Welwynnick
Distinguished Member
Hi all,
I've been banging my head against the wall for days with a problem on my PC, and wanted to talk over some ideas with more experienced folk. I'm not sure if this is a system, software, motherboard or windows issue, but lets give this a go.
I have a working but increasingly unreliable Packard-Bell iPower X9800 desktop (spec below) and wanted to remove Windows Vista 64 and do a clean installation of Windows 7 64. The installation won't complete - it re-starts and gets to "completing installation", then it dies. Windows will then start normally, but it dies during loading. If I start in safe mode, it says it has to be in normal mode to complete installation. I can't install Win XP either, but I can boot from UBCD4Win or Hiren's boot disc and access all the drives (so the HW looks OK).
So I can't go forwards and I can't go backwards. It sounds like a windows problem, but I think there's more to it than that. On the Microsoft support forums there are lots of people with the same problem, and there's no single solution. I've progressively removed everything from the system, leaving just the MoBo, HDD, DVD, mouse, keyboard & monitor, and that makes no difference. I have two XP CDs and two Win 7 DVDs, and each behaves the same. I've cleaned the discs, removed and refitted every connector, and PSU voltages appear to be normal.
I suspect the core problem is that I deleted the original Packard Bell system files, I can't recover them or download them, and I don't have back-ups. I believe Packard Bell use proprietary drivers, but their support site doesn't recognise the PC model No any more. There are lots of ways of finding chipset and HDD drivers etc, but each and every one of them requires me to download driver utilities that won't run in bootdisc windows (I've tried all of them - and Windows won't start of course). It seems like the mobo was a good one in its day, but is now an unsupportable liability.
So what should I do - sell the PC for parts - throw it at a repair shop - throw it in the bin - get a new one? My most likely course of action is to keep the parts but get a properly supportable Socket 775 SLI ATX motherboard from one of the mainstream manufacturers like ASUS, MSI, XFX, eVGA or ASRock, something equivalent to what I have, like an ASUS P5N-E.
Does that sound like a sensible way forwards, or does anyone have some better ideas?
Thanks, Nick
System: Packard Bell iPower X9800 (64 bit)
MoBo: Packard Bell VG300 V1.2
BIOS: American Megatrends PBVG300.P0K
Chipset: nVidia nForce 750i
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2500MHz
Socket 775 LGA
RAM: 6144MB DDR2 SDRAM PC2-5300 333 MHz
HDD: 2 x Seagate 500GB 7200rpm 3500820AS
GPU: 2 x nVidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB DDR3 / SLI
I've been banging my head against the wall for days with a problem on my PC, and wanted to talk over some ideas with more experienced folk. I'm not sure if this is a system, software, motherboard or windows issue, but lets give this a go.
I have a working but increasingly unreliable Packard-Bell iPower X9800 desktop (spec below) and wanted to remove Windows Vista 64 and do a clean installation of Windows 7 64. The installation won't complete - it re-starts and gets to "completing installation", then it dies. Windows will then start normally, but it dies during loading. If I start in safe mode, it says it has to be in normal mode to complete installation. I can't install Win XP either, but I can boot from UBCD4Win or Hiren's boot disc and access all the drives (so the HW looks OK).
So I can't go forwards and I can't go backwards. It sounds like a windows problem, but I think there's more to it than that. On the Microsoft support forums there are lots of people with the same problem, and there's no single solution. I've progressively removed everything from the system, leaving just the MoBo, HDD, DVD, mouse, keyboard & monitor, and that makes no difference. I have two XP CDs and two Win 7 DVDs, and each behaves the same. I've cleaned the discs, removed and refitted every connector, and PSU voltages appear to be normal.
I suspect the core problem is that I deleted the original Packard Bell system files, I can't recover them or download them, and I don't have back-ups. I believe Packard Bell use proprietary drivers, but their support site doesn't recognise the PC model No any more. There are lots of ways of finding chipset and HDD drivers etc, but each and every one of them requires me to download driver utilities that won't run in bootdisc windows (I've tried all of them - and Windows won't start of course). It seems like the mobo was a good one in its day, but is now an unsupportable liability.
So what should I do - sell the PC for parts - throw it at a repair shop - throw it in the bin - get a new one? My most likely course of action is to keep the parts but get a properly supportable Socket 775 SLI ATX motherboard from one of the mainstream manufacturers like ASUS, MSI, XFX, eVGA or ASRock, something equivalent to what I have, like an ASUS P5N-E.
Does that sound like a sensible way forwards, or does anyone have some better ideas?
Thanks, Nick
System: Packard Bell iPower X9800 (64 bit)
MoBo: Packard Bell VG300 V1.2
BIOS: American Megatrends PBVG300.P0K
Chipset: nVidia nForce 750i
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2500MHz
Socket 775 LGA
RAM: 6144MB DDR2 SDRAM PC2-5300 333 MHz
HDD: 2 x Seagate 500GB 7200rpm 3500820AS
GPU: 2 x nVidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB DDR3 / SLI
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