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Windows 10 fresh install stuck on "Just a moment..."

MrRobville
Go to solution Solved by MrRobville,

For in case any other unfortunate soul stumbles across this topic, here was my solution;

 

I returned the motherboard + CPU + RAM + SSD combination to the reseller who had a look at it. They found that the CPU was the culprit and was defective. It kept miscommunicating once Windows tried to install.

They replaced the CPU and now the PC works accordingly.

 

So if anyone has such unexplained boot loop and they tried all the steps in this topic. I'd recommend having the hardware checked by the reseller if you're still under warranty.

I just built a PC with an ASrock B450 pro4 motherboard and a Kingston A2000 500GB M.2 SSD.

I'm trying to install Windows 10 using a USB drive. But I am completely stuck with the installation.

Either the PC freezes and reboots while still on the black screen with the ASrock logo and Windows loading beads/dots going in a circle. Or it gets to the light blue screen that says "Just a moment..." with the same rotating dots, and then gets stuck again and reboots the PC. Once every blue moon I eventually reach a "the PC wasn't shut off properly" screen with boot options.

 

Here's what I tried:

  • I tried using both a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 drive
  • I tried using either a USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 port. Both with either the 2.0 or 3.0 drive.
  • I made sure to use the USB drives on the back of the motherboard, and not the ones in the front.
  • I tried both the Msoft MediaCreationTool as well as Rufus 3-8, and made sure the drive was formatted as FAT-32
  • I made sure to reboot the PC through the Windows Boot Manager.
  • I made sure the USB drive either was, or wasn't connected.
  • I tried being connected to the internet, I tried without the internet.
  • I made sure the SSD is formatted every time I try to reinstall Windows.
  • I tried creating a new partition, which in turn creates about 4 partitions related to recovery and such.
  • I tried proceeding the installation without necessarily creating a new partition first.
  • I tried unplugging the keyboard and mouse from the PC before it rebooted so that no device whatsoever was attached, other than my monitor.
  • I checked for BIOS updates, but it seems that mine already has the latest installed. (3.6)

Nothing has any effect, at all. It just refuses to go past that point and either stays in an endless crash-boot cycle, or eventually gives me the Windows "recovery" screen, which only allows me to, you guessed it, reboot the system.

 

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this?

 

I do notice that the Windows installation spends a lot more time preparing installation files than it does actually installing them. Not sure if that's supposed to be happening

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Are you sure that your UEFI BIOS is up to date? Here is the download page for your board: https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B450 Pro4/#BIOS

 

Try reset the UEFI BIOS settings to the default settings and then turn CSM off so that it is pure UEFI. Insert your USB drive with a fresh copy of the latest version of Windows 10 (1909). Save and exit the UEFI BIOS and then boot off of the USB drive, not the internal drive or any Windows Boot Manager that is on the internal drive. Make sure to choose the UEFI option if there is one when booting from the USB drive.

 

Once you are in the Windows installation when it asks for your language etc... Press Shift+F10 and a Command Prompt should appear. Type diskpart and press enter. Type list disk and press enter. Type select disk * and replace the * with the number of your internal SSD that you want to wipe and press enter. Type clean and press enter. Type exit and press enter. Close the Command Prompt. (WARNING: make sure you select the right disk number since this will erase the partition table from the disk)

 

You may now continue with the installation, select Custom and click the Unallocated space of your SSD, then click Next (don't mess with partitions). Once it reaches the end when there is a count down until it restarts, remove your USB drive before the countdown finishes. Hopefully now your Windows installation will work correctly.

Workstation:

Intel Core i7 6700K | AMD Radeon R9 390X | 16 GB RAM

Mobile Workstation:

MacBook Pro 15" (2017) | Intel Core i7 7820HQ | AMD Radeon Pro 560 | 16 GB RAM

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I appreciate your reply! I'm going to try it out now.

Just as you replied, I edited my message. As you indicated, I missed the proper page for BIOS updates. I checked it with my BIOS version, and unfortunately, 3.6 is already installed, which seems to be the latest version.

I'll post the results of your suggestions.

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25 minutes ago, Husky said:

Are you sure that your UEFI BIOS is up to date? Here is the download page for your board: https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B450 Pro4/#BIOS

 

Try reset the UEFI BIOS settings to the default settings and then turn CSM off so that it is pure UEFI. Insert your USB drive with a fresh copy of the latest version of Windows 10 (1909). Save and exit the UEFI BIOS and then boot off of the USB drive, not the internal drive or any Windows Boot Manager that is on the internal drive. Make sure to choose the UEFI option if there is one when booting from the USB drive.

 

Once you are in the Windows installation when it asks for your language etc... Press Shift+F10 and a Command Prompt should appear. Type diskpart and press enter. Type list disk and press enter. Type select disk * and replace the * with the number of your internal SSD that you want to wipe and press enter. Type clean and press enter. Type exit and press enter. Close the Command Prompt. (WARNING: make sure you select the right disk number since this will erase the partition table from the disk)

 

You may now continue with the installation, select Custom and click the Unallocated space of your SSD, then click Next (don't mess with partitions). Once it reaches the end when there is a count down until it restarts, remove your USB drive before the countdown finishes. Hopefully now your Windows installation will work correctly.

 

Unfortunately, no luck...
First I reset the BIOS to default by choosing "Load UEFI Defaults" on the BIOS settings exit screen.
Then I disabled the CSM, and followed the rest of your instructions verbatim.
 

I did notice, that when I did the Diskpart command, that the disk showed up as having 0kb's available. Not sure if that means anything.

 

Now when I boot the PC, it now always first crashes and reboots on the ASrock loading screen, and then on the blue "Just a moment" screen until it reaches the recovery screen at the 3rd boot.

One change I did notice, is that the blue "Windows hasn't properly shut down" screen is now at a native resolution to my monitor, whereas it used to be a much lower resolution.
Not sure if that means anything though.

P1060678.JPG

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This is a very strange issue. Can you try run memtest86 to test your memory? You need a USB drive for it. When you boot into memtest86, it should start automatically after a few seconds, if not, select the All CPUs (Parallel) option. Let memtest86 run for at least 20 to 30 minutes and if any errors occur then your memory is unstable and is probably the cause of your issue.

 

If you have another drive you can try install Windows to that one to rule out the SSD as being a potential problem. The "0 B" free is normal as it is showing how much is free for other partitions to be created which in your case is nothing as you have used the entire SSD instead of only using some of it and partitioning it. If you run list disk again after clean then you will see that the entire drive is free as it is completely blank with no partition table.

 

The resolution difference is due to disabling CSM (forcing UEFI instead of Legacy BIOS) which is good, CSM is not necessary at all nowadays unless you are using some really old PCI card or something.

 

Try the memtest86 and potentially use a different drive. You might also try install Linux (Linux Mint Cinnamon 64-bit is a good choice) just to see if that also fails so that we can see if this is an issue specific to Windows.

Workstation:

Intel Core i7 6700K | AMD Radeon R9 390X | 16 GB RAM

Mobile Workstation:

MacBook Pro 15" (2017) | Intel Core i7 7820HQ | AMD Radeon Pro 560 | 16 GB RAM

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I'm running memtest86 right now.

Something sprung to mind. The two RAM sticks were inserted in the A1 and B1 slot. The manual was a bit vague on that. After some googling, it seems that I should use the A2 and B2 slots instead. I wonder if this may have any influence.

The RAM I bought is Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX 2x16GB 3200 - [CMK32GX4M2B3200C16]
 

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Something has changed.

After the memtest was done, no errors were indicated, and I rebooted the PC. As I waited for the error message to shut down the PC, the screen suddenly went past the "just a minute" spinning wheel, and asked me what region I was in, what language I wanted, and one screen after, what kind of keyboard layout I preferred.
However, after clicking on that I did not wish to provide a secondary layout, the PC crashed again, and the same old boot cycle repeated.

Until eventually, it showed a different screen saying that Windows crashed, but installing an update would possibly fix it. Touching nothing, I went to grab a LAN cable, but by the time I got back, the PC was already rebooting again by itself due to another crash.

Now the PC is back at the beginning.

I switched the RAM to their proper seatings, but no luck.

When I have time I'll try to move the SSD from my other PC to this one to see if it does anything different.

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This morning I've swapped the SSD from my old computer into my new one, with Windows still on it.

After I booted the PC from the old SSD, it loaded Windows until the login screen. As soon as I tried to type in my password, reboot. Same old.

 

So I guess we can rule out the M2 SSD also.

I also tried using different RAM I had lying around, no difference.

 

Could it be that during installation, the CPU cooler wasn't properly seated? I'm just guessing now, but considering it crashes and reboots everytime Windows is actually loaded, I could imagine that the load increases on the CPU at that point, and if it cannot cool properly, it reboots. Or is that symptom not possible?

It is an AMD Ryzen CPU and the cooler has this odd clip on it which I fiddled with quite a bit before I could mount the cooler. I did make sure that the whole time the cooler was pressed onto the CPU so that no accidental air could come between it.

 

-edit-

 

I removed the CPU cooler and noticed the paste on it was extremely scarce. I cleaned it and applied a dot of new paste.
Unfortunately, it has no effect whatsoever. Again it crashes at the "just a moment" dots when booting from the M2 drive.

The BIOS indicates that the CPU runs at about 49 degrees C

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  • 2 weeks later...

For in case any other unfortunate soul stumbles across this topic, here was my solution;

 

I returned the motherboard + CPU + RAM + SSD combination to the reseller who had a look at it. They found that the CPU was the culprit and was defective. It kept miscommunicating once Windows tried to install.

They replaced the CPU and now the PC works accordingly.

 

So if anyone has such unexplained boot loop and they tried all the steps in this topic. I'd recommend having the hardware checked by the reseller if you're still under warranty.

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