I am trying to install windows 7 but it is not working. It says loading files and goes through the bar on the bottom of the screen. It then goes to a screen that says STARTING WINDOWS and then freezes.
Any thoughts??
Try and do a start up repair; after "install"* try booting from the DVD again, be sure to be around, by which I mean while this may seem like a good time to get coffee it's not
, because most windows discs require you to press a key before they will "allow" themselves to be booted (both a blessing and a curse, really). In any case, assuming you are able to get the DVD booted to the recovery screen*, choose your language options, click next, and then choose "Repair my computer", select your operating system drive and click next (again) if nothing is listed, click next anyway. At this point, it should give you a list of recovery tools (repair, system restore, command prompt, diagnostic, etc); here you would choose the "repair" option. Depending on the problems it might prompt you for additional information or reboot the machine during the repair. If it doesn't work it should give you some sort of summary of the problem.
If that doesn't work, can you boot into safe mode? (F8 during boot, safe mode) If so, it's probably a driver issue, likely resolvable if you get the proper drivers installed (specifically chipset drivers). If you can't even get into safe mode, try disconnecting all non-essential peripherals (USB hubs, flash drives, external hard drives, phones, MP3 players, etc) and try again.
Also, are you sure it's a
permanent hang? It might just take a hella-long time to finish. Either way, it could be caused by a memory card reader plugged into a USB header; many computers come with devices like this installed in that fashion; In the BIOS, check for an option for "Legacy USB Storage Detection" and disable it, and see if that helps.
Another common cause for this problem is the power supply, this seems to be one of the primary causes of this issue, according to my googlings). you could also try switching your hard drive from AHCI/SATA to IDE/Compatible in the BIOS.
lastly: you mention this is a relatively recent build: if it's using a Corsair 950TX, I'd nearly bet money that is the cause of the problems.
*: Because almost all versions of windows perform part of their installation after they reboot the computer into the windows GUI, I'm not really sure if Windows 7 will have been "installed" entirely by this point. If I was forced to guess I'd say yes, but I'm not sure, thus this footnote).
