cursor. I can move the cursor, but can’t do anything else. Hitting CTRL+ALT+DEL does nothing. I’ve tried installing it at least 4 times and always get the same result. I also tried installing the 32-bit version of Windows 7, same thing. When I install an older copy of Windows XP Pro that I have, it will install but that’s about it. It won’t let me install my video drivers or do much else with it.

Here’s my PC info:
Motherboard: MSI NF750-G55
CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition
Memory: 4GB (2 x 2GB) G. Skill DDR3 1600 SDRAM
Hard Drives: 1 TB Seagate & 350GB Western Digital
Power Supply: Cooler Master 500W

This setup has been working without issue since November, 2009. I’ve not even opened the case in at least 6 months, and don’t install a ton of new programs. Haven’t installed anything in the last 2 weeks. The main reason that I suspect a possible problem with the motherboard is that I have had a problem where, when booting up the PC, I get a very quiet tone during the POST test, then I get the usual *beep* and it boots up. There was a problem for a while where it wouldn’t boot up, and I would just shut it down & restart it and it worked fine. More often than not, it would boot and work with no problem, so I didn’t bother doing a warranty return on it.

I’ve been looking through the forums here and I’ve tried recovering the boot record as outlined here: MBR - Restore Windows 7 Master Boot Record - Windows 7 Forums

No dice.

Any ideas?

 

[Veegertx]

I had one do that awhile back but surely you looked to make sure all the fan's are working even on power supply? sounds to be faulty supply if you have one and can test. If posssible unplug other drive when installing or even try install to other drive? Don't believe it can be your Win 7 unless disk is scratched

 

[jaym]

The fans seem to be working fine. One of my first thoughts was that it might be overheating. I ran a program to display the CPU temp and it never broke 40C, and the fans never stopped running. I also thought that perhaps it was overheating due to dust on the inside, but it wasn't very dusty at all. I haven't tried unplugging the second hard drive when installing yet, perhaps I'll try that today. Currently, I'm running memtest on it, just to make sure it's not the memory.

 

[Veegertx]

definitely a hardware problem but to figure out which. If still within warranty I'd do that first for sure and get a squeaky new.