inaccessible boot device BSOD

[/dev/rhetorical]

INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE. HELP ME SOLVE THIS AND I WILL NAME MY FIRST BORN AFTER YOU.


A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this STOP error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:
Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.
Tech. Info.:
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF894D640, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Machine:

Shuttle AN35 Ultra, NEW

AGOIA AMD 1600 CPU with Volcano 7 copper hsf (RESEATED W/O NEW SILVER GOO), 14 months old

Gainward Geforce 3 Ti200, REFURB from the Egg

Dane Elec 512MB PC2100 CAS 2 timing 6-3-3 Nanya chipset, 14 months old

Maxtor 80MB 14 months old, with

"warm..er..uh.." copy of XP and multiple security updates but no SP1 reinstalled off of itself (hard disk) on another machine before replacement in the troubled box

drives partitioned C,E,F...G?.....

WD 2.1 GB HD with,

Windows 95a (several years old) paired on red tubed cable

Creative 32X CDROM Drive
Lite-On 32x/12x/40x CDRW Drive
paired on yellow tubed cable

ancient floppy disk drive on blue tube cable to floppy port

Allied 400W PS 14 months old

History of problem:

1. After newest XP security update I started to get freezes and hangs while in XP and apps. Then I started screwing with BIOS in AKGTR2 Shuttle board and POST no video and no sound. Cracked AGP port and broke GeForce GTS 2 video card while reseating. Repairman was able to complete reinstall of XP from the HD partition on which it resided. UNKNOWN IF DRIVERS FOR VID CARD WERE UNINSTALLED.

2. Installed new mobo and refurbed vid card.

Vid card booted successfully: 128MB Gainward Logo.
Mobo booted...floppy drive error (40) del to setup, F1 to
continue
pressed F1
BIOS recognizes all components (I think)
Screen asking which OS do I want to boot
Choose XP
Screen black
BSOD as above (NO XP LOGO)
reset button pressed
sequence repeat

reset button pressed
...Choose 95

95 boots

unknown device detected...PCI RAM
picked "choose from disk"
tried changing from A: to CD ROM drive with mobo CD disk
screen freezes
sequence repeat
picked, "cancel" to skip driver install for that device
PCI ISA...."cancel"....screen goes black....
repeat....get to printer...cancel....com port...cancel...screen
goes black...hitting the reset button...

3. Change BIOS to disable ACPI....BSOD
Change BIOS to fail-safe setting.....BSOD
Change BIOS to optimized setting...BSOD
Change BIOS to AGP aperture to 128MB from 64 MB....
Save to CMOS and exit....

Computer powers up.....no video, no sound, monitor Green
LCD goes to powersaving orange....THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED
WITH OLD MOBO AND VID CARD!

4. Turned off computer from black switch on back

5. Turned switch back on...Computer powers up.....no video,
no sound, monitor Green LCD goes to powersaving orange....

Turned off computer from black switch on back

6. reseated vid card (god I hope I didn't crack the port)
fan is running off of vid card

7. Pulled power cable from port on mobo and reset CMOS jumper
physically FOR A FEW SECONDS ONLY...replaced cable...no
change....examined jumped and I had missed a pin went one
too far...repeat physical reset of jumper with power cable
pulled from mobo...no change.

8. Woops! Forgot to plug in 4 pin power plug into mobo along with 20 pin. Unplugged all power cables and physically reset CMOS clear jumper again. Reattached power cables. No change.
Pulled power and IDE cables on all drives and left modem, vid card, CPU and ram. Nothing.



Suspicions:

Master boot sector virus?
corrupted bios or cmos?
bad IDE cable to HDs?(***)
bad RAM or bad RAM port (2 others available)

available:

Old system with Evergreen Spectra 400 processor upgrade, 48MB Ram, 3 GB WD HD, 2 CD ROM drives

Max Blast floppy and CD ROM

Nero CD ROM

Win XP on CDRW

HELP ME, OBI-WAN!

[/dev/rhetorical]

I would be happy to reformat the hard drive if I knew how...I would be happier to go street legal...so if you think you can help...then respond..please...otherwise...why troll the forum?

18 people read this thread and nobody responds?

ARRRGH.

[/dev/rhetorical]

may have tried to install sp2..part or all...without sp1 installed and overwrote atapi.sys file, but i don't know

[vent]

I'm getting the same problem with a PC Chips M848A mobo
and a IBM hard drive (40gig)
did u find any way around this?

[vent]

have just tryed everything else from the system on a new PC (ie everything but the hard drive a mobo are swaped) and it works fine
if i use the mobo with a new hard drive etc it still gives me an error, as does using the old IBM deskstar hard drive.
maybe its linked?

[rpertusio]

vent, you probably should have started a new topic, as this thread is a few months old.

However... some info...

The cause of this problem is that Windows XP (or 2000) installs certain IDE drivers for your motherboard. The IDE drivers help windows talk to the hard drives. What happens when you install a new motherboard, is that the IDE drivers are probably different, and Windows doesnt know how to talk to the hard drives anymore!

For instance.. you have an Intel-based motherboard, and you 'upgrade' to an AMD motherboard. WindowsXP had installed drivers for the Intel chipset, but it doesn't know how to talk to drives using the AMD chipset, because the right IDE drivers aren't installed.

(Another example would be switching from a VIA based chipset to an nVidia nForce or SiS chipset.)

- - - - - - - - - -
There are two solutions:
Solution A If you haven't put in the new motherboard yet, then: Uninstall all drivers related to your motherboard, and change to a default IDE driver. Install the standard MS ide drivers by doing the following:

(1) Right click "My Computer" and choose "Properties"
(2) On the "Hardware" tab, click on [Device Manager]
(3) Expand the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and right-click on the controller that you find here, and choose "Update Driver..."
(4) On the Hardware Update Wizard, choose the 2nd option (Install from a list or specific location (Advanced))
(5) Choose "Don't Search, I will choose...", and click [Next>]
(6) Of the hardware listed, choose "Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller"

Solution B If you have already switched to your new motherboard: Repair Windows XP by installing on top of itself. Hardware will be re-detected and the right drivers will be installed. I have found the best instructions for Repairing Windows XP (and 2000) can be found on the following page:
Repair XP. Please scroll down (or click on the link) to "How to Repair Install: (also called "In place reinstall")". Follow those instructions word for word. You will NOT require a format if you do it correctly, and most (if not all) of your settings and files will stay.



Good luck!
- rp

[vent]

ah, but it still gives me the error when doing a fresh install of Win2k pro on a new (un formated un partitioned) hard drive

[edit] also it gives me the error when the install sequence says "starting windows 2000" after loading all the drivers so i don't get the repair options[/edit]

[rpertusio]

vent,
Have you:
- Ensured all the power/data cables are hooked up correctly
- Checked that the BIOS detects the drive correctly
- Checked for the right boot order in the BIOS
- Loaded BIOS defaults
- Updated the BIOS on the motherboard
- Checked jumper settings
- removed any floppy disks still in the drive

You could also try initializing and formatting the drive from another computer. (For example, mount it as another drive, and then format using Disk management tool from within windows)

Do you:
- Have a SCSI device or SerialATA device?
- Have any extra USB attachments (pen drives, usb drives)
- Have any ISA devices (in ISA slot if you have one)?
- Have a sound card, or other PCI devices? (Try removing them)

Further troubleshooting:
- You could go into the BIOS and turn off devices that you dont need to free up IRQs
- Initialize/format the drive from another computer (using Disk management from within Win2k/XP)

- rp