Windows 7 mystery problem - after instal, infinite cycling between hp screen and black!?

[7UP]

Greetings W7 masters.

I bought an old PC (Pentium D, 1 Gig Ram) at a garage sale, and was hoping to bring it back to life.

I put in the Windows DVD, and all was well. It took a while, installed, asked for a new user name / computer name etc.

After that install though, it will never get to the actual OS.

It seems to alternated between one screen that has 'HP invent / Pentium D logo.. In the bottom left there is a number 09.. in the bottom right has the options like <Esc = Boot Menu> <F1 = Setup> <F10 = System Recovery> etc etc,

It's on this screen for about 2 seconds, then switches to a black screen for about 5 or 6 seconds.

I tried reinserting the DVD and reinstalling, but it's doing the same thing everytime.

I tried entering the boot menu and making sure the hard drive was selected.. Same deal.

Does anyone have any tips or things to try?

If I can get this beast running I'll be very happy!

- 7UP

 

[7UP]

p.s. I was able to boot into a Linux live CD with no problems.. After much searching my hunch is hard drive problems. The only thing that strikes me is odd is that the Windows install seemed to go off without a hitch.

Running a SMART Extended self-test to check drive integrity now.

Any other ideas/possibilities appreciated!

 

[7UP]

SMART test passed with no errors So what now!?

Any ideas guys?

 

[Joe S]

It may not have all of the drivers for a PC that old. One gig ram is pretty wimpy. Did you install the 32 or 64 bit?
Joe

 

[7UP]

Thanks for the reply Joe..

I def. went 32 bit

Would it have installed the soft. without the driver? What might be keeping it from booting?

Have any suggestions on next steps?

- 7up

 

[shaynepcguy]

There is a setting in bios to disable / enable auto restart on boot error. I would disable it, and you should get an error screen to work with.

Even without drivers windows should load on just pcu, hdd, and ram. Plus all of the components come with firmware to accomplish basic tasks.

Drivers do not affect until after windows kernal starts up and dll are told what to do.

There is also this microsoft thread on repairing startup Windows 7 will not boot, startup repair, recovery disk useless. - Microsoft Community

Good luck. Let me know if the disabling auto restart from bios helps or generates an error.

 

[7UP]

Shayne, thanks for the reply!

I'm in the bios now, and the only thing I see that is looks like that is 'After AC Power Failure [Stay Off]'

and I'm pretty sure that's now what you're talking about..

Would it be under Main, Advanced, Power, Boot, or Exit? (under boot, all I have is (boot-time diagnostic screen [Disabled]
and Boot Device Priority..

I'm going to check that link you posted now..

- 7up

 

[7UP]

p.s. I tried enabling the boot time diagnostic screen but it's too fast to see anything.

p.s.s. my monitor is pretty big (1920 x 1080 native resolution).. could this have something to do with it?

 

[7UP]

Ok. Problem solved. I'm a dummy.

I could have sworn I did a memory text from Linux, but I may have been mistaken..

I took out one of the sticks of ram (512) and the thing boots.

doh!

Thanks again for your help guys

 

[shaynepcguy]

Ok. Problem solved. I'm a dummy.

I could have sworn I did a memory text from Linux, but I may have been mistaken..

I took out one of the sticks of ram (512) and the thing boots.

doh!

Thanks again for your help guys

Super awesome. Faulty ram huh, that is a odd one to deal with normally to computer would not even turn on with bad ram. Good deal, I am glad you found the problem and got your beast working

 

[7UP]

Thanks for the kind words Shayne!
the strange thing is, when I played with different combinations of ram (like both in parallel slots rather than staggered) it would work...
Just added another 2 sticks of 512 from another old PC, and here we go!! A MASSIVE 2 gigs lol