Windows 10 Installation woes is it a hardware issue?

Associate
Joined
30 Jul 2009
Posts
238
Location
Kent UK
Hi all,

PC spec is as follows:

Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5P
Intel i7 5820K
32GB Corsair DDR4 LPX
MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X
Samsung 950 Pro 256 GB
Superflower Leadex Gold 850W Modular PSU

The story so far is that up until recently the system has been working fine, then a few days ago I shut it down and while it was still shutting down leant on the power button which turned the PC off instantly. I thought no more of it,

I came home later that evening, went to turn on the machine and it just kept power cycling without booting into windows. I couldn't even access the BIOS.

Since then I've managed to reset the CMOS to regain access to the BIOS but Windows still wouldn't boot. So naturally I considered a fresh Windows install to solve the problem.

Windows 10 basically flat out refuses to install, I either have the system start the process at which point I get a purple/blue empty screen and then no dialogue boxes to begin the install or just a black screen with nothing going on.

I used a Linux Mint live CD to wipe all of the partitions off of the SSD to make sure nothing funky was going on there and I'm still having the same issue.

I feel like I'm missing some obvious setting in the BIOS to get the install going on the NVMe SSD but I've tried multiple set ups with no change.

Can anyone offer any suggestions as I'm starting to tear my hair out here.

If it helps, when viewing the SSD in Linux it seems to think it is in an MBR format, shouldn't it be GPT for the boot drive?
 
Associate
Joined
13 Aug 2004
Posts
819
My first thing would be to try and install Windows 10 to a different drive to see if that cures it?? It maybe that the SSD became damaged due to the power being switched off when shutting down. Or maybe a just unlucky (unlikely) that the drive failed at the same time.

If it still fails then look at the RAM, maybe 1 stick is dying and it is causing this issue. Don't think the PSU would cause this, but could be worth removing unnecessary components and have just RAM and SSD to rule out this possibility.

It sure is a strange one. Hope this helps as starters.
 
Associate
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7 May 2016
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739
I had a problem today with not being able to install windows from 3 of my usb's which all happened to be Sandisk, but as soon as I tried my Toshiba one is worked. Another device may help like acharris mentioned.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Mar 2008
Posts
4,175
Had a quick google search and someone had a similar problem on a Asus board.

This was his solution...

Fixed the problem - first recreated a bootable USB ISO file using MS Media Creation tool (which also downloaded Windows 10). Then went into UEFI, made USB which it recognized as "UEFI Sandisk" USB stick as the top boot priority, changed Secure Boot to "Other OS", CSM-enabled and Legacy OProm, Legacy Only, Legacy Only and UEFI Driver first. Then saved and exited UEFI. On rebooting, Windows 10 started to load and when got to "where do you want to install?", the two MBR partitions showed up. It wouldn't allow me to format, but would allow Deletion. So deleted both the old partitions, Then had "Drive D-unallocated space" of 476.9 GB. Pressed "New", Apply and OK. Windows created 4 partitions, the last was Drive 0, Partition 4, 476.4GB Primary. Highlighted that one and clicked on Next. Installed Windows 10 in about 10 minutes. So I am now good to go. Loaded ASUS Drivers and Utilities and Samsung NVMe driver and am now in business. Thanks to everyone that provided help.

I think the original problem of MBR was caused by not reading the fine print in RUFUS - it created MBR partitions by default which then carried over to the SSD. I should have selected GPT partitions for UEFI when I tried to create the bootable USB stick.

Hope something in that helps. :)
 
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OP
Joined
30 Jul 2009
Posts
238
Location
Kent UK
Thanks for the suggestions folks, I should have said I have already tried some of these.

I started out by pulling all the RAM sticks and just running one (in the correct slot I checked the manual) I also tried swapping this one stick with others, that hasn't made a difference.

I also tried removing the Samsung SSD and used a mechanical drive to see if that was causing the problem, again no luck.

I've also tried installing Windows from two different USB sticks and a DVD again with no luck.

I also found the same article that freddie64 found and tried emulating the same settings in my BIOS but with CSM on and Legacy options enabled I still get the hangs.

Could it be the motherboard has developed a fault?
 
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