[Forge]

another re-install, and a failure to detect a bootable drive (blinking cursor)

all this is adding up to bad sectors in your boot partition

good chance you're wasting your time with that hdd. You should probably just run the tests on a bootable media to check it before you spend your time on updates and trying to get windows 10 installed.

hope your windows 7 disk isn't oem to that comp or you'll need a new license with the new hdd.

[Mark]

I've been trying since late October to update Vista from the MS website. Mine is doing the same thing. It just hangs at checking for updates. I try various times day or night with no luck. I waited as long as 20 minutes and had no response. A google search brought up lame answers that did no good.

[MusicallyInspired]

I built the computer myself, but it is Windows 7 Pro OEM. I was under the impression you could make bigger hardware changes with Pro, though, than you could with lower tiers.

At any rate, no problems so far. All HDD scans come up negative, Win7 is running fine, and I'm downloading Win10 now. Leaving it to attempt checking for updates overnight helped. Also, it needed restarts to install some of the updates (but didn't notify that). Try that with your Vista update problem.

[Paul B]

MusicallyInspired, on 16 January 2016 - 10:14 PM, said:

Well not quite yet. Something forced my hard drive to not boot up. I was installing a bios update and left it to run. I came back to a blinking cursor on my screen. Restarting just took me to another cursor (after POST, so the bios is fine). Had to reinstall 7 AGAIN. Now I'm just trying to get enough updates for the Win10 icon to show up again. After the first couple rounds of updates it's taking forever to check for updates, though, without finding anything and without stopping. I'll leave it all night and see what happens.

No matter what you do software wise you are facing a hardware problem. Changing your software will not help your situation.

Please see this link: http://www.pcstats.c...?articleID=2589 Your motherboard is listed with this problem. I've seen this problem before on many other manufacturer motherboards and the fix without replacing the system board is to change the SATA controller that your hard drive is connected to. Plug it in the SATA 6 GB controller instead. This will fix your problem. Don't use the SATA 3GB controller for anything. (Page 2-13) In your manual will show you the necessary SATA port configuration. Here is your motherboard manual if you've misplaced it:
http://ca.msi.com/pr...tml#down-manual

Now lets get back to Duking!

P.S - Using Windows 7 Pro over Home in a home environment will not really give you any added benefit unless you want to be able to remote desktop into your computer from a remote computer. Windows 7 Pro is mainly directed towards businesses running a server so you can join it to a domain or use remote desktop services. Aside from that there's no added benefit to go with Pro unless you want to invoke your Microsoft Downgrade Rights to a previous version of Windows. Also, just because you have windows 7 Pro OEM doesn't mean you have to buy another license just because you decide to replace or upgrade a hard-drive. Microsoft states that as long as you aren't replacing the core component such as Motherboard you technically can still use the same license. They just want to make sure that the license assigned to the comptuer is only installed on the original system it was intended for and not on more than 1 computer.

I have in the past replaced a faulty motherboard with a different one and called Microsoft on the phone told them the system had a faulty motherboard and we had to replace it with a different model since the old model was no longer available for replacement. Microsoft many times allowed this with no further questions asked.

All OEM Windows installations are allowed to be activated up to 50 times before they black list the Windows product key. So technically you could reuse the same license many times over on a bunch of different hardware configurations before the key won't be allowed to be reactivated. But to stay within the MS EULA it is written that should the core hardware change up to 6 or 7 times by detecting different devices or resources it will invoke the Microsoft activation service again. Which you will have to call the activation center explain your situation and they will assign a new activation id for you.

[Forge]

and to contradict what you said, my HDD died back in June, used my OEM windows 7 disk to reinstall the OS on a new HDD. A few days later the system decided that the license was no longer valid. Called microsoft - they said that the oem license only applies to the one computer and any major hardware changes like a motherboard, cpu, or hard drive invalidates that license as they deem it's no longer the same computer. (then they tried to sell me a new license key)

[MusicallyInspired]

I heard that having a Pro license key allowed you to change things like HDD/processor but not mobo.

Anyway, I'm on 10 now but haven't installed any drivers yet. Taking a break. I'll definitely use the 6GB SATAs instead since I only have the HDD and the DVD-RW drives. Plenty of room to move around. Thanks for that tip.

EDIT: Hmm. According to the manual SATA slots 1/2 and 7/8 are 6GB and 3-6 are 3GB. I'm plugged into SATA1 and SATA2 already. I did switch them around a few days ago just in case that was a problem. So now my HDD is in SATA2 instead of SATA1.

[Forge]

edition of the OS makes no difference - i had a windows 7 pro oem disk

the difference is if the disk is oem or retail, (or volume) licensed

[Paul B]

Forge, on 17 January 2016 - 04:58 PM, said:

and to contradict what you said, my HDD died back in June, used my OEM windows 7 disk to reinstall the OS on a new HDD. A few days later the system decided that the license was no longer valid. Called microsoft - they said that the oem license only applies to the one computer and any major hardware changes like a motherboard, cpu, or hard drive invalidates that license as they deem it's no longer the same computer. (then they tried to sell me a new license key)

Sorry to hear your bad luck with the Microsoft Activation Center. I've come across those MS tech's like that too its like 1 in 600. Typically if that happens I just hang up and call them back to get someone different. Our store does between 150 to 180 OEM re-activations a month. This also includes hardware changes as a result of replacing faulty parts and rarely do we have to call Microsoft more than once to get the job done.

MusicallyInspired, on 17 January 2016 - 05:48 PM, said:

EDIT: Hmm. According to the manual SATA slots 1/2 and 7/8 are 6GB and 3-6 are 3GB. I'm plugged into SATA1 and SATA2 already. I did switch them around a few days ago just in case that was a problem. So now my HDD is in SATA2 instead of SATA1.

It's been about 4 yrs since I've had to deal with that SATA chipset controller problem. I believe the problem use to surface when the Hard-drive on the SATA bus was under heavy load then the problem would be more apparent.

[Forge]

i didn't have anything on the comp after the fresh install, so i wiped it and re-installed the OS with the same key - which comes back as valid as licensed. then before micro$oft can check my system and invalidate it again - i used the media creation tool, downloaded some updates from the micro$oft update catalog site instead of using their update service, then force installed windows 10 which installs a new license. Problem solved.

[MusicallyInspired]

The blinking cursor issue came up again but I realized what it was. I rearranged my boot order so that USB drives would boot before HDDs. I always have my USB 3 Seagate expansion 2TB HDD plugged in so it was trying to boot from that. So no SATA HDD issues. To be safe I moved the HDD to another 6GB SATA port, though.

I've reinstalled many drivers and programs and tested many games and have not run into any issues yet. I'll reserve my celebrations for when everything is back on, but I think I'm in the clear...I still don't know what caused the BSODs. Could still be a RAM issuem we'll see.

[Rellik]

MusicallyInspired, on 17 January 2016 - 12:28 PM, said:

I built the computer myself, but it is Windows 7 Pro OEM. I was under the impression you could make bigger hardware changes with Pro, though, than you could with lower tiers.

I think the only time the HDD really comes into play is if the PC manufacturer does that stupid OEM restore partition and does not provide discs.

Swapping the motherboard will almost definitely trigger activation because the network port plays a very heavy role in activation. And activation isn't that big of a deal these days, usually it's just an automated phone call if you have to call in.

Quote

At any rate, no problems so far. All HDD scans come up negative, Win7 is running fine, and I'm downloading Win10 now. Leaving it to attempt checking for updates overnight helped. Also, it needed restarts to install some of the updates (but didn't notify that). Try that with your Vista update problem.

Might want to look into checking the SMART status of your hard drive. Crystal Disk Info is a good Windows tool, otherwise I use PartEd Magic (linux bootable, use UNetBootin to make Linux USB boot drives)

In any case, I must have been lucky, My Win 8.1 PC has been through the 8.0 to 8.1 update, HDD to SSD, AMD to Intel motherboard and I managed to upgrade to Windows 10 with no issues aside from having to hack Windows Media Center back in.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

MusicallyInspired, on 17 January 2016 - 09:16 PM, said:

The blinking cursor issue came up again but I realized what it was. I rearranged my boot order so that USB drives would boot before HDDs. I always have my USB 3 Seagate expansion 2TB HDD plugged in so it was trying to boot from that. So no SATA HDD issues. To be safe I moved the HDD to another 6GB SATA port, though.

I've reinstalled many drivers and programs and tested many games and have not run into any issues yet. I'll reserve my celebrations for when everything is back on, but I think I'm in the clear...I still don't know what caused the BSODs. Could still be a RAM issuem we'll see.

How goes it now? If it was a driver issue as I suspected, then a clean install should have fixed it.

[MusicallyInspired]

Yeah, nothing so far. Not so much as an error. I'm still reinstalling my music software and will do more extensive testing tonight. I was trying to fix up my sisters' new laptops until after midnight, so I didn't get everything going. Maybe it was drivers.

So. 8 days to get updated to Windows 10. That's gotta be some kind of record.

[Paul B]

MusicallyInspired, on 19 January 2016 - 06:14 AM, said:

Yeah, nothing so far. Not so much as an error. I'm still reinstalling my music software and will do more extensive testing tonight. I was trying to fix up my sisters' new laptops until after midnight, so I didn't get everything going. Maybe it was drivers.

So. 8 days to get updated to Windows 10. That's gotta be some kind of record.

This seems pointless to argue but it wasn't driver related. The system was stopping while loading safe mode which wouldn't be a cause of a bad third party driver since the only drivers that get loaded are a minimal set of inhouse Microsoft drivers. The fix was changing the sata port and re-installing to fix the corruption. His motherboard is faulty by design compliments of Intel.

http://www.anandtech...t-begins-recall

[MusicallyInspired]

No, that wasn't the issue. I remember when they recalled those motherboards because I tried ordering it and they had already recalled them. I had to wait a period of months before they became available again so I could place my order. My board is not from the affected batch. Also, I already stated that I was already on a 6GB SATA port and not a 3GB, which were the only ones affected.

[Paul B]

MusicallyInspired, on 19 January 2016 - 02:58 PM, said:

No, that wasn't the issue. I remember when they recalled those motherboards because I tried ordering it and they had already recalled them. I had to wait a period of months before they became available again so I could place my order. My board is not from the affected batch. Also, I already stated that I was already on a 6GB SATA port and not a 3GB, which were the only ones affected.

Well your mistake my fault. I didn't realize you had the P67A-GD65 (B3) stepping revision of that board. The link you had posted was of the original motherboard which did have those problems. I'm still not convinced all those random blue screens are triggered by a bad driver. I've seen many bad driver blue screens and I debug all my dmp file to isolate the cause of the stop errors and the combination of stop errors you were posting were all over the grid. If its working great but i guess time will ultimately be the true test.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

Paul B, on 19 January 2016 - 03:37 PM, said:

I've seen many bad driver blue screens and I debug all my dmp file to isolate the cause of the stop errors and the combination of stop errors you were posting were all over the grid.

If it's anything to do with ntoskrnl.exe, that can happen. The stop errors he was giving me was pretty much identical to the issue I had.

[MusicallyInspired]

You're right, the link I posted to in that thread was to the old mobo before I ordered. I see now in that thread I was complaining about the mobos being taken down before I was able to order. In my order history on newegg it lists the (B3). Actually, I had forgotten all about that recall issue until you mentioned it just then. I know you referenced it before as well, but I didn't put two and two together.

[Person of Color]

Mark., on 17 January 2016 - 12:16 PM, said:

I've been trying since late October to update Vista from the MS website. Mine is doing the same thing. It just hangs at checking for updates. I try various times day or night with no luck. I waited as long as 20 minutes and had no response. A google search brought up lame answers that did no good.

Windows key + R then run "services.msc"

Stop the Windows Update and Background Intelligent Transfer services.

Now go to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution

Delete everything in the folder then restart. Now check for updates. This effectively resets the Windows Update client.

Windows Update has been shitty lately...expect to wait up to an hour...OR MORE. If your CPU is under load in task manager, it's doing something and will eventually work. Sometimes the Windows Update software won't even tell you it's installing but it actually is because it sucks (You'll see your HD light thrash like a mother fucker).

[Inspector Lagomorf]

Whereas Windows automatic updates in 7< were punctual to a fault, restarting your PC even if it jeopardized any unsaved data you had at the time, Windows 10 seems to be absolutely incompetent at restarting for updates. I've been coming home every day to a "We were unable to update your computer" message. I have to say, I rather prefer it that way.

[Jblade]

Yeah I've been getting that shit too, I was a bit worried at first but when I click on the message it just says all updates were succesfull.

[Person of Color]

Windows 8 is even worse. Just as unreliable and creeping slow to boot.

[DustFalcon85]

Person of Color, on 21 January 2016 - 09:03 AM, said:

Windows 8 is even worse. Just as unreliable and creeping slow to boot.

Windows termintated support for Windows 8 but not 8.1.

http://neurogadget.c...y-harmful/22781

[Person of Color]

I'm talking about both but 8 is worse.

[Mark]

POC, I took your advice but instead of deleting that folder I renamed it. Wow, that sucker was 1.5GB in size. I said I will give it 2 hours of waiting before giving up this time. When 2 hours was up I said "just another 10 minutes. With 2 minutes before giving up it finally synced up with the site and started the process. So I'm guessing I was ok before. I just didn't wait long enough to connect. I haven't found any valid reason from MS for the long wait that many are seeing.

[Person of Color]

I wish I knew their reasoning as well. I'm currently stuck using special software to slipstream updates onto custom ISO files. I have to redo it every few months and they've grown so big I now have to use dual layer discs.

[Hendricks266]

Person of Color, on 21 January 2016 - 09:42 PM, said:

they've grown so big I now have to use dual layer discs.

Why not make a bootable USB drive out of them? Throw down for an 8 or 16 gig one and you'll be set.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

I can never fucking get bootable USB sticks to work. I don't know what I'm screwing up exactly.

[Jeff]

Inspector Lagomorf, on 22 January 2016 - 10:37 AM, said:

I can never fucking get bootable USB sticks to work. I don't know what I'm screwing up exactly.

I use WinToBootic to make mine.

[Person of Color]

Hendricks266, on 22 January 2016 - 09:21 AM, said:

Why not make a bootable USB drive out of them? Throw down for an 8 or 16 gig one and you'll be set.

They're picky about AHCI and USB controllers. Oftentimes, you either can't format the drive or it can't see it. However, a cheap little 60GB SSD in a high quality USB/SATA dock has no issues over USB.