Do I need to replace my laptop's hard drive: getting STOP errors..

[Guest]

I am running XP Pro SP2 on an IBM Thinkpad A30 laptop which has been running
fine for months. A few days ago, the system froze up for an extended period
of time, CTRL-ALT-DEL didn't work to launch task manager, and after waiting
for the OS to respond for some time, I finally decided that the only choice I
had was to manually power-down the laptop and restart the system, which I did.

Since that time, I have received many blue-screen STOP errors upon booting
the system, and when the system freezes after the few times I am able to boot
successfully. The message is usually, UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME,
KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR, or KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR amongst a few similar
others that have popped up on occasion; they usually are of the 0x000000ED,
0x00000077, or 0x0000007A variety.

Upon booting from the hard drive and from my original XP CD, I have tried
CHKDSK /R, which isn't able to fix the problem, I get an error to the effect
that there is an "unknown error" with the drive, FIXBOOT from the recovery
console says that it can't finish successfully and the same for FIXMBR, I've
also tried resetting to my BIOS' defaults, but it doesn't help; I'VE TRIED IT
ALL!!!!

I'm at my wits end and I just want to know if anyone knows anything else I
can try, or do I have a physical problem with the HDD?? I've checked all
connections, and reseated all removable components in the laptop, as well.
HELP!!!!

 

[Galen]

In Lenny <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I'm at my wits end and I just want to know if anyone knows anything
else I can try, or do I have a physical problem with the HDD?? I've
checked all connections, and reseated all removable components in the
laptop, as well. HELP!!!!

This may take us a few days and a bit of information but first have you
tried to get in via safe mode? Reboot, press F8 during the boot process, and
select safe mode. Can you get into the OS that way? When you do manage to
get into safe mode do the errors still continue? What were you doing when it
froze? What is the value of the second parameter when you get your BSOD?

Take a peek here and post back with any information you can give us and
we'll let you know.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q315266

Galen

 

[Kelly]

A few days??? Galen, you used to me a man of a few moments! )

--
In memory of our dear friend, MVP Alex Nichol: http://www.dts-l.org/

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Galen]

In Kelly <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

A few days??? Galen, you used to me a man of a few moments! )

Hah! This one is going to be a tough nut to crack potentially! There's just
too many potential causes for this one.

Galen

 

[Guest]

i'm in right now (temporarily at best, though) with booting windows normally;
i can get in on occasion this way and once or twice in safe mode and safe
mode with command prompt, but safe mode, more often than not, results in a
BSOD after it displays the list of drivers it's loading and a delay.....as im
in right now, i know that i am only a precious few moments from freezing
again and another BSOD, so im trying to spill this out here quickly! i will
have to note the particulars on the other parameters when it occurs again and
post those details....the last one that comes to mind in the tech. info.
section was an error concerning the "atapi.sys" file....

 

[Guest]

ok, after saying what i said about the atapi.sys file, my 'puter expectedly
crashed shortly thereafter and i received the kernel inpage error BSOD with
these parameters:

0x0000007A (0xC0201884 0xC000000E 0x80621EA2 0x0978A860)

....followed upon reboot by this U_B_V error:

0x000000ED (0x81F51818 0xC00000015 0x00000000 0x00000000)

....does this help identify anything???

 

[Galen]

In Lenny <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

ok, after saying what i said about the atapi.sys file, my 'puter
expectedly crashed shortly thereafter and i received the kernel
inpage error BSOD with these parameters:

0x0000007A (0xC0201884 0xC000000E 0x80621EA2 0x0978A860)

...followed upon reboot by this U_B_V error:

0x000000ED (0x81F51818 0xC00000015 0x00000000 0x00000000)

...does this help identify anything???

Do you have caching enabled in the BIOS? It sounds as if there's a damaged
disk. You could try the chkdsk /f /r command (/r implies /f according to
documentation but seldom really does it work unless it knows the disk is
dirty.) Is this NTFS formated or FATxx formated? Sorry that this isn't quick
and easy but this is a tough one to diagnose and I'm about ready to sleep
for a few hours. I'll check in again but someone's likely to come along and
help before I'm awake again.

Galen

 

[Galen]

In Lenny <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

ok, after saying what i said about the atapi.sys file, my 'puter
expectedly crashed shortly thereafter and i received the kernel
inpage error BSOD with these parameters:

Actually, if you can stay up and running and no one magically appears to
help you then try this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmd_stp_hyzf.asp

Galen

 

[Guest]

the disk is formatted NTFS and i've tried to run chkdsk countless times with
the /r switch, but it quits about half way through and does indeed say the
the "disk may be damaged".....i searched through the BIOS setup several times
and I don't seem to find any option to turn on/off caching, but when i change
the boot type from "quick" to "diagnostic" i believe there is a line about
BIOS "shadowing" which displays upon bootup, but, again, i can't seem to find
any on/off option for this either, unless swtiching from "quick" to
"diagnostic" bootup is, in effect, turning this feature on/off........

also, upon booting this time, i first received a
SESSION3_INITIALIZATION_FAILED with the parameters:

0x0000006F (0x0000003A 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000)

.....should i just assume that there is a PHYSICAL problem within the HDD and
i need to replace it? if so, is there a way to copy the image on an old,
damaged HDD in a laptop to a new one, in a manner similar to the way it is
done on a desktop PC by making one master and one slave? i've never done
anything like that on a laptop before........................................

 

[Guest]

ok, i went into startup and recovery settings and set it to create a kernel
dump file for future reference.......just have to wait for a crash.....

 

[Galen]

In Lenny <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

....should i just assume that there is a PHYSICAL problem within the
HDD and i need to replace it? if so, is there a way to copy the image
on an old, damaged HDD in a laptop to a new one, in a manner similar
to the way it is done on a desktop PC by making one master and one
slave? i've never done anything like that on a laptop
before........................................

No you shouldn't assume that quite yet. Second there's tools that will do
that - and for free.

http://www.pcinspector.de/clone-maxx/uk/welcome.htm

You'll either need to do so on another PC or hope that your ribbon cable has
a second cable selection in your laptop. If you've never done anything like
that then it's time to call a professional should you reach that point.

You've tried the basics I hope? Like seeing if you can get into safe mode
and running defrag from inside there? I usually make the mistake of thinking
that people have tried the basics before posting but they haven't always.
I'm not even sure if you can stay up and running for long enough to run a
defrag. What brand of laptop and how old is it? This problem could be all
sorts of things including heat.

Galen

 

[Guest]

i've swapped plenty of old HDD's for new ones in desktops, but never in a
laptop; i've tried to defrag, but ive always gotten a BSOD before the
defragger got too far; i haven't tried to defrag in safe mode, mainly because
it seems to be more difficult to boot into safe mode with this thing than it
is to get lucky with booting in the normal way; i thought that heat might be
a problem too, because if i leave it alone for awhile and come back to it, i
usually have better luck getting in and running for a longer period of time
than if i try to get back in right away; i can always tell when it's about to
happen again because the mouse pointer get "skippy" and i am unable to click
on anything for a response, or i get a rather lenghty delayed response to
clicking on anything, even when there seems to be plenty of free RAM
available; i also notice that the HDD gets into a rythmic clicking (like a
timebomb! LOL) and then goes silent right before a BSOD appears; and the
laptop is an IBM thinkpad, A30, about 3 years old......it originally had 2000
pro on it, but i wiped it clean about six months ago and put on XP PRO and it
has all of the current windows updates, including SP2.......

 

[Guest]

alright, i just got done successfully being able to get in with safe mode
(which was previously freezing on the screen with the list of drivers it was
loading instead of actually getting in) and luckily managed to make it
through the whole defrag process and then restart normally with no errors
just yet........

 

[Galen]

In Lenny <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

alright, i just got done successfully being able to get in with safe
mode (which was previously freezing on the screen with the list of
drivers it was loading instead of actually getting in) and luckily
managed to make it through the whole defrag process and then restart
normally with no errors just yet........

And is it still up and running now? If so put it through it's paces, reboot
a few times and see if it's happy. If it starts to be fussy again our next
step is to give restore a chance to do it's stuff. If it made it through the
defrag without complaints and a chkdsk /f /r runs okay then you're
*hopefully* not looking at a hardware issue.

Galen

 

[Guest]

been up and running fine ever since, no errors while running or upon
reboot....only have to try a chkdsk and i think this baby is all good to go
once again!! thanks, ill let you know if I got my hopes up for nothing! ;-)

 

[Galen]

In Lenny <[email protected]> had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

been up and running fine ever since, no errors while running or upon
reboot....only have to try a chkdsk and i think this baby is all good
to go once again!! thanks, ill let you know if I got my hopes up for
nothing! ;-)

The error is so vague that it's probably not hardware which is why I had
been getting you to try different things. Hardware failures are often (not
always) more abrupt and *tend* to have more consistant errors with the
exception of faulty RAM where the errors are even more sporadic then your
were suffering.

Galen