Toubleshooting windows installation failure

[Semper]

tl;dr backstory:

I'm trying to help an online community friend set up his new system (this isn't someone that I know in person, and didn't know he was building a system until he asked me to help him out about an hour ago)

He's run into an issue where he's unable to get Windows 10 to properly install.

The information I have from him:
ASRock X370m Pro4

Ryzen 7 1700
SATA mode is AHCI, Fast Boot is disabled
Hyper X Predator Black (hx426c13pb3k2/16) 2x 8gb DDR4, (I believe it to be 1R and is installed in slots a2/b2), sticks have been re-seated multiple times.
System posts, and UEFI can be accessed.
Attempting to be installed on an SSD

The issue:

During installation he's given an error:
File: system32\drivers\megasr.sys
Error code of 0xc0000098

Everything I've seen about both the file and error code indicate it's an issue of windows not being able to properly boot. I'm struggling to find any issue where this occurs during installtion.
He's attempted two different media installtion tools, one directly from Microsoft (being the license and installation drive he purchased) and another created using Rufus. Both give the same error.

If anyone can help me solve this, it'd be greatly appreciated!

[kirashi]

17 minutes ago, Semper said:

tl;dr backstory:

I'm trying to help an online community friend set up his new system (this isn't someone that I know in person, and didn't know he was building a system until he asked me to help him out about an hour ago)

He's run into an issue where he's unable to get Windows 10 to properly install.

The information I have from him:
ASRock X370m Pro4

Ryzen 7 1700
SATA mode is AHCI, Fast Boot is disabled
Hyper X Predator Black (hx426c13pb3k2/16) 2x 8gb DDR4, (I believe it to be 1R and is installed in slots a2/b2), sticks have been re-seated multiple times.
System posts, and UEFI can be accessed.
Attempting to be installed on an SSD

The issue:

During installation he's given an error:
File: system32\drivers\megasr.sys
Error code of 0xc0000098

Everything I've seen about both the file and error code indicate it's an issue of windows not being able to properly boot. I'm struggling to find any issue where this occurs during installtion.
He's attempted two different media installtion tools, one directly from Microsoft (being the license and installation drive he purchased) and another created using Rufus. Both give the same error.

If anyone can help me solve this, it'd be greatly appreciated!

MegaSR.sys appears to be a driver for LSI MegaRaid hardware... does your friend happen to have a RAID card installed? If so, remove it, and try installing again.

[Semper]

3 minutes ago, kirashi said:

MegaSR.sys appears to be a driver for LSI MegaRaid hardware... does your friend happen to have a RAID card installed? If so, remove it, and try installing again.

He doesn't.

The only HDD in the system is a single SSD, the only PCie devices being used are a GPU (don't know which) and the only peripherals being used are a mouse, and a keyboard (installation media withstanding, obviously)
I apologize, I forgot to add that.

[kirashi]

1 minute ago, Semper said:

He doesn't.

The only HDD in the system is a single SSD, the only PCie devices being used are a GPU (don't know which) and the only peripherals being used are a mouse, and a keyboard (installation media withstanding, obviously)
I apologize, I forgot to add that.

Gotcha, next thing I'd want to check is the installation media. Was it officially downloaded from Microsoft's website, or did it come on an official install USB / DVD when he bought Windows in retail packaging? Asking only because if the installation media has had extra drivers added to it (aka been modified) this could pose a problem.

 

Another thing that's worth trying is changing SATA mode to IDE or even RAID mode, just to test if the AHCI mode is acting up on the motherboard. I'm not saying his final installation needs to be done in IDE mode, but by ruling this out we can further attempt to troubleshoot.

[Semper]

Just now, kirashi said:

Gotcha, next thing I'd want to check is the installation media. Was it officially downloaded from Microsoft's website, or did it come on an official install USB / DVD when he bought Windows in retail packaging? Asking only because if the installation media has had extra drivers added to it (aka been modified) this could pose a problem.

 

Another thing that's worth trying is changing SATA mode to IDE or even RAID mode, just to test if the AHCI mode is acting up on the motherboard. I'm not saying his final installation needs to be done in IDE mode, but by ruling this out we can further attempt to troubleshoot.

One was purchased directly from Microsoft as a W10 Home flash drive/license package.

The other was downloaded through the media creation tool (attempted to use the media creation tool's integrated iso burner and Rufus)

AHCI and RAID SATA modes both produced the same result.