BSOD at start-up, wiped HDD, failure to install Windows 8

slosha

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What a headache this has been.

My troubles began just after an amicable game of Starcraft with my siblings (Starcraft 1 running through chaoslauncher in window-mode and LogMeIn Hamachi, on Windows 7 at the time). Apparently I closed out of the application too hastily, since my system seized and displayed a lovely and very informative BSOD (STOP: 0x00000116; nvlddmkm.sys).

This BSOD would return every time I would boot Windows 7, sometime during the loading screen. However, I could access safe mode just fine. I did some research and decided to reinstall the graphics driver through safe mode, but it didn't seem to help. Since this PC is primarily for games and all my important documents/media were synced with my laptop, I decided to wipe the HDD (using DBAN) and take this opportunity to upgrade the OS.

I got an .iso of Windows 8.1 from my university and created a bootable DVD using the Windows USB/DVD boot tool. Now when I attempt to boot it in my PC, the blue Windows 8 icon appears for about a minute and then the system restarts. I've put the boot disk into another computer and it won't even display the Windows 8 logo. It simply skips the disk boot even though I select 'boot from disk.' I've tried all of this with about 5 different DVDs using ImgBurn as well as the Windows USB/DVD boot tool.

Strangely, my Windows 7 boot disk loads just fine on the wiped PC, to the point where I can select the language, etc. and control the cursor.

Is it possible that the Windows 8 boot disk loads a display driver that is incompatible with my GPU? Or is it more likely that the disk burner I'm using is garbage? Could any tools on something like the Ultimate Boot CD provide any useful information?

Hopefully my brother can bring me a GPU over the holidays to help with diagnostics, but until then it seems like I'm outta luck, since my mobo has no dedicated graphics. I suppose I could try re-installing Windows 7 to determine whether that even fixes anything.

COMPUTER INFO
PSU: 600 Watt (OCZ600MXSP)
Mobo: MSNV-939
CPU: AMD dual-core, not sure of exact model, couldn't find an invoice for it and my HDD is wiped
GPU: Palit 9600GT sonic 1GB DDR3
RAM: 4 sticks of Kingston ValueRAM 1 GB 400MHz PC3200 DDR DIMM (KVR400X64C3A) - might have 2 sets of 2 different 1GB models, but 2 of the sticks have heat-sink covers that I couldn't remove
HDD: Maxtor 6G160P0 160GB ATA133 7200rpm 8MB Hard Drive
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    None
Updated original post with actual HDD information. Thanks for the resources. I'm skeptical that it's the HDD since the BSOD codes point to display issues, but the HDD is definitely old.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    None
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