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?
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?
