Windows 7 Install - Loop, Blue screens, and Stucks

[Lineo]

Hello - 

I have been trying to fix this for one week now. 

My desktop came with win 7 home premium installed, and was running great. Last week suddenly could not start after updates, saying "BOOTMGR is missing Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". The first thing I did is to repair windows and could not. I decided to go ahead and install windows 7 from scratch. I wiped all HDD, and create new partitions (so I will have three in total, 100MB, 500GB, 480GB - I have 1TB Hitachi Drive HDT721010SLA360. )  I hit continue and finished copying all files. It got to extend win files and stuck at 6% - after a while got a blue screen and windows install loop begins. I try again, and stuck and windows install startups. Tried more and more, at various stages including BIOS first screen, windows load files, windows starting - computer stucks... sometime just infinte loops, and loops. 

I am using USB to boot. The keyboard and mouse are wireless and require USB to be plugged on desktop. 

I am thinking the hard drive is failing, I run the SMART test on it (both short and extended) and it came without errors. I recently got HP diagnostic disk and run it as well- all tests have been passed without any failure - see screen below.

I am wondering what is wrong?  I did test win 7 32bit, win 64bit, and Ubuntu and none of them worked. They all stuck at certain point or infinite loops. 

I have attached some pictures.  PLEASE HELP ME! 

Please let me know if you have questions or need anything.  

Thank you very much. 

M.B.

[MKazi]

@Lineo

Thanks for reaching out to us on HP Support Forums. I understand from your post that you are unable to install Windows 7 on your HP Pavilion Elite e9237c Desktop PC and get a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) error Stop:0x0000007E. I appreciate the troubleshooting steps you performed and have certainly done a great job. You did mention that you have partitioned the hard drive "(so I will have three in total, 100MB, 500GB, 480GB - I have 1TB Hitachi Drive HDT721010SLA360)." So this makes 3 partitions viz. C, D and E. If the C drive is of 100MB capacity then the operating system will not get installed as it needs more space. 

Let only on the keyboard, mouse, monitor and power cable remain connected while installing Windows. Let me know how it goes. Cheers!

[Lineo]

It does not let me go that far. It stops at "Starting Windows and loop begins"

The system allocated 100MB automatically. I did divide the rest into two partitions. I noticed that when I format the drive, the space gets reduced - for example: Before 408.7GB---> After 408.3GB. 

I am thinking, the hard drive is failing.....

One thing I need to mention, when I try to create a bootable USB, I use my 32bit windows 10. I make sure to copy bootselect.exe file in DVD/USB Microsoft tool. 

Why does not let it go forward? Tried Ubuntu, Win 7 32bit.  

Let me know what should I do please? 

Thanks for help...

[MKazi]

@Lineo

You are welcome and thanks for replying. 🙂 Please try to run the hard drive and memory test using the following method:

Turn on the computer and press the F9 key during the screen with the HP or Compaq logo.

Figure: Example of Boot screen that displays the key press to enter the BIOS test.

Diagnostic Tools opens and performs a variety of hardware tests. Green checkmarks appear next to hardware items that pass the test. Any problems found are reported.

Figure: Screen example: Diagnostic Tools test

Good luck! 🙂

[Lineo]

I thought I did and nothing came out. Will try and let you know. 

I really appreciate your swift responses. 

Spoiler

[MKazi]

@Lineo

Pleasure is all mine. 🙂 Will wait for your response. 

[Lineo]

@mkazi
Done the test. All passed and looks green. No errors reported.

[Lineo]

Here is the summary of what I have done yesterday: 

I started the computer and selected F9. The test was running, and got stucked at certain percentage of memory testing - see picture. 

I was forced to restart the computer. I restarted the computer and ran the test again - this time everything passed..- see picture. 

I replaced the HDD drive with 320GB samsung drive and tried to install - the loop again and again. I reduced RAM to 4GB from 8GB. tried again, nothing happened, just loops and loops. 

Left it loop and loop - suddenly this blue screen error occured. 

So I read online that it might be the memory corrupted. I run this memory test and it came out with 0 errors. 

Then I forced the computer to shut down and start - and it seems like BIOS got reset with the error at the bottom of screen... 

I went back and ran the HP test by F9.... This time I got an error... 

Tried different WIn 7 install - nothing got better. 

Please help me as soon as possible... It seems like I cannot boot at all. 

Thanks - 

[MKazi]

@ Lineo

Hi there again. For some unknown reason, the images posted by you this time and not viewable. I understand that all tests have passed, but towards the end you mentioned that "I went back and ran the HP test by F9.... This time I got an error... " Do you recall what test it was? Just this piece of information I need to come to a final conclusion as you have performed all troubleshooting. 

Meanwhile, please check if you could go to BIOS and change the system date to a back date like 2012 and save it. And then try to reinstall Windows. This might work. Let me know. Thanks again. 🙂

[Lineo]

Thanks for your quick response.

Will do change BIOS time.  Hope it will help....

The test I was refering to is HP diagnostics. When you start computer and select F9. The one you asked me to perform earlier. 

The last black screen shows at the end that HDD failure is imminent, please back up your data. 

:robothappy: