UPDATE!! ACPI FIXED!! Errr, disabled.... Scroll down....K7 Master & XP Pro = ACPI BIOS read/write port errors!!

[Sketcher]

K7 Master - BIOS updated to 1.3

Clean Full install of XP Professional. Event log shows:

<<<ACPI BIOS is attempting to write to an illegal IO
port address (0x4d1), which lies in the 0x4d0 - 0x4d1
protected address range. This could lead to system
instability. Please contact your system vendor for
technical assistance.>>>

Found 2 articles through google that lead me to believe it's a direct BIOS issue. Every driver and BIOS is updated/digitally signed/flashed and official. I read a post somewhere that ACPI is only used for multi-proc boards but for whatever reason was still enabled on single proc boards. Disabled the ACPI in BIOS and couldn't get it to boot past the "Safe Mode" screen. Booting into Last Known Good wouldn't work either.

Loaded default BIOS settings and tried the ACPI disable = no change.
Loaded Optimized defaults and tried the ACPI disable = no change.

Re-enabled the ACPI and all's good. Except for the ACPI BIOS reading/writing to port errors and some new error about the driver disabling the write cache on...(hdd-1)

I heard somewhere that sacrificing chickens, though messy seemed to work. 😀


Any ?non-chicken? related help on this would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Sketcher

 

[Technonut]

EDIT: I thought that the ACPI BIOS error I had was resolved.... but, I was looking in the Application Log instead of the System Log. The error is still present. 🙁

I did find This..., and Also This, which may help. My system runs fine even though the error is present.

 

[Sketcher]

Techno,

Thanks for the reading material. I'm thinkin' it comes down to the BIOS. The only items connected right now are the 3.5" and Hard Drive. I've removed NIC (i'm using another computer right now), Adaptec SCSI controller, Maxtor EIDE Controller, All extra Drives, Iomega Zip 250. And I've swapped out the Vid card. No change. Still get the ACPI BIOS error - cleaned the registry and rebooted and no progress.

Sketcher

 

[Sketcher]

Desperation Bump.

 

[Sketcher]

And again

 

[Sketcher]

And one more time.

 

[Sketcher]

ACPI BIOS FIXED!!!!! Err, disabled... Someone please hand me a tissue!!
I'm a bit giddy at the moment. Was zoomin' through the VIAHardware forum and found a ref to changing the device manager "Computer" ACPI setting to Standard PC instead of the ACPI setting.

****Note, that the problem that causes the ACPI BIOS Error is a BIOS/Motherboard Manufacturer problem. Windows XP ACPI operates properly and Microsoft Seriously discourages altering this setting****

The person who posted this got a whole lotta flak for posting cause it can do a whole lotta funky stuff that was never intended. To novice and experienced users, it could be a whole new learning experience.

That said, I've been fightin' this one for so long - and my system's been rebuilt so many times that I didn't even think twice about crashing it again. I performed the steps below and am now on my 7th reboot WITHOUT ERRORS IN THE EVENT LOG!! And I mentioned the snappiness of my previous device manager trek - this one's AWESOME! Everything's more responsive and faster loading. COLD BOOT TO LOGIN SCREEN = 39 SECONDS.

Now, that's what it's done for me. Who knows what it could do for anyone else, even with the same hardware & OS. I don't recommend trying this if you're not willing to give up the ghost. Don't be "iffy" about it. If you try this, make sure you're willing to crash and burn.

And who's to say that this comp will turn on tomorrow morning!? Or the next day. I'll be posting any new information about my experience as it happens. It looks good right now. I have no idea what all might have been affected though. Time will tell.

Good Luck!!

Device Manager,
Click on Computer.
It should be listed as a A.C.P.I. PC.
Update the driver on this and change it to standard pc.
You will have too keep your driver disks handy
upon reboot but you will never see those errors
again. Hope it helps. (Patrick275 - of VIA Hardware Forum)