BleepingComputer.com: BSOD HP Pavilion A1600N has me stumped

I have a customers computer that was BSODing even after I restored his system manually back to a previous date using the UBCD... So my next step was to reformat the drive and install XP... So I reformat the drive and after the setup files finish and it needs to restart to start installing it XP it BSODs again... I removed both RAM sticks and use a known good stick same issue still BSOD... At this point I take the system home with me to try whatever else I can think of and the only thing I could think of was to try a new hard drive which I did and it still BSOD before making it into setup Windows XP...... I have removed all USB devices etc..... If I have to lean on a culprit I would say this is probably a bad MoBo but if anyone else has any other suggestions I would love to hear em...

One more thing I was thinking about trying to flash the BIOS but the only BIOS update I found on HPs site is a exe file that needs to be logged in to OS in order to work........


One more thing I see more hardware issue with HP then any other brand besides maybe eMachines I will stand by Dell anyday :I


Thanks in advance!

Edit:

One more thing I found very strange was that at one point before I reformatted I got to the Welcome screen for windows XP while trying to boot into safe mode but it never made it past there. It usually will BSOD during the windows screen where the bars are running across sometimes the bar moves from left to right only 2 times before BSOD sometimes 6 times.....

This post has been edited by jdbaker82: 19 May 2010 - 08:39 PM

Hi well I for sure do not think its a bad motherboard.
Why: It boots.
Does it show you BIOS?
It sounds like you have some software issues with the O.S. not hardware.

By BSOD do you mean Blue Screen of Death?
When Reinstalling X.P are you using a OEM Xp cd, or a computer backup?

Suggestions:
1-You can try using the Recovery Console with a OEMl X.P disc.

2-The other thing is to reformat the drive and if you installed the O.S. with the NTFS system, try reinstalling it on FAT-32.

But there is something wrong with the O.S. And the above should help out.

What media/technique are you using to "reformat", since it seems that this system came with XP MCE 2005 installed?

What is the O/S that you are trying to install?

Louis

Thanks for the reply's guys since the customer did not correctly burn their 3 restore disks for Media 2005 I have tried to use several XP disks I had which included some regular HP OEM, Dell OEM, XP Pro SP2, XP Pro SP3, and even tried a Windows 7 32 bit disk.... Is it possible this system is only compatible with an exact OEM installation disk? If so why is this I don't understand and have never seen this problem before.

and yes I can get into the BIOS and have messed with some settings and tried reverting everything to default same issue BSOD.

Right now I am in the process of installing from 3 recovery disks for this machine I was able to find on torrents so we will see what it does after that.

Oh I also tried to install Ubuntu linux and it locked up at 70% where it said something like checking existing partitions or OS or something.

FWIW: XP Home is not the same thing as MCE. Neither is Windows 7.

Louis

Ok so the problem exists even after trying some more stuff... The 3 Restore disks failed to resolve the issue it BSODs as soon as the windows setup appears and trys to load plug and play devices....... I have tried several different RAM sticks in 2 of the 4 RAM slots and I basically seem to be getting different BSOD codes everytime I reboot and try to enter the windows setup after the windows bar scrolls across the screen a few times before it tries to enter setup... about 1 time out of 10 it actually gets to the windows setup screen where it says 34 minutes remaining etc then it just BSOD again....

1.)STOP 0x00000050 (0xF77D7BBF......

2.)STOP 0x0000008E

3.) STOP 0x000000D1 - atapi.sys - address F7484869 base at F747F000 ... beginning dump of physical memory blah blah......

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL_TO

CDFS_FILE_SYSTEM

STOP 0x00000026




I have tried to format the drive as FAT32.... same issue BIOS on the machine is 3.06 and I have tried to flip flop what limited options it offers and nothing is resolving this issue...


Am I safe to assume this is a hardware issue at this point?


Oh one more thing for some unknown reason I cannot access the RECOERY partition on the hard drive by pushing the F10 key I have tried (2) different keyboards and it just doesnt do anything from pressing F10 like it tells me to... The recovery partition does seem to be there though as it showed up from my UBCD.

This post has been edited by jdbaker82: 20 May 2010 - 11:11 PM

Update:

I booted to UBCD and made the recovery parition active and now I am doing a system restore using the right disks will see if the same BSOD persists after this.

Atapi.sys means you are having an issue with the media drive.

You are attempting to install the Operating System using an optical drive, whether it is a CDrom or DVDrom drive, you are having an issue with this piece of hardware.

For what ever reason you're having an issue with Atapi.sys is not clear, you should try switching to a different drive or replace the one you are using with a different one to see if your errors go away.

MrBruce1959, on May 21 2010, 12:51 AM, said:

The problem is that I am literally seeing 7+ different blue screens I even saw one that said USB.sys or something like that.... the one points to a CD drive others point to a video issue at this point I think the MoBo is just fudged in some wacky way.

Another piece of information I have for you, any time an error displays the letters IRQ in its name it means you are encountering an IRQ conflict, make sure you check the system BIOS for the following: Allow the OS to control the IRQs.

Also have the setting called PLUG and Play OS installed? set to YES

It is always better these days to let the OS control the IRQs, in the old DOS days it was better when it was set to let the BIOS control the IRQs because there was only 14 possible IRQs with IRQ 3 being a link for IRQ 9 and up.

NTFS can have way more than 15 IRQS without conflicts.

BIOS is controlling the IRQs OS is set to Yes for Plug and Play I have tried everything I can think of and the system is still BSODing right before the windows setup can begin regardless of which copy of windows XP i try it does the same thing and BSODs before it gets more then 1-10 seconds into the setup..... So I guess my question is what is actually loading when windows begins to enter setup? Could it be loading necessary video drivers or something that is failing hardware wise on the MoBo and that's why this is happening?

Also just for the hell of it I plugged in a PCI-E card and used that instead of the onboard and it BSOD even faster then before as it BSOD at the windows scroll bar on boot, I also unplugged the CD drive and swapped out the PSU with a known good PSU BSOD still appears right before setup can begin


This issue really is pissing me off because I do not understand what is happening I am just going to chaulk it up to some freaky kind of hardware failure but I haven't seen anything like this.

This post has been edited by jdbaker82: 21 May 2010 - 09:34 AM

Also I wanted to try and flash the BIOS with a newer version just for kicks but can only find a .exe BIOS update on HPs site that needs to be installed from OS logged in... Does anyone know how I could do this?

Have I done everything? Anyone else agree this is a faulty Mobo or component.