Is there a particular order to follow when installing an OS?... 2

[javierdlm001]

... along with all needed drivers?

To the admin: Please remove this post if appearing twice.

Reason why I'm asking is because I have re-installed Win7 twice already and I'm still experiencing too much instability. More so than I had before I had decided to re-install for the first time.
So now that I have discarded the possibility of viruses, I'm wondering: could it be that I have been installing too much software (drivers namely) at once?

My Specs:
Mainboard: EVGA nForce 730a
Video card: EVGA GeForce GT 520
HD where OS recedes: Seagate Barracuda, 1 T, 32 Mb Cache, 7200 RPM.
Mouse: Logitech MX 400 laser.
Keyboard: HP Multimedia Keyboard
Webcam: Logitech QuickCam Fusion
3D Mouse: 3DConnexion 3D Navigator
Digital Tablet: Wacom Bamboo

Note: Out of all the peripherals above I haven't been able to go as far as the 3D mouse & the Digital tablet, before all the symptoms below start showing up.

Note 2: I used to have a dual boot with Ubuntu 10.04. Which was no longer the case after the first reinstall.

Now, this is the order I have been following to do it:

1. Boot from a Live Ubuntu 10.04 CD, wipe out the partition where I'll install Win7 with Ubuntu's own partition manager, I can't recall its name now. Format it as NTFS.

2. Boot from my WinVista Home Premium DVD. Install it, but skip the updates. I figured since I'll be installing Win7 soon after... what's the use?

3. While WinVista is running I upgrade to Win7.

4. Once Win7 is installed, I install the mainboard drivers, and the video card drivers too. Also let Win7 download and install updates at this point.

This is pretty much it.

Aside of this, I might need to mention that I have Steam installed on a different partition.

Symptoms I found before reinstalling Win7:

1. Valve Left 4 Dead 2 - It would freeze. First only sometimes, then every time. And finally it would not even start.

2. Audio in general - It would hang soon after loading the OS. It would fall into a loop repeating one or 2 notes, indefinitely.


New Symptoms I found, after second Win7 install:

Aside of the original symptoms above mentioned...

1. YouTube videos - They won't play longer than 2 secs, although the music will continue playing. Once finished the computer might reboot.

2. The screen stays black when pc has gone into sleep mode/energy mode. I have tried the obvious hitting any keys, mouse-clicking, Ctrl Alt Del, nothing gets rid of it. I see no choice but to reboot.

3. After I had created a second User Account, I attempted to choose a Background Theme from the Personalize control panel, but as soon as I clicked on it the whole pc would freeze, forcing me to reboot.

I hope I didn't leave anything out. If I did please just ask.

Thanks in advance guys

JDL

 

[javierdlm001]

It seems the YouTube videos problem has to do with the video card drivers. I removed them, then I was able to play the videos without a problem.
I'm looking into this now...

As for the computer not being able to come back up from sleep mode, I disabled the "Turn off the display" for both when using battery and when plugged. That should do it.

JDL

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

Win7 I generally install the OS, then the NIC driver.
Run Updates
Install proprietary drivers like north / south bridge drivers and Video Card.

There is no need to use a 3rd party boot loader unless you plan to dual boot? Win 7 setup disc will allow you to delete the partition and re-create it anyway.

For smaller periphery devices, I find the Win7 drivers are generally OK unless you need specific software for specific features. in this way they are signed / certified WIn 7 drivers that have been tested etc.

ACSS - SME
General Geek

 

[BadBigBen]

symptoms described, sound like either failing MEM or harddrive(s)...

my suggestion:

1. run MemTest86+ (is included on the Ubuntu LiveCD, or through GRUB once installed)
2. run the HDD manufacturers diagnostic tools on the HDD...
3. back up all personal data from the Ubuntu install...
4. nuke the drive completely (assuming all is well with the drive and memory), install W7, then as HSM suggested, install NIC drivers and ChipSet drivers...
5. once W7 is running, then install Ubuntu again...

question:

1. is that an Update DVD with which you are installing W7?



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[javierdlm001]

Thank you so much for your replies guys
Ben, yes I do have a Win7 Upgrade DVD. Reason why I have to install WinVista first

Before I reinstall all this again for the 3rd time, I thought of trying other video card drivers first.
I tried 2 other drivers. On each attempt I chose custom install as to not to install the 3D stuff drivers, nor the HD Audio driver provided along with the Nvidia GeForce GT 520 video card just in case. And ... nothing! Still the same crap!
By now I feel like rolling back to the older video card! I never had so much hassle just to get a NEW video card working.

Do you guys think it would still be worth it to reinstall Win7?

JDL

 

[BadBigBen]

Like I mentioned earlier, run THOSE diagnostic tests on the RAM and HDD...

then go from there...

install VISTA, install the latest GeForce drivers...

on the Ubuntu side, did you install the NVidia drivers or used the build in ones? how does the PC behave under Ubuntu?

besides the GeForce graphics card, what are the specs on machine (e.g. PSU wattage namebrand or generic, RAM size, Mainboard, CPU)... all that info may help pinpoint the problem better...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[cdogg]

JDL,

You should be able to do a clean install with the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD without installing Vista. Simply boot off the Win7 DVD and don't enter the product key when prompted. It should allow you to push through and finish installing the OS. Then you can activate it later after the install is complete. If you get stuck at that point, you should be able to call Microsoft to help complete the activation. This was a popular workaround used for Windows Vista Upgrade discs.

Aside from the clean install, you should manually check for updates in Windows 7 making sure you install SP1 and all other important updates. Install the latest video drivers downloaded straight from Nvidia's website. Do the same for EVGA components such as audio. Even though it's not usually forced on you, it's a good idea in my opinion to go ahead and reboot after every 2-3 driver updates or software installs. Be sure to test out your system BEFORE installing any games (including Steam and other unnecessary 3rd-party applications). Once you get a stable environment going, make a backup before piling the 3rd-party installs on.

My 2¢

-Carl
"Windows has detected you do not have a keyboard. Press 'F9" to continue."

[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[Sympology]

Really you should get the drivers from the makers site, as they may have little quirks or slight config changes to the generic Nvidia ones.

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

http://alvechurchlounge.org.uk

 

[javierdlm001]

Alright, as BadBigBen suggested earlier, I ran the memory test with MemTest86+ and used tools that came with my newest Seagate HD, but didn't find a thing. When ran an Ubuntu utility to check HD sectors I found some bad sectors in my old HD though.

It seems to me the main culprit was the new video card: EVGA GeForce 520.
Yesterday I reinstalled Vista, upgraded it to Win7, then installed the mainboard drivers. Then spent the rest of the evening installing updates for Win7.
And even then when I visited a page with a YouTube thumbnail it crashed the whole OS again. That's when I had enough of it, and
this morning I decided to install my old video card back (EVGA Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT).
And as I suspected, the annoying YouTube videos freezing is no longer!
I already created a restoration backup, just in case. This time I'm not taking any chances.
Today I'll continue installing the rest of the smaller drivers, and third party applications, and keep a close eye to how the system responds as I go along.
I noticed last night while I was still using the newer video card, the system couldn't succeed downlading and installing the Win7 SP 1 It was giving me some error. Which led me to download and install the System Readiness Tool.

Btw BBB, I am sorry if I wasn`t clear enough about my plans, somehow I gave the impression that I meant to reinstall Ubuntu and have it as a dual boot as I did before. But the truth is after having a dual boot for many months and noticing that I rarely used Ubuntu, I decided I would ran it from a USB drive from now on.

I`ll come back to report on how things went.

Here are some of the specs I had left out:
CPU: AMD Phenom 9550 Quad, Ram: 4Gb...

JDL

 

[BadBigBen]

thanks for posting back, and glad you found the culprit... to tell you the truth, I would never have thought about the VGA card causing the OS to go corrupt, never heard about it nor seen it before... (at least I learned something new here too)...

W7 SP1 does a system check through out the install process, and if it hits a snag, will error out... e.g. if there are old drivers or hardware faults (such as the video card)...

yeah, it was a bit unclear about the Ubuntu install, but don't worry about it...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"