BIG ISSUE.. Need some serious help.

[massacre]

Hello.. for the past 2 months.. me and everyone who has any type of computer background... has looked at my issue.. and we have yet to find the problem.. I have an DELL XPS700... I wanted to reformat one day... so I did and as I was doing so I got this error..

STOP:0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034)

When I got this error.. I thought it was the harddrive and I tried to outsmart it.. so I took the harddrive out.. and put it in my other computer.. I reformated it and it worked perfect.. I then put it back in my dell.. and now my dell wont even boot.. if I try to reformat.. it gives me the same error.. if someone has any type of information about this.. it would be very very helpful.. thank you for your time!

 

[Murloc]

You should learn to write before using a computer.
I mean, everything computer-related is based on written stuff, it might help greatly. Do you use the vocal synthetizer to read text?

Did you try to use another drive instead of that one?
This way you would exclude the drive from the possible causes of the problem.

 

[Fardringle]

Go into the computer's BIOS, expand the "Drives" section, and change the SATA Operation setting from "RAID Auto/AHCI" to "RAID Auto/ATA".

 

[massacre]

What's wrong with my writing? if you can't read it.. then maybe you should think about learning to read.. im not here for your english or grammer input.. i'm asking a computer question.. you wanna worry about writing.. then go to school and become a college professor. thanks.. and I did try two different hard drives to prove that it wasn't an hard drive issue.

and fardringle.. I unable to do that in BIOs because I do not have that option for some odd reason.

 

[KeithP]

How are you doing the formatting exactly? Booting from a Dell OS/system restore disc? Maybe something is wrong with the optical drive or media?

Granted, it does not seem likely given the problem occurs when you try to format the HD but maybe at that point it is trying to read something from the optical drive and is crapping out?

-KeithP

 

[RebateMonger]

This PC has some sort of NVidia disk controller and doesn't seem to offer the same IDE/AHCI/RAID options in BIOS as Dells with Intel disk controllers. The only BIOS settings for the SATA controller seem to be: Off, On, RAID On.

User Manual:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps700/en/OM_EN/FH304A01.pdf

Service Manual:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps700/en/SM_en/syssetup.htm#wp1054747

The "usual" cause of a STOP:0x0000007B error is that Windows isn't able to see the disk. Commonly, this is because Windows was set up with disk controller drivers for a different disk controller or the same disk controller, but with different BIOS options (such as IDE Emulation mode versus AHCI mode).

 

[chieftwopunks]

It may or may not be a hardware issue. Rule out what it isn't then work on finding out what it is. First, try loading a Linux OS. If that doesn't work, take out any added cards and memory. Try to boot with one memory stick. If that doesn't work take it out and try the other memory stick. If that doesn't work try replacing the DVD burner.

I think I've seen this before with older versions of Win XP. If you are trying to load one of those older versions you'll probably need to load the Raid Driver when prompted. If none of this helps find a disc erase utility and XO the drive then try loading your windows disc. You can probably get a free disc erase utility at ZDnet. I use this when nothing else works but most of the time loading Linux will do the trick. I'm sure Ubuntu is probably a free download on ZDnet or Linux.org/.com.

 

[chieftwopunks]

First, try loading a Linux OS.

 

[splat_ed]

There are a number of routes you can explore.

1) Hardware issue: You've checked the HDD and that seems to be fine. Possible DVD drive issue (unlikely though) or bad cable for HDD. You can test for both by using a different (known good) install media. If that can see the HDD then you're all good there.
Also, check in the BIOS to make sure the HDD is recognised in there. I can't see why not, but might as well do this thoroughly

2) Driver issue: The XP install media doesn't have the driver built in (as mentioned by RebateMonger). Again, you could try a more recent XP install media (if available) or Linux (if you're feeling that way inclined). Alternatively, use slipstreaming software to create a customised XP install disc with the drivers built in.

Hope this gives some ideas,
Michael

 

[massacre]

Thanks for all the help and input guys.. i've tried all of these and none have worked out for me.. I will be just building a new pc after all.. I did need an upgrade.. but I will be keeping some decent parts in the XPS 700