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Software Support => DOS/WinCab => Topic started by: SlammedNiss on July 11, 2016, 12:04:28 am
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I'm a member of a few forums, but this one seems the most appropriate for this particular problem.
First off, I purchased 3 decommissioned Dell towers from my wife work. I'll refer to these as towers A, B, & C.
All 3 are Intel Core2 Duo's w/ 4GB ram. I provided my own HDD's.
Tower A: Optiplex 780 w/ Win7 Pro COA key.
Tower B: Optiplex 780 w/ Win7 Pro COA Key.
Tower C: Optiplex 360 w/ WinVista Prem COA key.
Tower A: I installed Win7 using a factory OEM Win7 install disk. No problems and working great.
Tower B: I've tried 3 different Win7 install disks, including the same one used on Tower A: Every time it loads the setup files, and starts the install process. Every time, after it's first cycled reboot during install, it goes to the Win7 splash screen, then the screen goes blank afterward. I swapped the HDD from Tower A: over to Tower B: and it loads fine. So, I tried installing the OS for Tower B: using Tower A: and I get the same blank screen issue as if I were installing in on Tower B:. That led me to believe it was possibly the HDD. However, it will take a Win10 install no problem.
Tower C: Haven't touched this one yet. Waiting on a Win7 key to upgrade it because Vista has such a negative stigma.
Any geniuses out there with a viable solution to this problem? My OCD is causing me great stress with this one.
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Could try cloning/ghosting Tower A's HDD to tower B's HDD - ie. install both HDD's onto tower A and clone the working HDD (since you say it boots fine if you swap the HDDs from A to B) Then if needed once you have it installed and working just go in and change the Key on one of the 2.
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1) Update the bios.
2) Do a memory test. You would be surprised how often these older machine have bad memory.
3) Check the power supplies, they may not give enough power...
4) Using a branded keyboard, like a HP? This could cause a problem with Dell machines (I have seen this)
5) Make sure you disable anything unnecessary in the Bios: SD cards ports, parallel and serial ports, etc.
6) Make sure the Hdd mode is AHCI.
7) Disable for now any unnecessary power feature too.
8) Try a new DVD-Drive, they also get faulty pretty fast in those machine.
Source: I work in IT and am supporting a park of around 1200 machines, most of them HP's and Dell's.
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take a real close look at your tower b mobo compared to your tower A.
Dell has a habit of recycling their ____plex ### line and having totally different hardware.
IE an optiplex 750 is not necessarily the same as an optiplex 750
it should have a service number on the chassis you can enter in at Dell and it list off the hardware at time of manufacture. it's just a black and white label with a 7 digit number and barcode on it. (for example i have "52WMSF1" here under my desk.
try doing a BIOS reset on it. maybe an option is enables in the BIOS causing the issue.
for S&G, try installing windows 7 on tower A using the COA key from tower B.
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hi
just 2 cents worth
I went through the exact same problem over the weekend
7 would load system would reboot
then once it was to start , notta
so what I did after swaping drives yada yada
was simple I took out the cmos batt
and let it drain the cmos
replaced batt after about 15 mins and away it went 7 perfect
just 2 cents worth
ed
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Could try cloning/ghosting Tower A's HDD to tower B's HDD - ie. install both HDD's onto tower A and clone the working HDD (since you say it boots fine if you swap the HDDs from A to B) Then if needed once you have it installed and working just go in and change the Key on one of the 2.
My next step was going to be imaging Tower A: HDD to Tower B: HDD, which is what I'm in the process of doing now. I was hoping to get these sold before the July 26th cut-off date of free Win10 update, and if I can't figure it out before then, then Tower B: will just be sold as a Win10 machine.
I'll read thru the rest of the responses here in a bit. Kind of busy at the moment, but had just a little time and thought I'd check to see if there were any responses. Thanks for all the responses guys.
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take a real close look at your tower b mobo compared to your tower A.
Dell has a habit of recycling their ____plex ### line and having totally different hardware.
IE an optiplex 750 is not necessarily the same as an optiplex 750
it should have a service number on the chassis you can enter in at Dell and it list off the hardware at time of manufacture. it's just a black and white label with a 7 digit number and barcode on it. (for example i have "52WMSF1" here under my desk.
try doing a BIOS reset on it. maybe an option is enables in the BIOS causing the issue.
for S&G, try installing windows 7 on tower A using the COA key from tower B.
Too true... And I forgot about the Bios reset.. :banghead:
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hi
and today i got word the box in question is now nicely 10
ed
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Just an update.
Imaged the drive from Tower A: for Tower B: Worked in A: but the same issue in B: Tried swapping Ram, no change. Just removed the CMOS and reset everything to factory defaults except switched HDD to AHCI and reinstalling OS again. Hoping for the better. If this doesn't work, I'm just gonna return it. I've never run into this sort of issue before and the stress of not being able to figure it out is driving me nuts.
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It's going to be something simple and stupid and you'll kick yourself in the ass when you figure it out. it always happens that way.
check your bios and see if you can switch the SATA from SATA mode to IDE mode. (or compatibility mode) sometimes windows install doesn't detect the SATA controller and won't load the drivers for it so when you reboot, the drive doesn't exist anymore to the OS. The initial CD boot loads all drivers for every conceivable device it has. the first reboot off the harddrive to continue the install runs off the what has been detected. no detection, no install. no drive. no run.
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yes that is correct
also I have found that some mfg's do sneak crap into the bios as a matter of record
most common post 7 was real bad for it
so as I said
just dump the cmos bat and then reinstall the bat and boot with the drive u have loaded the new os on
ed
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Pulling the CMOS didn't do a damn thing. It still baffles me how it takes a Win10 install no problem. (so far, knock on wood) These were supposedly working pulls from my wife's work where she is also in the IT dept. and she is even confused with the issue. Aggravating to say the least. I'll be glad when they're gone from this house.
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Have you tried pressing F8 and boot into safe mode to see if it boots that way.
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Have you tried pressing F8 and boot into safe mode to see if it boots that way.
Yes. It gives me the message that I can't boot into safe mode while completing Windows setup.
Edit:
And I'm really beginning to think there's something wrong with the video on the motherboard because my Win10 install ended up giving me the following error.
"VIDEO TDR FAILURE (igdkmd64.sys)"
(http://i.imgur.com/pnC8f0l.jpg)
Ignore the monitor. It's my secondary monitor I use to build PC's while my main monitor can stay on with my main desktop.
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Have you tried pressing F8 and boot into safe mode to see if it boots that way.
Yes. It gives me the message that I can't boot into safe mode while completing Windows setup.
Edit:
And I'm really beginning to think there's something wrong with the video on the motherboard because my Win10 install ended up giving me the following error. "VIDEO TDR FAILURE (igdkmd64.sys)"
Perhaps test with a spare video card (if you have one) - that would at least let you know if that is the problem.
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Perhaps test with a spare video card (if you have one) - that would at least let you know if that is the problem.
Both the onboard video and video card are causing problems.