Weird "hiccup" from computer is prelude to Stop error (BSOD)

A couple days ago, my computer started acting up both physically and performance-wise. Whenever I started doing a lot of general tasks at the same time, I would here a weird "hiccup" from the tower--It's the best way for me to describe it. At first I thought it was the fan, but they were both doing fine. The problem steadily got worse until the system went to a blue screen and did abrupt memory dumps before restarting the machine. Both the hiccups and the memory dumps got worse until finally, I got this BSOD upon startup:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0x82AF8C50, 0xC0000032, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

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.

Refer to your Getting Started manual for more information on troubleshooting Stop errors.

The hiccups have stopped but I can't get past the BSOD.

I don't think I have a virus, but I do have a new SATA drive and SATA controller board to have it work along side my IDE HDD. However, I've had it for months now and I've never had this problem. I'm also not running the OS off the SATA, so that just further shows me that-that's not the problem.

That would just leave the other drive, however I'm not sure how to diagnose it, and I'm afraid to do anything for fear of losing the information on the drive. I'm also reluctant to do anything with it because I've heard conflicting ideas about whether it's the power supply or the ram.

Ideas?

I'm running on Windows 2000 Professional.

 

Press F8 at startup and see if last known good configuration works
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000626.htm
If you get the same BSOD and error, I suspect your hd has died.

You can attach the sick hd via USB adapter to a computer and see if you can pull any of your data off.
example of an adapter http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812107114

 

I was afraid of that.

Just to be clear: I can only get the information off of it if the boot sector is the problem right? In which case, I could slave it to my other drive and use it for storage. Or is that a bad idea?

 

Get into the BIOS. The key might be F1, F2, del or esc or even something else. It usually appears on the first screen. Does the BIOS see the hard drive?

It might even be simply a bad cable or a loose cable connection so check that possibility out too.

Let's start with the easiest things first:
1. Run the computer with 1 stick of RAM (unless it must use matched pairs) and see if it starts up. If it doesn't and you get the same error, shut down the computer and switch the memory stick and try to boot up again.
2. If memory still gives the BSOD, I'd try another power supply.
3. If neither of those work, and if you have a Windows 2000 installation disks, not a restore/recovery CD, boot your system and enter the recovery console. Then type FIXBOOT . Reboot, again if you get the same error, go through the recovery console and type FIXMBR.

Yes. If one of the above steps doesn't fix it, then the drive might be dead.
There is even a way to get data off a dead hard drive. You put it in the freezer for about half an hour, then hook it up as a slave and grab what you can while it is still spinning.

 

I'm not sure how to fiddle with it in such a way that I could tell it sees it. However I'm pretty sure it acknowledges the presence of the drive as my Windows 2000 OS on that drive begins loading before it hits the BSOD.

I tested my idea when I was making sure it wasn't a bad connection. I completely disabled the drive and on startup it couldn't even make it to the OS loading screen.

Well, to my knowledge it only runs with one stick anyway. It's a DDR 333 32x64. Or are you referring to something else?


Anyway, I'll give some of these steps a shot.

I was going to try slaving it to the drive on the computer I'm already on. If I'm able to access the info, is there a way for me to tell from this machine if the problem was ram or the boot sector?

 

After a lot of trial and error to make sure my machine wasn't the problem, it turns out the hiccup was the sound of platters going out of sink. So yes, it was in the process of dying.

Thankfully, I got my information off, but now I have a new problem. I'm trying to replace my dead hard drive with another one that I just formatted and partitioned. I boot up the computer with the Windows 2000 installation CD. Right before it goes to the setup, I see this:

DISK I/O error. Status: 0002000

Then the setup screen shows up fine. I tell it to go into setup but I get this long message that tells me it doesn't detect a drive even though I put a partition on it and performed a format.

The HDD is relatively old, but I don't think there's any problems with it. Any ideas?


BTW: Is there anyway to put an OS on my SATA hard drive even with my EIDE motherboard? I'm curious that I can circumvent this nonsense if I can just make my SATA controller-board/HDD pull the weight.

 

First go into the BIOS and be sure the CD is set as the first boot device. It could be the hd is set as number one and of course you get a Disk error because there is no operating system on it. While in the BIOS check to see that the new hd is detected and also check that the drive has the jumper set to master.

 

Alright, I got rid of the error and the disk finally recognized the HDD's existence (I believe the problem was that I had it set to slave, but I'm not completely sure anymore). I've installed the Windows 2000 OS all over again, but NOW I'm getting this error:

Error Loading OS

I restored defaults on the BIOS and tried setting it to LBA (I heard that worked sometimes), but there's nothing. I'm gonna try FIXBOOT and FIXMBR again, but it doesn't seem that-that should be the problem since the OS is freshly installed.

 

Oh my lord. Now the disk is saying that is doesn't register a hard drive on the machine again.

What's going on? Obviously, the problem is intermittent, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. Does it sound like the power connection? Could the dying HDD have been what caused whatever's going on?

 

It could be a bad ribbon cable - swap it out for another.
It could be a bad connector from the power supply to the hd. If you have a spare connector, swap that out.
It could be a problem where the ribbon connects to the motherboard. There isn't a fix for that.
It could be a hd going bad.

 

I'm really REALLY hoping it's not one of the last two...Or both.

I'll test this out.

 

Okay. After a lot more trial and error, I've discovered that it's not the ribbons or the power supply connectors. No matter what ribbon cable or connector I use, the connection between the hard drive and the motherboard is still recognized only intermittently. Sometimes it sees it, but oft times it doesn't.

I tried it with both an old and new hard drive. In each case, the recognition made by the BIOS is inconsistent. What is consistent is the "error loading OS" message for every drive I use. I was willing to believe that the old hard drive had a problem with it since I had trouble loading its OS on this computer as well. But the brand new one makes three for three.

Out of your list, that would leave the ribbon connects. Is there some way I can test that?

Before dwelling on that idea though, something else is happening now. I found out that I could use a RAID driver to install an OS on the SATA drive in my machine. I did just that and it was working like a charm right up until the Windows 2000 load screen when I got a BSOD with this message again:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0x82AF8C50, 0xC0000032, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

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.

Refer to your Getting Started manual for more information on troubleshooting Stop errors.

I tried FIXBOOT and CHKDSK. Nothing. I'm afraid to use FIXMBR since it told me that its unorthodox RAID status could harm my partition tables.

This drive still has the same partitions it did when the bad hard drive was in there. They work fine on this computer, but I was wondering if just being attached to the other motherboard would harm it. In which case, do you think re-formatting, re-partitioning, and then reinstalling an OS on it would make a difference?

And finally, is it possible this trouble is being caused by a corrupted BIOS?

 

At this stage it is sounding more and more likely that there is a fault with your motherboard. I would recommend swapping it for a spare if you have one.

 

I already ended up ordering a new one. I really didn't want to pay for it.

Using the RAID driver was a last ditch effort. I can't help but think that if I used it in the beginning, it may have worked since the BSODs didn't really start showing up until my very first hard drive died completely. I just can't figure out what the screens have to do with the motherboard--It's bugging the hell out of me.

Oh well. Thanks for trying to help Plodr.

 

Oh no. Installed the SATA HDD and SATARaid software on this computer to try and get into the HDD's OS and I got the BSOD here as well. I ran CHKDSK and FIXBOOT again and nothing was apparently wrong.

It's probably gonna pull this crap on the new MOBO as well! :cry I'm afraid to allow it anywhere near my new machine.

Does anyone know if there's some kind of virus going around that causes such a hassle?

 

I fixed the problem but now I have a new one.

For some reason, whenever I used a particular Win 2k install disk on either my EIDE or SATA hard drive with my Biostar motherboard, it would eventually go to a BSOD and screw up the OS itself. When I decided to use a different one on a hunch, it worked fine. Everything installed and I was happily getting everything back in sync before I'd cancel my order for a new motherboard. Then, that same night, the motherboard shows up A LOT earlier than I thought it would. It was already here and it was an upgrade, so I just built the damn thing.

But now, after I setup my harddrives in the machine, I immediately got a blue screen when I tried to boot up the OS. I figured this was no big deal since it was a new motherboard. It was probably normal. So I de-partitioned and reformatted both drives. I booted up the system using the Win 2k disk and chose to set it up. As soon as I do that, it jams. It either gets stuck on "please wait..." or " setupp.ini" on the EIDE. In the case of the SATA, the screen sometimes goes gray and off-center.

Is it possible that Windows 2000 is just not compatible with the motherboard or is something else going on?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4362090&CatId=14