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Can't turn on computer since power failure
Ok here's the rundown:
Computer is a Dell XPS Gen 2 desktop running Windows XP SP3 and is 7 years old. I've been getting a low battery voltage warning for about 2 weeks but the system always boots and runs fine after hitting F1 at the prompt. The system e=was last used on Saturday Oct 30 and was shut down properly. I live in the northeast and we had a freak snowstorm that killed power to my house for 3 days. Once power was restored I tried to turn on the computer and after the low battery warning now I'm getting the screen that says there was a problem shutting down last time and asking how to proceed; Normal, safe mode,etc. Whichever one I choose to boot with I see the Windows logo for a second and then the blue screen of death comes up telling me that an error has happened and it won't start to prevent any damage. It gives the error code- STOP: 0x0000007B From there I can do nothing except hitting the power button and the system shuts down.
I talked to Dell support for 2 hours and got nowhere. They kept saying there was damage done because the system was shut down by the power failure even though I kept telling him the computer wasn't even on. He had me try to boot off the resource disk withthe drivers and diagnostics on it but it won't boot from the cdrom. His final fix was to reinstall Windows, which I can't do because I have many files I hadn't backed up yet that I need from the computer.
Any ideas?? Microsoft's website identifies the error code but there are a few different things that could be causing it. My other idea is, can I take out the hard drive and use a IDE to USB adapter and hook it up to my laptop to access my files and copy them then reinstall windows on the old system? The newer laptop is running Windows 7 and I don't know if it would read the XP hard drive.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
RoHe
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November 4th, 2011 15:00
I think your problem is: RAID ON
Unless you have a RAID setup with 2 hard drives, which you apparently don't. you need to change that setting. Not sure what the alternatives are in this system, but if the SATA drivers were installed, you want something like RAID Autodetect/AHCI, or AHCI. If SATA drivers aren't installed, you want RAID Autodetect/ATA. You certainly don't want RAID ON.
You should also put the boot hard drive as first in the hard-drive boot sequence.
RoHe
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November 3rd, 2011 14:00
Sounds like the motherboard battery is dead. You should replace that first. It may fix the problems.
Mojoman1958
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November 3rd, 2011 14:00
I replaced the battery and all it did was eliminate the step where I had to hit F1. Other than that it's still the same.
RoHe
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November 3rd, 2011 17:00
Are you sure it's an IDE drive, not a SATA drive?
STOP: 0x0000007B means the hard drive isn't been seen. Assuming this is an IDE drive, open BIOS setup (reboot and press F2). Look for "Primary Drive 0" and see if your drive is correctly idenfied there.
Then look at the IDE Drive UDMA option settings. Not sure which one you need, but try all of them, one at a time.
Finally, look at the boot sequence and make sure the IDE hard drive is first on the list.
Be sure to save the setting changes before exiting setup. And if you're lucky, you'll find the right ones to boot from this drive.
Yes, you can use an IDE>USB adaptor (or housing) to connect this hard drive to another PC. Win 7 should have no trouble reading a drive formatted in NTFS, FAT32 or FAT16 format, assuming it wasn't bricked by the power outage.
muto
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November 3rd, 2011 17:00
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muto
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November 3rd, 2011 18:00
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muto
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November 3rd, 2011 18:00
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Mojoman1958
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November 4th, 2011 15:00
I appreciate the responses. Here's where I stand. First the hard drive is SATA not IDE, sorry, my mistake. I've tried changing all the settings in the setup menu with no difference. Here's how the settings looked when I first accesed them:
Hard-Disk drive sequence: 1.System Bios boot devices, 2.USB device (not installed), 3.WDC WD2500JD-75GBB0
Boot sequence: 1.Diskette drie, 2.IDE cd-rom, 3. Hard-disk drive C:
Device configuration: SATA Raid - ON
When I use F12 on startup and try the different choices this is what I get:
3. Hard-Disk drive C: - it goes right to the screen saying "We apologize for th einconvience......blah, blah...with the choices to start in safe modes or normal or last known good setup. Choosing any of these results in the blue screen with the STOP: 0X0000007B error code.
4.IDE CD-Rom: I put in the disk with the drivers and diagnostic tools and choose this number and it doesn't read the cdrom drive. It just comes up with: "Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility". If I choose F1 it just repeats the same line. F2 goes to the Setup screen.
6.IDE Drive Diagnostics: It says Primary SATA, Drive 0: WDC WD2500JD-75GBB0. It sits there for a while and then says "PASS" and the rest of the cdrom and dvd drives are listed and they say no diagnostic available.
7.Boot to utility partition: Goes to the "we apologize screen again".
That's where I'm at right now. I'm ready to buy an adapter cable and try to recover some data and I guess reinstall Windows. I really don't want to go that route but I may have to.
Mojoman1958
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November 4th, 2011 18:00
Ron, You are definitely a ROCKSTAR!!!!! I changed the Raid setting and that did the trick. This community forum is the best. Thanks for all your help!
RoHe
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November 5th, 2011 13:00
:emotion-21: