XP Pro upgrade with 0x0000007b stop error on a Abit BE6 and Matrox G400 Max

[zasskar2]

hey everyone,
I have a matrox g400 AGP card (maybe the max version but I don't think it matters) and I'm trying to update from Win ME to Win XP Pro. However, after XP Pro reboots to continue the install process, I get a blue screen stop error of 0x0000007b. The Microsoft tech believes it's due to hardware and since my gear is pretty normal, I'm thinking it might be due to the G400 or motherboard. Do any of you have any suggestions on this problem or do you have a BE6 (with latest Bios) or the Matrox G400 and were able to do the upgrade? I saw that others were having similar XP Pro problems but I do not have the Via 133 chipset on my motherboard.

Oh, I did use add/remove programs to remove all matrox powerdesk and graphic card drivers before doing my upgrade just incase those drivers would cause problems but I still have the same error.

Thank you very much!
michael

--
Abit BE6 motherboard with latest bios (Intel 440 BX chipset)
Maxtor 60GB HD
Western Digital 60 GB Hd
creative labs dvd
hp 9100 burner
acer CD
Linksys NIC card
Soundblaster Live!
PIII 550 MHz

 

[NogginBoink]

It's not the Matrox card.

There's no driver for your hard disk controller card loading up in WinXP is the root cause of the problem. What's the hard drive controller?

If this mobo has both normal and ATA100(?) sockets, use the "normal" IDE ports to finish the upgrade install.

 

[zasskar2]

hey Noggin,

hmm... I think you are actually right. My two hard drives are on the Ultra ATA slot of the mother board. If I go to the device manager, under hard disk controllers I see:

1) Intel 82371AB/EB PCI Bus Master IDE Controller
2) Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
3) Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)

but nothing with ATA. I'm pretty sure at one time I did have an ATA controller listed somewhere (I threw in a new harddrive because I thought the other 12 GB was going bad), so I guess that the fact that it's not listed under hard disk controllers is more proof that you are correct.

So from what you wrote, you are suggesting that I bring up my system on a non ATA IDE controller, finish the install, and then how would I get the controller for ultra ATA? Does the motherboard maker have that or would I go to the websites of my two harddrives?

Thank you for your advice! I have zero experience w/ hard disk controllers.

michael

 

[NogginBoink]

Yep, finish installing on the normal IDE ports then visit Windows Update, which will probably get the driver you need.

 

[LiLithTecH]

I have to ask this.

You spoke to a Microsoft Tech, and he told you it's a Hardware Problem?
Did he advise you that it wasn't a good idea to update from WinME to WinXP?

I think you would do better if you removed the SoundBlaster Live! from the system.
The driver that was installed for WinME does not get overwritten by the generic driver for WinXP maybe the culprit.

Nogginboink.

If you are advising him to move the controller from PIO to DMA or DMA to PIO, then I understand what it is
you are suggesting. Otherwise, he has only 1 controller on the BX board (ATA33).

 

[zasskar2]

hey!

Thanks to your help, I have good news! I removed both hard drives from the ultra ATA and just connected the main drive (w/ the XP and Me OS) to a regular IDE port and I was able to finish the install and now I have XP (and since the upgrade kept ME I have that also on another partition). However, I'd really like to use the Ultra ATA so I downloaded all microsoft updates (even the latest critical) and moved the main drive back to the ATA port (like it originally was) but my computer does not come up in that setting.

Device Manager does show that there are two mass storage controllers with a yellow "!" sign so this agrees with what was the original thought (that I don't have the controller). However, how would I get this storage controller? Is it from the Abit (the motherboard) or does each harddrive manufacturer have their own. I was a bit surprised that windows didn't offer one upon install, but oh well.

At this time, with the main drive on the ultra ATA port, I can't get into windows.
If I select start windows normally, a blue screen very briefly appears and then the system reboots

If I select any safe mode option I get something like multidisk/rdisk/partition(2)/windows/system32/FILES scrolling briefly where FILES are file names and then the computer reboots.

Could somebody please tell me what would be the next step to resolve this issue? I'd guess that somehow I need to get those mass storage controller !'s (for my two drives) taken care of but I'm not sure how I'd do that.

Thank you!!!
michael

PS to answer some questions... yeah, microsoft tech support was very certain that the stop error pointed to hardware. I actually called them back to get a 2nd opinion (well, more likely because I was lazy and didn't want to remove all my hardware and drivers and startup my machine one by one) and the 2nd tech also said it pretty much has to be hardware. at no time did they advise against upgrading from Me

oh, I also installed the latest SoundBlaster Live! driver for Windows XP as well as the graphic card driver for XP

 

[zasskar2]

hey,

so, I found out that the mass storage controllers may be obtained from my mother board maker so now I have "Highpoint Technology Inc. HPT336 Ultra DMA 66 Controller" twice under my SCSI controllers. However, I think there is a 2-1 ratio of these controllers to your harddrive so what I was expecting when I threw in my 2nd harddrive was that I'd get more unknown devices but that didn't happen. So, while I had my two harddrives on the regular IDE port, I added new hardware and forced the addition of the controllers but I can't get the two new yellow !'s to go away and thus I don't think the 2nd drive is supported if I connected it to the ultra ATA port as a slave.

I decided to test this and if I remove my two drives from the regular IDE port and then connected only the master drive (w/ the OS) onto the Ultra ATA port, and my computer comes up in ultra ATA. However, if I connect the 2nd drive as slave (to the grey part) on the same Ultra ATA port, The main screen of windows XP Pro is faded (is 1/2 as bright) and the computer just hangs. Thus, I think somehow I need to force the controllers to work for the 2nd drive. Any suggestions? I'll try to delete and re-install the 2 controllers that aren't working and maybe I'll get lucky.

thank you,
michael