Hey Guys I've been working on a friends APU build and while installing windows 8.1 there was an error and it restarted and since then it has a windows cannot start error. I'm very new to building pcs and i have no real idea where to start to get it fixed.
What motherboard and other hardware are you installing on? Where did you get the Win 8.1 ISO? Is it a legit copy or a pirated one that could have been messed with in anyway imaginable? Depending if you burned the ISO to a DVD or a USB drive there could have been corruption of the files during the burning to disc, etc.
Have you installed from this DVD/USB before and know that it isn't just corrupted files on the DVD/USB?
its a a8-5600k on a GIGABYTE GA-F2A85X-UP4 motherboard with 4gb of patriot viper extreme 1600 mhz cl 11 ram and a 1tb seagate barracuda, the copy is legit i purchased it from newegg and as such i have not used it before. all of the hardware was a bundle from tigerdirect for a friend.
Hmm that's really weird. If it's not corrupted files on the disc, which can be a common problem when burning an ISO yourself, I'm not really sure. Did it give any error codes that you might be able to look up on Google?
I would try again from beginning. Pop the DVD in the drive, restart, run setup. Also, check to see if your MOBO needs a bios update? Not much you can wreck just doing the OS install.
My guess would be a BIOS update...
But there is also the possibility that there are corrupted files on the disk (even one straight from Microsoft). There are always manufacturing errors, and if all else fails, call Microsoft support and ask them for help, they might even send you a new disk...
awesome thank you guys, i don't have time to work on it now but I'll update what i figure out