Operating System refuses to load

Last night my Windows Server 2003 license ran out for the 180 day trial.
So I backed up my data and proceeded to reinstall.
Now today I have tried for over 4 hours and no success.
Regardless of operating system disc, or optical drive, windows will just not install.

When I put in any Windows disc from 98, ME, XP, XP X-64, Server 03 my system fails after the harddrive is formatted.

Windows says something like: Windows is preparing files to be installed onto your disc.

Immediately after that message, my screen goes into standby and the system remains on but not doing anything.

What is the problem?

My harddrive has no errors and the memory is fine

K-TRON

 

can you try vista or the free win7?

Edit: or linux?

 

try getting into the system bios and shut off all of the power saving items.

Or just to a bios reset (usually in the exit menu) and run the system with the factory defualts until after the os loads.

 

Why are u using windows server 2003? isn't it for servers?

 

maybe because he has a server or maybe he simply likes it better...

 

I will have to check my power settings in my BIOS. I hadnt thought about that

I tried booting with one quad core instead of two quads and that didnt make any difference. My power supply is good, but I guess I will try another one as well

And to others, using a different operating system isnt going to change why it randomly shuts off

K-TRON

 

You say you have a 180 day trial that expired?

I believe that msft writes little 'trial' traces all over your hard drives (OS and data) so that you can't just re-install the trial.

Try loading the OS on a blank disk with nothing else connected.

 

No it doesn't. The trial time limit is tied to the key used during install. I've used quite a few 180 day trials, and never had any issues installing any operating system over the top, be it a full OS or a trial OS.

To the OP: There are several things to try. Reseat the memory and all peripheral cards, reset the drive and any optical drives, and then try again. If it still dies, try slaving the drive into another computer and scanning the drive for errors.

 

I only have a trial for Server 03, I have legit XP licenses which are failing to install.

I dont know why this was moved to software because the problem isnt with the operating system

K-TRON

 

I found the problem

It has nothing to do with the operating system, power supply, memory or anything of the sort.
I had a single pin bent in my primary LGA 1207 socket

I used the blunt side of an x-acto blade to pull it back up, so that it looked like the rest


Everything is working now

K-TRON

 

wow, never would have imagined.... good thing you got it before more damage could be done

 

I'm surprised that it actually POSTed correctly.

 

I am glad it was easy. I would have been very upset if my motherboard was dead

I am going to check the memory in memtest when I get back from vacation. The ECC page in the BIOS hasn't reported any errors. Windows is operating fine again, so I am assuming the loss of contact of that one pin was the whole problem.


I guess that one pin must have been important for it to just shut the machine off. But then again it would pass in the BIOS and run fine, so it wasn't a mission critical pin either. It just so happened to be needed to turn something on or off when windows proceeded to install itself. - That's at least how I see it.

K-TRON

 

LOL 1 pin in socket causing a problem???

 

damaging just 1 pin can brick your whole notebook so it's definatly going to cause a problem.

Edit: probably not 1 cpu pin but a PLL or chipset pin.