The strangest computer problem solved!

For a few weeks I've been battling this strange issue on my main yellow computer. I call it the yellow computer because it's a Cooler Master case in yellow and black, a special edition color I picked up from Fry's Electronics. After I had the computer running for about two years, I wanted to install a distro of Linux so I downloaded Fedora 11 and Ubuntu 9, installed them including the drivers to have a running system.

After a few days of running my Linux system, I wanted to play some video games and the Wine Windows emulator was not as stable as I liked, so I decided to reinstall with my Vista Ultimate.

This is where the problems started. I first ran the installer as normal but suddenly the OS would hang upon first boot up. I kept wondering maybe there's some files still left on the hard drives? So I used a USB to SATA device, then Acronis Disk Director to erase the drives and confirm there is no hidden partitons or MBR's left on the disk. Once I confirmed by using a full data wipe method, I restarted the install, then was stuck at the same point. I even bought a new 1TB hard drive I saw on sale, figured I might as well add some drives while I have the computer case opened. Still installing on the brand new drive had the same results.

I started to think maybe there's something hanging on the system. I posted some threads and found out people mentioned it could be the memory, drives are holding a MBR from Linux, my computer might be destroyed. After thinking about the problems, I went back and reinstalled Ubuntu 9, since I had no problems with the install I figured I keep it on until I found a real solution.

From using Linux full time I felt like I wanted to go back and run my Windows apps, so I installed Vista again. I figure since the computer was running with no problems for the past month I would be ok. Well, Vista installed to the same point but instead of hanging, it would blue screen and crash.

The system would install fine, reboot and upon startup, that "Windows is starting" message, it would instantly reboot, flashing a blue screen. So I restarted the startup in safe mode, and found out it was hanging on the install of CRCDISK.SYS.

I searched Google for the solution but found many articles pointing out random problems caused by this from error. Many of the users listed fresh installs, changing hardware, to even the error randomly happending on a new system. Basically none of the solutions worked and I was still stuck with the same problems.

For a wild idea, I flashed my motherboard BIOS to the latest version. This seemed to work as I was able to get Windows to boot but the OS was extremely slow, even moving the mouse was stuttering and barley working. Something still wasn't working right.

At this point I was frustrated, I already tried everything I could think of, my next step would be to disassemble the entire computer and test each component, which could take hours.

While playing on-line game World of Warcraft, I was chatting with some guild members about the problem. Two people mentioned that it sounds like a issue with the DVD drive or the media. I was thinking, how could the media be so problematic, doesn't the Windows installer check the files before installing?

To test the theory I needed another copy of Vista. Since I was going to purchase the subscription someday, I figured I start a TechNet subscription and use the unlimited trials of Windows 7 Ultimate. Downloaded the ISO and key, burned to a DVD and started the install process again. This time success!

After I was up and running with Windows 7, I took some time to rethink my trouble shooting process and why I didn't think of using a new media?

Part of the problem was the install with Linux. When I was installing Linux I used two different versions on two different medias, one was on a dvd and that was Fedora 11, while the other was on a cd and that was Ubuntu 9. The Fedora 11 installed fine, then I reinstalled Ubuntu 9, but after that the Fedora 11 didn't install correctly. I think instead of checking the dvd of Fedora I instantly assumed it was the computer hardware. So I switched to Vista and the same error, which made me believe it was something related to what was the similar hardware, the hard drives.

I really enjoy working on computers, I think even after years of support I still find that I'm new and always learning skills. Of all of the possible technical solutions, it was the easiest, just a 10 cent dvd fixed the problem.