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Ol' "Starting Windows" prob w/ Win 7 on Gateway LT

post #1 of 9
3/17/10 at 1:53pm
Thread Starter 
I hate being the new guy on a forum with an issue right away but i am really stuck and am near giving up.

I have read hundreds of threads pertaining to this problem but I can't seem to find a remedy that works for me. The machine is a Gateway 3416 notebook. It's bone stock except for 2.5GB of ram instead of the original 1GB. The BIOS is the latest and set to defaults (thought I have tried changing pretty much all the settings to no avail). I have also tried removing the 512 chip, swapping RAM slots, etc. I have no periphs connected.

I can do a clean install Win 7 x64 all the way until the final reboot, then it freezes on "Starting Windows"

I can't boot into safe mode, setup repair, etc. The machine has been running with Vista x64 for years. I tried different DVD's, installing off USB, all to no avail. The weirdest part is that I have seen sigs of people on other forums that run Win 7 on this machine.

Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
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post #2 of 9
3/17/10 at 2:23pm
It's possible your hard drive has developed a bad sector. Have you checked it with a program like Hard Disk Sentinel that shows physical bad sectors instead of just OS-reported bad sectors?
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post #3 of 9
3/17/10 at 2:26pm
Thread Starter 
I'm skeptical that it would cause this issue so consistently, esp since I tried one install attempt with different partition sizes to change thing up. Though, I'm willing to try anything. Any recommendation for a check utility I can run from pen drive linux or similar?
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post #4 of 9
3/17/10 at 2:30pm
It looks like the badblocks program would work - I'm not sure if it's part of the Linux kernel or not, but here's a HOWTO for it: http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/badblockhowto.html
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post #5 of 9
3/17/10 at 5:31pm
Things to try....
1) download and run the live CD of Ubuntu 9.10 64bit - this will tell you if the RAM and system will run fin e with a 64bit OS (yeah, I know you said Vista 64), but it'll test the RAM... From there you can run gparted which will show you any issues with the hard drive...
2) are you on the latest BIOS... A lot of older laptops, inc ones which run Vista won't run win7 due to ACPI differences... This will cause the operating system not to install...
3) There may be a 'hidden' recovery partition for vista on the laptop hard drive... This sometimes prevents another OS from installing due to the boot sector requiring in most cases to be at the front of the drive...
4) check the win7 DVD for damage (a simple scratch or bit of dust can cause this)...

Other things inc win7 installing c**p generic hardware drivers....
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post #6 of 9
3/17/10 at 6:30pm
Thread Starter 
I haven't been able to run a disk check yet, got busy @ work but I hope to do it this evening.

The disk itself is fine as I have tried several, all of which installed on other machines. I also tried installing from USB.

I did think that maybe the BIOS just wouldn't like 7, but there seems to be no shortage of others with this same model that run 7 with no issues.

I will definitely try the disk check, as I said, and I am hoping I can find the original memory from the unit, as I have tried both of the current sticks in all possible configurations.

I appreciate guidance guys, I keep feeling as if I hit a wall on this one. I was also tossing around the idea of using a 2.5" IDE to USB adapter on the HD and trying to boot off the laptop HD on my desktop. The issues people seem to have are non issues after the first successful boot. IE - variable changed to fix the problem can be returned to previous state afterwards with no issue.
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post #7 of 9
3/18/10 at 12:01am
Thread Starter 
So I scanned the drive using a number of utilities. Not a single issue. I tried yet another stick of RAM to try. Still nothing. I am now trying to install again with only one stick in place. I don't see sleep happening until success.
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post #8 of 9
3/18/10 at 7:36pm
Thread Starter 
Installed Ubuntu x54 without an issue. No bad sectors found, no partitions aside from what Ubuntu created. ::sigh::
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post #9 of 9
3/18/10 at 8:03pm
Have you tried calling Microsoft support and asking them what the problem could be?
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