Dell Optiplex 330 - BSOD while loading XP CD.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Jayce

Fully Optimized
Messages
3,056
Location
/home/jason
I had two 330's here. I made an image on one and using a cloning machine, cloned the other. The other works fine, but all of the sudden the original one started acting up and blue screening once the XP splash screen appears.

I know it is not the hard drive or memory because I just ran a 12 hour memtest using an Ubuntu Live CD, and it passed with no errors. I also swapped out the SATA hard drives from the other Optiplex 330, and both drives in the good Optiplex work fine where both drives in the BSOD Optiplex still BSOD... So I'm leaning towards motherboard, however, I don't have a motherboard tester nor the other Optiplex to swap boards with to check because the other Optiplex has already been deployed to a teacher.

So now my question is, what's the likelyhood of it being the motherboard? I formatted the hard drive using Gparted in the Ubuntu Live CD, then booted to the XP CD. It'll load everything and once it says "Setup is loading Windows..." which would give you the EULA, it just blue screens.

Any ideas offhand while I continue to google?
 
Does it give any error codes? What does it say when it blue screens?
 
It says the usual BS, about there being a detected problem and it shut down to prevent damage.

Technical Information:

*** STOP: 0x00000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xc0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I also thought maybe I goofed up a BIOS setting, even though I wasn't in there much, so I pulled the plug and the CMOS battery. I booted up, BIOS freaked out saying a time wasn't set, so I reset the time. Then, booted to the XP CD. BSOD.

edit - I'm installing Ubuntu now, just for the sake of seeing how another OS acts installed on it.

edit again - I'm on Ubuntu Intrepid 32 bit right now. It runs absolutely fine.
 
That stop error is caused by the Mass Storage Drive gone missing. Seems that when the image was created that the driver got corrupted. Here is the full information on that Stop Error code:

Bug Check 0x7B: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

The INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE bug check has a value of 0x0000007B. This bug check indicates that the Microsoft Windows operating system has lost access to the system partition during startup.

Check this page for information on how to fix it:

Bug Check 0x7B: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
 
I just switched the system to ATA mode and it worked. It's evident that Vista had the AHCI driver pre-installed whereas XP didn't, seeing as though these systems came from Dell with Vista on them but we took them to XP Pro. But my real question is, why does the other system work? I didn't change anything, so it's assumed it would be in SATA mode still... but where's the AHCI driver required to make that happen? I know I certainly didn't install it...

Once this 330 gets up and running I'm going to swap it out with the other "working" 330 in question. I just got word it's actually not in use just yet. I need to look at this for myself.
 
I would suspect that it isnt working. I would think that SATA Is enabled still but the system hasnt been booted to get this issue.

There is a way to enalbe ACHI after XP is installed. I thik i gave the link in one of your Linux thread.
 
AHCI isn't really necessary for these computers. These computers are going to be assigned to certain students for 2-3 months at a time in their home to allow them to do school work remotely, which is normally with students who can't come to school (illness, bad behavior, etc). So they're constantly being formatted, and the bells and whistles aren't really necessary.

But thanks again, Mak. I can't believe I didn't think of it, but once you said driver I looked at the Dell and sure enough, a Vista sticker was on the front. That's what triggered me to be like, oh! duh!

Hmm... this is truly a mystery.

This is what it boils down to...

Two Dell Optiplex 330's
Both have the same brand SATA 160gb HDD
Both were set up identically (using a cloner)
Both had the same copy of XP Pro SP2 installed

One is in IDE mode.
The other is in AHCI mode.

Both of them work. But the one in IDE mode, if it's set to AHCI mode like the other one (which works), then it will no longer work.

What... the.. djfakls;djfalks
 
Now that is strange that one had ACHI disabled. must have been who ever setup the OS turned it off for some reason. Gotta love those techs...
 
I find it hard to believe that two Dell's coming off of the assembly line were configured differently. I know I didn't change it. This is weird... but nonetheless, whatever works.

At least they're functional!
 
It all depends really. Maybe the one tech didnt know that Vista could work with ACHI enabled. Maybe he is so used to XP not being able to use ACHI that he disabled it. I know that my dell inspiron 1501 didnt have ACHI enabled. Cause it installed XP without any drivers or tinkering.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom