Extremely slow installation process Windows 8.1

I have an old computer,ASUS M2N32-SLI Delux, AMD Athlon 5200 and I wanted to install Windows 8.1 on it and have it for some simple tasks and internet access in another place than my home. I started the installation and it took forever (5 min) to get the first menu up and then nothing more happened. Nothing was read from the DVD and the disc lamp blinked every second or so. It looked like nothing was going on inside so after some ten minutes I stopped it. I had previously had CMOS checksum errors when booting but I could get past that. What could be the reason for this extremely slow behaviour?

I assume there is no OS on the drive currently? How much RAM does the computer have?  According to the CPU benchmark of that processor I can understand why things are slow.

It's possible the Optical drive is the problem. Does the computer boot other bootable CD/DVD disks normally?

Looking at the manual it seems this MB cannot boot a USB flash drive.

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/m2n32sli_deluxe/helpdesk_knowledge/

Is there a reason you need Windows 8.1? This computer would be better off running a light linux distro.

JohnC_21

There's no OS on the SSD which I will use as main disc. I have 8GB RAM. I checked the CMOS battery and it showed 50mV which is as close to empty as you can get. I replaced it and the CMOS checksum error are gone and BIOS keeps its settings. The funny thing is that I had Windows 10 on it since a couple of months and as it was so slow I decided to install Win8 instead which is not as resource demanding (I thought) as Win10. Anyway, I started a Windows 10 installation but it is as sluggish as the other one. I think something has happened to the PC. It used to be a bit slow but not like this. Is there any idea trying to install anything until you have found the problem?

I think with that computer's CPU Windows 8 would run as slow as 10.

Download and burn an iso of this linux distro to a CD/DVD and see if it makes a difference.

https://zorin.com/os/

I think you should be trying to boot from a flash drive.  I see a few things on the net that seem to lead me to believe that you can indeed boot from a flash drive.  DVD's are so old school at this point, and slow.  If I had to guess, I would say 8 doesn't have some weird driver that you need, though I could be completely wrong too.  Most likely user error haha.  If things are that bad did you consider that the SSD is going bad?  That is the only thing I can think of that would cause you issues.  

 

Problem solved.

 

The only option I didn't even think to check was the option that needed to be changed (as always). The issue wasn't changing the boot sequence order by adding USB but rather adjusting the "Hard drive" option in the boot sequence to check usb first and then hard drive. Apparently, The flash will read as an actual hard drive with Mint installed (unlike DSLinux).

SOLVED. I made several attempts to install on the Sandisk Z400 SSD but I got stuck at different points. Suddenly I couldn't see the disc anymore, not even in BIOS so I realized it's gone and I scrapped it. I installed WIn8 on a regular HDD without a glitch and now I'm up and running. It was probably something wrong with the SSD to begin with.

Glad you got it sorted. How is the speed of Windows 8 on that computer?

FYI. Windows 8.1 has reached end of life with no more security updates so I would avoid doing any banking or online shopping with it.

 

If things are that bad did you consider that the SSD is going bad?  That is the only thing I can think of that would cause you issues.  

That's what I was thinking, good you solved it!

Well, I was doing OK and a strange thing happened. The DVD has been in the reader all the time and when I boot a message comes "Press any key to load from DVD" which I have ignored and it has booted from the hard disc. It was time to remove the DVD and when I boot it says "Insert a bootable media ... etc". I changed the boot order in BIOS to include the hard disc only and the rest disabled. I still cant boot from the hard disc without having the DVD in the reader. What is going on?

Is your os drive in slot 0?  If not try putting it in slot 0

Speccy Tutorial

If you have a running computer please follow the directions below so we can get a better look at what's going on. 

This is how to Download, Install, and Run Speccy to post a Link so that it can be looked at by members, it is safe to run.

1. Please Click this Link Download Speccy - Installer Scroll down to the bottom of the Column "Speccy Free" and Left Click on "Free Download" and again on the next page.  If the file isn't sitting at the bottom of your screen, find the spsetup132.exe file and click on it to install it, it should be in your Downloads folder. 

2. Uncheck any other software they try to install along the way, and Install it with the instructions you see there. 

Once Speccy starts make sure the little Icon in the bottom Left Corner stops Spinning.

3. Publish your Snapshot Link with the text below by Piriform

To publish a Speccy profile to the Web:

1. In upper left corner of Speccy, click File, and then click Publish Snapshot.
2. In the Publish Snapshot dialog box, click Yes to enable Speccy to proceed.
3. Speccy publishes the profile and displays a second Publish Snapshot. You can open the URL in your default browser, copy it to the clipboard, or close the dialog box.

Note: The published profile will use the same language and temperature settings (Imperial or Metric) as your Speccy installation.

pcpunk

Is this the link you need? 

Yep

It looks like you have the OS Drive in Slot 0, so that is good. 

Don't know at the moment what your issue is, perhaps John will come in later and have an idea.  My only thought would be to Un-Plug all drives but the target drive, including the DVD and install with a Flash Drive.  Don't have time now to research but later I will look again.  Now that you have a speccy other members can chime in too.   

This drive is failing:  Status: Warning

SAMSUNG HD322HJ SCSI Disk Device

S.M.A.R.T attributes