Unable to figure out blue screen error

  • Thread starter Thread starter Homer Jay
  • Start date Start date
H

Homer Jay

I recently installed XP Pro onto a Compaq PC and have since been unable to
boot to Windows. I get a blue screen with the following stop code :
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF8A80528, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

And some information about running chkdsk/f and hard drive controllers. Its
a clean XP install, so far I have tried the following and am still nowhere
closer to getting into Windows (either in normal or safe mode).

Tried the HD in another PC, Windows loaded fine, so not a hard drive
problem.
Tried another HD in the original PC, same BSOD.
Tried disconnecting everything but HD and graphics card (no onboard
graphics) same BSOD.
Tried a different graphics card, same BSOD.
Ran Memtest, no problems.
Tried different HD cables (IDE cable, not SATA), same BSOD.
Removed MB battery, same BSOD.
Tried both Primary / Secondary IDE channels, same BSOD.

I am at a loss as to what to try here, any suggestions?

Thanks.
 
Homer said:
I recently installed XP Pro onto a Compaq PC and have since been unable to
boot to Windows. I get a blue screen with the following stop code :
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF8A80528, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

And some information about running chkdsk/f and hard drive controllers. Its
a clean XP install, so far I have tried the following and am still nowhere
closer to getting into Windows (either in normal or safe mode).

Tried the HD in another PC, Windows loaded fine, so not a hard drive
problem.
Tried another HD in the original PC, same BSOD.
Tried disconnecting everything but HD and graphics card (no onboard
graphics) same BSOD.
Tried a different graphics card, same BSOD.
Ran Memtest, no problems.
Tried different HD cables (IDE cable, not SATA), same BSOD.
Removed MB battery, same BSOD.
Tried both Primary / Secondary IDE channels, same BSOD.

I am at a loss as to what to try here, any suggestions?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

http://aumha.org/a/stop.php#0x7b

I wonder if the disk interface used, needed a driver installed via F6 ?
What chipset does the motherboard use ?

Alternate OSes that might work, would be a Knoppix (knopper.net) or a
Ubuntu LiveCD (ubuntu.com). You download a 700MB ISO, butn a CD
with it, and then boot with the CD. No hard drive is needed, and nothing
gets installed. That will at least give you a command prompt, and
an opportunity to see what the hardware consists of. I don't use
them regularly, but the CDs do make a convenient way to boot into
an alternate OS, should the need arise. It is better than a dead
computer :-) All it needs is enough RAM to hold temp files etc.
On Knoppix, there is even an option to copy the CD into system
RAM - then you can eject the CD. At that point, you can have a
computer with no rotating media at all. But to be comfortable,
that option works best with 1.5GB of RAM. Less RAM is needed if
you keep the CD in the drive (any programs executed will be
decompressed off the CD and then run). For example, you can web
surf for an answer to your Windows computer problem, while running
one of those distro CDs, then reboot into Windows to try to fix it.
It allows repair opportunities if you only have one computer, and
a network connection.

Paul
 
Homer Jay said:
I don't know the exact motherboard model off hand, but its an ASUS and
uses the nForce3 150 chipset.
Click to expand...

Just checked and it is an ASUS K8N8X-LA.
 
Homer said:
Just checked and it is an ASUS K8N8X-LA.
Click to expand...

So it is an HP OEM.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c00223155&locale=en_US

It would be a bit similar to an Asus K8N, with Nvidia NF3 250.

http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock754/K8N/e1721_k8n.pdf

There is a "RAID Option ROM", and with that disabled in the BIOS, the
interfaces would be in plain IDE mode.

The NF3 chipset drivers on the Asus site for the K8N, include
NvAtaBus.sys and nvraid.sys. When you use the Nvidia chipset
installer, there would probably be a panel with tick-boxes in
it, for selecting driver components. I think the Microsoft
built-in driver in WinXP SP1, would be enough to make it work,
in ATA mode. The Nvidia driver would include features like
their own file cache, and for best compatibility you would
not bother installing the Nvidia IDE driver. (Of course, you
cannot use the Windows chipset driver installer, if you cannot
get into Windows...)

(A large download, also available as an EXE from the Nvidia site.
I like a simple ZIP, as it is easy to look over and examine.)

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/sock754/K8N/K8N_Win2KXP_503.zip

So, that leaves the boot order in the BIOS as a possible problem.
Is the boot drive selected in the boot order ?

The Asus download also includes a folder called "Disk" and because
there is a txtsetup.oem file in there, it looks like the idea is,
you'd copy that stuff to the top level of a floppy (i.e. when you
open the floppy, you see the txtsetup.oem file). Such a floppy
would be suitable for F6 install of NvAtaBus.sys, if you wanted
to try the Nvidia IDE driver to boot the system. But my personal
preference would be to try to get the Microsoft driver to do the
job instead, as there may be fewer problems with it in the future
(like when you go to install burner software, and you cannot understand
why it doesn't work right). To clarify, if you don't F6, then the
Microsoft driver would be used. If you do choose to F6, and have the
RAID totally disabled, the F6 operation will pick up NVAtaBus from
the floppy. If you choose F6 and RAID were somehow enabled and
set up in advance, then the Windows installer would be using
nvraid.sys . (Windows figures this out, based on the chip
enumeration numbers - usually what happens, is setting the BIOS
for the various modes, changes the chip enumeration, and that is
what Windows uses for info.)

"Burner problems with NForce3 chipset MSI K8N Neo2"
http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.c..._frm/thread/59d625f5eee2243c/adf058c218c12cd4

So not a lot of reasons why it isn't working currently, unless
something is botched in the BIOS.

Paul
 
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