No SATA support in Recovery Console and no floppy. BSOD loop at bo

[broozm]

Acer Aspire T360 (yes, yeach, I know), has been working fine for some months
on SP3, when, bang it starts to BSOD loop at bootup.
The 500GB Seagate SATA drive is visible from Ubuntu and other disk
utilities, and the memory tests pass.
In the Award BIOS, there is no option to choose Native mode or otherwise for
the sata drives - in fact, I can see nothing about sata anywhere in the bios!
So the STOP 8E 000005 error is tricky to fix, but my first attempt is to
get into the Recovery Console. But alas, it does not find any disks, and I do
not have a floppy to load additional drivers.....
Any ideas?
Here are the tech details:

This is an Acer Aspire 630T - but they have no newer BIOS version than R01-B1.
The issue is that it BSOD at every boot. Stop 8E 0000005
If I change bios settings I getting a CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded.
Boots fine to Linux 8.1 and I can see the Seagate SATA 500gb drive - which
has been running XP SP3 for a few months already.
I can see the 500GB disk from Ubuntu 8.10. It is formatted Fat32.
Booting from XP CD, the recovery console cannot see the drive at all without
additional drivers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model Name : 8TRS400M
--------------------------
M/B Rev : 1.0
BIOS Ver : R01-B1
Serial No. : 53102251
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VGA Brand : onboard Model :
CPU Brand : AMD Model : Speed :
Operation System : Win XP SP :
Memory Brand : Acer Type : DDRII
Memory Size : 512 Speed : 4200
Power Supply : 300 W


and MS is not much help: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314859
"Note Mass storage controller drivers can be loaded only from floppy disks
by using the F6 key. The F6 key cannot be used to load drivers that are
stored on USB flash drives, on USB hard disks, or on other external storage
devices.

Use of an OEM driver is limited to installing a driver that is not natively
supported or that does not match a driver that is included with Windows. If
you use a newer version of an OEM driver, and this new OEM driver has the
same name or Plug and Play Identifier as a driver that is included with
Windows, the Setup program ignores the new OEM driver and uses the driver
that is included with Windows. Therefore, you receive the error message that
is quoted in the Summary.

If you press F6 when you are prompted, you receive a screen that requires
you to have the appropriate driver on a floppy disk and to insert the disk
into the floppy disk drive to load the driver. "


(And I thought I knew my way around XP!!!)

 

[Gerry]

broozm

Can you please post a complete copy of the Stop Error report?

Disable automatic restart on system failure. This should help by
allowing time to write down the STOP code properly. Keep pressing the F8
key during Start-Up and select option - Disable automatic restart on
system failure. Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure.

Under the Bug Code + parameters is often reference to a file. Make sure
you include this in your reply.

Have you run a drive test utility available on the Seagate web site?
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

Have you tried booting with only keyboard, mouse and monitor connected?


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[broozm]

Gerry
Thanks for the reply.. the full stop error is

*** Stop: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x8052E797, 0xF7A7C5C4, 0X00000000)

there are no files referenced

As I cannot get any further into the boot, I cannot disable the autorestart,
or do anything else.
F8 allows only the choice of Safe Mode, Safe mode with Networking, command
line or Last Known Good Config - none of which change the bsod occurring.

I have nothing plugged in, and even removed the AGP graphics cards and used
the onboard vga.
Memtest passed 100%, and a thorough disk scan using latest Seagate tool
passed as well!
Acer has suggested that I try with a different hard drive.. doh, of course
that is going to isolate the hdd as the cause of the problem. Seagate won't
want to know me if out of warranty ,and MS will charge me to tell me to
refomat and reinstall :\
I reckon an IDE boot hdd will be the answer. But still irritating that I
cannot fix the bsod.


Just an aside; the link notifying me of updates to the page - fails to load
in Firefox or IE... Anyone else have this problem?
I will try to paste it here - but it my become obfuscated

http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/aspx/n...eral&mid=c9570cb6-8a80-4ee0-bda0-3f7dd674878e

Nice n short and pithy as you can see ;}
AH - when I tried it again just now it loads fine ;; wtf

Bruce

broozm

Can you please post a complete copy of the Stop Error report?

Disable automatic restart on system failure. This should help by
allowing time to write down the STOP code properly. Keep pressing the F8
key during Start-Up and select option - Disable automatic restart on
system failure. Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure.

Under the Bug Code + parameters is often reference to a file. Make sure
you include this in your reply.

Have you run a drive test utility available on the Seagate web site?
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

Have you tried booting with only keyboard, mouse and monitor connected?


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~

<SNIP>

 

[Gerry]

Bruce

Background information on Stop Error message 0x8E
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms794023.aspx

0x0000008E: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
A kernel mode program generated an exception which the error handler
didn't catch. These are nearly always hardware compatibility issues
(which sometimes means a driver issue or a need for a BIOS upgrade).
Source: http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

Disconnect all hardware peripherals except keyboard, mouse and monitor.

Is the computer a laptop or desktop? Google produced confusing results.

Are you able to swap in a different monitor? Swapping in another supply
might be another test but most users do not have a spare lying around.

Award BIOS Beep Codes
Beep - Currently the only beep code indicates that a video error has
occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any
additional information. This beep code consists of a single long beep
followed by two short beeps. Any other beeps are probably a RAM problem.

You might try checking the Boot progress against the information in
these links to see if you can identify how far it gets
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/bios/bootSequence-c.html
http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/unknownreference/articles/12284.aspx

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[broozm]

:

0x0000008E: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
A kernel mode program generated an exception which the error handler
didn't catch. These are nearly always hardware compatibility issues
(which sometimes means a driver issue or a need for a BIOS upgrade).
Source: http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

As its an OEM BIOS produced for Acer, no update is avaialble

Disconnect all hardware peripherals except keyboard, mouse and monitor.

Tried that.

Is the computer a laptop or desktop? Google produced confusing results.

Desktop

Are you able to swap in a different monitor? Swapping in another supply
might be another test but most users do not have a spare lying around.

Hmm.. tried monitors. But as it boots with Linux, can't be power supply?

Award BIOS Beep Codes
Beep - Currently the only beep code indicates that a video error has
occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any
additional information. This beep code consists of a single long beep
followed by two short beeps. Any other beeps are probably a RAM problem.

You might try checking the Boot progress against the information in
these links to see if you can identify how far it gets
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/bios/bootSequence-c.html
http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/unknownreference/articles/12284.aspx

Gets passed WindowsXP splash screen - where the splash disappears and is
trying to load the graphic gui. When reinstalling, is does not find any hard
discs suitable.

However, after putting in a new 640GB WD hard d rive I did get one
additional error indicating a .sys file - and have given up and installed
Ubuntu 9.04 successfully.
So I'm sure it has something to do with the BIOS and sata disks being
incompatible.
I will post the summary from another post elsewhere when I find it again!
Thanks for your help.

 

[broozm]

The error was setupdd.sys
HERE is the link:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/27597/?o=40

Re: File setupdd.sys could not be loaded. The error code is 4
Hmm. Tried all the options - diff't ram, move slots, clean contacts, remove
all PCI devices. Reset ALL bios options to basic or disabled or combinations
of above.

However, I have concluded it is a problem with XP recognising the HDD:


Trying XPPro in a brand new unformatted, unpartitioned Western Digital 640GB
SATA drive (WD6400AAKS) throws the same error:

Unknown Disc

(there is no disk in the drive)
Unknown Disc

(there is no disk in the drive)
Unknown Disc

(there is no disk in the drive)
Unknown Disc

(there is no disk in the drive)
*** STOP 8E (0xc0000005, 0xF779DC0B, )
*** setupdd.sys - Address - F779DC0B base at F77774000, Datestamp 3b7d8507


The 640GB SATA and an old 40 GB IDE Hard drive both work fine with Ubuntu
8.04.

So I have resorted to Ubuntu over XP Professional!

The odd thing is that the system had been running for a year or more with a
SATA 500GB drive. Weird. And unsolved.

For full comparison with your issue this is an Acer Aspire with its original
512 MB ram:
--------------------------
M/B Rev : 1.0
BIOS Ver : R01-B1
Serial No. : 53102xxx
Purchase Dealer :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VGA Brand : onboard Model : 8TRS400M
CPU Brand : AMD Model : Speed :
Operation System : Win XP SP :
Memory Brand : Acer Type : DDRII
Memory Size : 512 Speed : 4200
Power Supply : 300 W

 

[Paul]

The error was setupdd.sys
HERE is the link:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/27597/?o=40

Re: File setupdd.sys could not be loaded. The error code is 4
Hmm. Tried all the options - diff't ram, move slots, clean contacts, remove
all PCI devices. Reset ALL bios options to basic or disabled or combinations
of above.

However, I have concluded it is a problem with XP recognising the HDD:


Trying XPPro in a brand new unformatted, unpartitioned Western Digital 640GB
SATA drive (WD6400AAKS) throws the same error:

Unknown Disc

(there is no disk in the drive)
Unknown Disc

(there is no disk in the drive)
Unknown Disc

(there is no disk in the drive)
Unknown Disc

(there is no disk in the drive)
*** STOP 8E (0xc0000005, 0xF779DC0B, )
*** setupdd.sys - Address - F779DC0B base at F77774000, Datestamp 3b7d8507


The 640GB SATA and an old 40 GB IDE Hard drive both work fine with Ubuntu
8.04.

So I have resorted to Ubuntu over XP Professional!

The odd thing is that the system had been running for a year or more with a
SATA 500GB drive. Weird. And unsolved.

For full comparison with your issue this is an Acer Aspire with its original
512 MB ram:
--------------------------
M/B Rev : 1.0
BIOS Ver : R01-B1
Serial No. : 53102xxx
Purchase Dealer :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VGA Brand : onboard Model : 8TRS400M
CPU Brand : AMD Model : Speed :
Operation System : Win XP SP :
Memory Brand : Acer Type : DDRII
Memory Size : 512 Speed : 4200
Power Supply : 300 W

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/desktop/aspire_t630.html

"TXTSETUP.OEM for M5287 SATA/RAID Controller"
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/desktop/aspire_t630/driver/ALI_Chipset/ULI_SATA_driver_5287.zip

Try pressing F6 during the install to the new disk, then offer the 5287 driver. Unzip
the package and place it on a floppy, so the F6 step can find it.

I haven't a clue why it flaked out on the other drive. Maybe the
driver stopped loading, or some other inappropriate driver was installed
and took its place. Or the CMOS is corrupted in some way, and clearing
the CMOS would fix it. (Unplug the computer, before attempting to
clear any CMOS with a "clear" jumper near the battery. Since the documentation
for your computer may be pretty thin, this may not be documented.)

Paul

 

[broozm]

Slightly off topic - but in the long run, what methods are Operating Systems
going to offer to load drivers at the F6 point? I'm guessing usb?

I ask, because, in this case I will have to find a floppy to plug in, but if
the mobo doesn't have a plug i'm sol.

I will try once more along this tack - just so I get some closure on this!

 

[Paul]

Slightly off topic - but in the long run, what methods are Operating Systems
going to offer to load drivers at the F6 point? I'm guessing usb?

I ask, because, in this case I will have to find a floppy to plug in, but if
the mobo doesn't have a plug i'm sol.

I will try once more along this tack - just so I get some closure on this!

:

You can use NLite from nliteos.com , to slipstream a driver into an installer
CD. NLite reads your installer CD, and makes as its output, an ISO9660 file.
Using a CD burner, you can burn a new installer CD (a program like Nero can
handle an ISO9660). Since the download I found, is an INF type driver,
it should work with NLite. (NLite doesn't like other kinds of driver installers,
like an Installshield - it is just looking for INF style ones.)

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/part1.html

*******

You could try plugging in a USB floppy, but I haven't tested that. I have
experimented with my USB floppy, and to make it the "A:\" drive, I have
to go into the BIOS and disable the existing floppy. The thing is,
Super I/O chips still have a floppy interface in the hardware. If a
Dell/HP/Acer/Gateway chooses to have a BIOS without customization settings,
then they should make sure the Super I/O floppy is disabled, so it won't
accidentally be detected as an operating floppy drive.

Once I took care of that, my USB floppy was treated as A:\.

But I haven't actually tried to do an install, pressing F6 and using
a driver from there. I needed the USB floppy for some other reason/experiment,
and it had to be A: for the experiment to work.

The NLite option might be a better bet.

*******

Another thing to note - you can actually do an installation without a CD
drive. The copy of WinXP installed on my computer, was done with a hard
drive install. What you do, is set up two FAT32 partitions on the disk. The
second smaller partition (D, holds the contents of the CD. C: is empty.
The tricky part, is you need an MSDOS boot disk of some sort, to kick off
the install. The reason for the FAT32, is so MSDOS can see both C: and D:.
Once the system boots into DOS, you go to C:\i386 and run the winnt.exe file.

So in principle, there might be some way to throw a driver into the
set of 5000 files in the i386 folder, and install from DOS. I bet
you could even use NLite, to prepare an ISO9660, then copy all the
files from the ISO9660 into the D: drive, and do a hard drive install.

There is no advantage to the hard drive install method. It doesn't
shave as much time off the install as you might think. And it took
me an entire day, to build an MSDOS boot disk that worked well (I had
a hardware conflict in the address space). Still, it's an option if
you can't or won't be doing an install from an actual CD drive.

If you're hacking your own MSDOS boot disk, this reference is handy.
I needed this several times.

http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/

More fun with DOS, in this example.

http://www.infocellar.com/cd/boot-cd.htm

I think I've even booted my MSDOS image, from a USB stick. I tried
the HP formatter, and that didn't work right. I eventually just
copied my good 1.44MB floppy, sector by sector, to the USB flash,
using "dd" in Linux, and the damn thing booted. I still don't understand
why that worked. But if I was stuck without a floppy drive, I could
go back to my 1GB USB stick, "dd" over my MSDOS stuff, and it would
work on my current motherboard. When done that way (a raw mode copy),
the USB stick even claims to be 1.44MB in size (even though it is
physically using 0.2% of the available storage space).

These are the kinds of things you try, when you have days to waste

Paul

 

[broozm]

Thanks for the great post.

*****>
I think I've even booted my MSDOS image, from a USB stick. I tried
the HP formatter, and that didn't work right. I eventually just

I have a boot usb made with the HP Tool - works great - and boots almost
instantly!!
Worth persevering with.

copied my good 1.44MB floppy, sector by sector, to the USB flash,
using "dd" in Linux, and the damn thing booted. I still don't understand
why that worked. But if I was stuck without a floppy drive, I could
go back to my 1GB USB stick, "dd" over my MSDOS stuff, and it would
work on my current motherboard. When done that way (a raw mode copy),
the USB stick even claims to be 1.44MB in size (even though it is
physically using 0.2% of the available storage space).

I have seen a similar, though not so drastic thing, when I purhcased a few
2GB and 4GB USB Sticks (Rundisk brand). I formatted one of the 2GB for some
reason, and it magically turned into a 4GB! (I think the batch I bought was,
in fact, all 4GB and some were just down-sized so they could offer a range of
sizes) WTF?

These are the kinds of things you try, when you have days to waste

He he, yes I know what u mean about time eaters like this... Still, its
better to tackle these things on your own test systems rather than have to
try to figure it all out when under pressure of fixing a customer's!

The best way to lean is to fail (at first)

Paul

Bruce

 

[broozm]

You can use NLite from nliteos.com , to slipstream a driver into an installer
CD. NLite reads your installer CD, and makes as its output, an ISO9660 file.
Using a CD burner, you can burn a new installer CD (a program like Nero can
handle an ISO9660). Since the download I found, is an INF type driver,
it should work with NLite. (NLite doesn't like other kinds of driver installers,
like an Installshield - it is just looking for INF style ones.)

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml

http://www.nliteos.com/guide/part1.html

*******

You could try plugging in a USB floppy, but I haven't tested that. I have
experimented with my USB floppy, and to make it the "A:\" drive, I have
to go into the BIOS and disable the existing floppy. The thing is,
Super I/O chips still have a floppy interface in the hardware. If a
Dell/HP/Acer/Gateway chooses to have a BIOS without customization settings,
then they should make sure the Super I/O floppy is disabled, so it won't
accidentally be detected as an operating floppy drive.

Once I took care of that, my USB floppy was treated as A:\.

But I haven't actually tried to do an install, pressing F6 and using
a driver from there. I needed the USB floppy for some other reason/experiment,
and it had to be A: for the experiment to work.

The NLite option might be a better bet.

*******

Another thing to note - you can actually do an installation without a CD
drive. The copy of WinXP installed on my computer, was done with a hard
drive install. What you do, is set up two FAT32 partitions on the disk. The
second smaller partition (D, holds the contents of the CD. C: is empty.
The tricky part, is you need an MSDOS boot disk of some sort, to kick off
the install. The reason for the FAT32, is so MSDOS can see both C: and D:.
Once the system boots into DOS, you go to C:\i386 and run the winnt.exe file.

So in principle, there might be some way to throw a driver into the
set of 5000 files in the i386 folder, and install from DOS. I bet
you could even use NLite, to prepare an ISO9660, then copy all the
files from the ISO9660 into the D: drive, and do a hard drive install.

There is no advantage to the hard drive install method. It doesn't
shave as much time off the install as you might think. And it took
me an entire day, to build an MSDOS boot disk that worked well (I had
a hardware conflict in the address space). Still, it's an option if
you can't or won't be doing an install from an actual CD drive.

If you're hacking your own MSDOS boot disk, this reference is handy.
I needed this several times.

http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/

More fun with DOS, in this example.

http://www.infocellar.com/cd/boot-cd.htm

I think I've even booted my MSDOS image, from a USB stick. I tried
the HP formatter, and that didn't work right. I eventually just
copied my good 1.44MB floppy, sector by sector, to the USB flash,
using "dd" in Linux, and the damn thing booted. I still don't understand
why that worked. But if I was stuck without a floppy drive, I could
go back to my 1GB USB stick, "dd" over my MSDOS stuff, and it would
work on my current motherboard. When done that way (a raw mode copy),
the USB stick even claims to be 1.44MB in size (even though it is
physically using 0.2% of the available storage space).

These are the kinds of things you try, when you have days to waste

Paul

 

[broozm]

Thanks for the great post.

*****>
I think I've even booted my MSDOS image, from a USB stick. I tried
the HP formatter, and that didn't work right. I eventually just

I have a boot usb made with the HP Tool - works great - and boots almost
instantly!!
Worth persevering with.

copied my good 1.44MB floppy, sector by sector, to the USB flash,
using "dd" in Linux, and the damn thing booted. I still don't understand
why that worked. But if I was stuck without a floppy drive, I could
go back to my 1GB USB stick, "dd" over my MSDOS stuff, and it would
work on my current motherboard. When done that way (a raw mode copy),
the USB stick even claims to be 1.44MB in size (even though it is
physically using 0.2% of the available storage space).

I have seen a similar, though not so drastic thing, when I purhcased a few
2GB and 4GB USB Sticks (Rundisk brand). I formatted one of the 2GB for some
reason, and it magically turned into a 4GB! (I think the batch I bought was,
in fact, all 4GB and some were just down-sized so they could offer a range of
sizes) WTF?

These are the kinds of things you try, when you have days to waste

He he, yes I know what u mean about time eaters like this... Still, its
better to tackle these things on your own test systems rather than have to
try to figure it all out when under pressure of fixing a customer's!

The best way to lean is to fail (at first)

Paul

Bruce