Stop 0x000000A5

[Tallman]

Today I was helping a friend update the NVIDIA display and chipset drivers on
his computer. I uninstalled the drivers and then ran Driver Sweeper in Safe
Mode to cleanup any leftovers from the old drivers. After that the system
would not reboot but started the endless failure and reboot cycle. Attempts
to use the Last Known Good Configuration and Safe Mode also failed. After
several reboot cycles I finally got a BSOD that read as follows:

The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant. Please contact your
system vendor or visit http://www.hardware-pdate.com for an updated BIOS…

The Stop Error at the bottom was: 0X000000A5 (0X00000011, 0X00000006,
0X00000000, OXOOOOOOOO)

Does that mean the BIOS is corrupted? Should I attempt to update the BIOS?
Or are there other things that need to be addressed first? Thanks!

The system is running Windows XP Pro on the following components:

ASUS P5N32SLI PREMIUM motherboard w/NVIDIA 590 SLI chipset
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHZ processor
2 GB RAM
3 250GB SATA drives in a RAID 5 array
EVGA NVIDIA 7950GT display adapter
Creative SB Audigy4 Platinum Pro sound card

 

[peter]

I would enter the BIOS and check all settings to see that they matched the
Hardware...CPU...Video
etc etc etc ..........especially that SATA RAID setup
peter

 

[Tallman]

I did check through the BIOS earlier and did not see anything obvioulsly
amiss. It would certainly be worth another look though.

I also ran chkcsk /r from the Recovery Console. It fixed at least one error
but the system still will not boot.

 

[Tallman]

I found some information on this Microsoft Help and Support page:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;en-us;Q314830

It says among other things:

MORE INFORMATION
The following information can help you debug a Stop 0x000000A5 error.
• The cause of the Stop message is always errors in the ACPI BIOS. There is
nothing that you can fix at the level of the operating system.
• This Stop message can occur at other times. For example, you could receive
this Stop error after you install Windows XP and later make a hardware
change, such as adding a device. A computer that works properly with
Microsoft Windows 98 may not work with Windows XP. Windows 98 does not
necessarily use all of the ACPI functions that Windows XP uses. Windows 98
may allow workarounds that Windows XP cannot use because of its more
stringent requirements

 

[Gerry]

Tallman

It sounds like Driver Sweeper has created a problem. There are other
reports of this utility creating problems for others, although none
refer to the BIOS.

Background information on Stop Error message
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms793993.aspx

0x000000A5: ACPI_BIOS_ERROR
The cause of this message is always errors in the ACPI BIOS. Usually,
nothing can be done at an operating system level to fix the problem.
Source: http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

I suggest you go here:
http://scan.esupport.com/?r=28&CFID=1246725&CFTOKEN=46888869


--



Hope this helps.

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

 

[Woody]

There is no way to determine what driver sweeper swept away. These are
dangerous programs unless you have a thorough understanding of the
underlying code. It is time to restore the backup you made before messing
with the system. It is also time to eliminate all these automatic clean
programs from the system. Even if you get it to boot you will probably have
other programs that are missing or corrupt files caused by driver sweeper. I
have been there and if there is anything to learn from it is to develop a
good backup policy.

 

[Tallman]

What ever caused the problem a repair install of XP fixed it. To be on the
safe side I don't think I will be using Driver Sweeper again.

 

[Gerry]

Thanks for reporting how your problem was resolved.


--
Regards.

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