Need some help installing ANY Windows!

Hi fellas...I am in dire need of some ideas and i know i can count on you!

I have a ASUS X50VL
1. i exchanged it's 5400 HDD with a 7200 one since the old one had BAD blocks
2. Tried to install w7 x64 from Stick. Setup Files load, but it hangs on the Windows LOGO
3. Tried to install XP SP3 from CD. Setup loads, starts the install and freezes halfway during the installation (GUI mode, not blue screen text mode)

Troubleshooting i've done:
1. Tested bot OSs with 1 DDR STick at a time, and a 3rd one from another Laptop. Same issue
2. Reset BIOS Defaults. Same issue
3. Set HDD as primary boot. Same issue

Thoughts:
I`m guessing that it is not the memory, which leaves either:
- CPU
- Motherboard

Is there a way i can test these in DOS mode?


Any tips highly appreciated.

Ultimate Boot CD is a great tool for testing outside of windows. It can test any hardware. I would say that it sounds like the memory controller is starting to fail on the board (had the same symptoms with 2 680i boards). You can (after verifying the problem) fix the problem 1 of 2 ways. You can either buy a new board, or you can try the "baking method" on the board. It is basically the same as it is for video cards, only for motherboards. I have done this to both of the failing 680i boards and it worked great (typing this on one of them right now).

If you go the baking route, it is very simple.

1. Strip the board completely down. Remove bios battery, all heatsinks and fans, and bios chip if it removable

2. pre heat the oven to 385 degrees.

3. Put aluminum foil on a cookie sheet, crumple up some balls of foil, and place the board upside down (CPU side down) onto the foil balls.

4. place it in the oven and bake for 10 minutes at 385

5. when the timer goes off, turn off the oven and open the door to let it cool off. It is important not to remove it from the oven until it has cooled off so you do not disturb the solder before it hardens. Just wait about 10-15 minutes.

6. reassemble the board, and thank the person who was creative enough to think of baking computer parts to make them work again.
-Greg

now that is clearly out of the box. The exact type of answer i was looking for.
I did a memtest on the DDR itself, so the DDR is not the issue.

i bet it is the mobo.
gregmacknass when i remove the mobo, i remove every component from it (including CPU, etc.. right?)

Yes, you remove the CPU, cards, cables, bios battery, bios chip (if removable), heat sinks, and anything that is possibly removable. The little push pin clips for some heat sinks can be a pain to remove, but if you don't then they melt and deform. I say go for it, what do you really have to lose.
-Greg

Did you run the UBCD? You may be able to repair the bad blocks on the HD at least long enough to copy it to the other drive using the Hatiachi HD program. I have fixed many notebook HD's with that program that were deemed dead by other repair places. I also had a dell that was bad and tried to load windows on it. I also ran the other diagnostic modes that told me the clock on cpu0 was out of sync(or not detected or something like that) on it's c2d. I ended up disabling the bad core and was able to install Vista but no other OS would work, guess it had more drivers on the disk. Also it would only install from DVD, not usb stick.

Yeah you really should run a DST on your hard drive before gutting your system and chasing after ghosts.

I see bad hard drives several times a month and the symptoms are almost always the same as what you're describing. Download a bootable utility such as Seatools for DOS or Western Digital Data Lifeguard and run a short DST.