BSOD during XP Pro install on Intel D975XBX2 (Resolution inside!)

I just set up the hardware for a new system and I am loading XP SP2 with retail CD. I go through the steps of hitting <F6> to load RAID drivers (Intel Matrix, 3 drives in black connectors SATA 0,1,2) and the setup program continues to load additional drivers (SCSI, etc). Still in the initial setup screen (before the Windows GUI), it will say "Setup will now install Windows", I get the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

I have tried several things and repeated install such as blowing away the RAID volumes and just installing on a single drive to no avail.

A quick google around for "D975XBX2 bsod" reveals many people having similar problems (primarily loading Vista) and their solution was to load the new BIOS (2618). My error started with 2333 so I installed the new 2618 BIOS but still no love.

Several have suggested that their RAM wasn't on the Intel approved list. I've got good RAM (passed an hour on MemTest86+), selected because it is SLI and Vista compatible, but now I'm worried that Intel will push back on me and say its not supported. The mobo auto-detects the RAM as 5-5-5-16 (1.84) so I adjusted the settings to 4-4-4-12 (2.2) to no avail. Pulled out the RAM and tried one at a time without additional success. I've tried disabled multi core and I'm not overclocking (yet) but this board was marketed for its overclocking capabilities for gamers. :mad:

Complete BSOD is:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps. Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check you hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption and then restart your computer.
Technical information:xxx STOP: OXOOOOOO7B (OxF78D2524, OXOOOOOO34,OXOOOOOOOO,OXOOOOOOOO)"

I had a half dozen hits googling for "OxF78D2524" but nothing that I understood or could help me. Note that my DVD player and all hard drives are SATA.

I'm at wits end here folks ... I selected this board largely due to what seems to be the largest user community that use this board and I'm calling upon your wisdom. Help!


UPDATE: Changing out the SATA DVD drive for a IDE one solved the problem and I'm able to load Windows. Bad drive? Nope ... GTJ pointed out that the Marvell SATA slots might require loading the Marvell RAID drivers ... I hesitantly tried it out but it worked like a charm!

New windows XP disk or old one? My friend at work just loaded XP on his machine and had all kinds of issues. The CD had all the usual scratches and marks on it. So we tried a new disk and it loaded right up with no issues at all.

Also, set your RAM to SPD and bring volts up to manufacturer listed 2.2v.

Memtest for an hour isn't the last word on your RAM. I have ran memtest only to get errors after more than 24 hours.

It's a good XP disk, I used it on my last computer.

Can you explain "RAM to SPD"? I'm currently at 4-4-4-12 and 2.2 V. I tried dropping bus from 800 to 667.

What worries me is the "OXOOOOOO7B " error which may indicate HD or HDD controller failure. :eek:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rambunctious

It's a good XP disk, I used it on my last computer.

Can you explain "RAM to SPD"? I'm currently at 4-4-4-12 and 2.2 V. I tried dropping bus from 800 to 667.

What worries me is the "OXOOOOOO7B " error which may indicate HD or HDD controller failure. :eek:

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In BIOS, quit monkeying with the RAM timings. Set them to default, usually this is called SPD in the BIOS. Take your RAM volts up to the manufacturer spec and put the timings on default.

If the problem is the RAM, moving all the timings to faster numbers will not help you a bit.

Bad Axe 2 has "Manual - User Defined" setting for RAM. You don't want that.

Maybe someone with the board can provide more specific help for the setting, but you really want to get to SPD and RAM stock volts.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Speederlander

Bad Axe 2 has "Manual - User Defined" setting for RAM. You don't want that.

Maybe someone with the board can provide more specific help for the setting, but you really want to get to SPD and RAM stock volts.

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Unless I'm really missing something here, the only way I can change voltage is to change from Automatic to "Manual - User Defined". I did follow your suggestion and used "Automatic" to reset settings (5-5-5-16) then upped the voltage from 1.84 to manufacturer's 2.2 setting. Same results :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rambunctious

Unless I'm really missing something here, the only way I can change voltage is to change from Automatic to "Manual - User Defined". I did follow your suggestion and used "Automatic" to reset settings (5-5-5-16) then upped the voltage from 1.84 to manufacturer's 2.2 setting. Same results :(

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Yeah that is where someone with the board can give you better advice. My board allows me to up the RAM volts while keeping the RAM timings at SPD/default.

Maybe it is the hard drive? You could spin your wheels for days with the board and RAM and settings but if the HD has a bad sector you would be getting nowhere fast.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Speederlander

Yeah that is where someone with the board can give you better advice. My board allows me to up the RAM volts while keeping the RAM timings at SPD/default.

Maybe it is the hard drive? You could spin your wheels for days with the board and RAM and settings but if the HD has a bad sector you would be getting nowhere fast.

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Agreed - in between waiting for your posts :grin: I've been doing some HDD diagnostics. About to pull the plug on 2 of the drives and see if I can get this going on a single HDD. I'll post findings, thanks for your help :worship:

Sheesh ... reset the drives to non-RAID, pulled out 2 of the SATA cable from the MB, changed setting from RAID to AHCI and tried to install to single HDD and still getting this error.

Anyone with this board care to help out? I'm dying here :sadwalk:

Yeah, if you are still trying to do RAID don't. Also, read the massive Bad Axe 2 thread if you haven't yet.

Might want to search for RAID threads tied to bad axe 2 as well. Maybe there is some issue with RAID in certain circumstances. I don't run RAID so I don't even pay attention to RAID issues with any of my boards ever.

Are you using marvel or intel sata controllers? I think the black sata ports go through the intel controller? Again, I'm not an expert on this board so I could be giving bad info.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Speederlander

Are you using marvel or intel sata controllers? I think the black sata ports go through the intel controller? Again, I'm not an expert on this board so I could be giving bad info.

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Nope, you're right on. The Intel Matrix are the black and yes, that's what I'm using (with the appropriate driver disk).

Not that your assistance isn't invaluable and much appreciated, but where are the Intel board gurus?

fwiw I'm not using the WD proprietary SATA cables (as it would draw power from the motherboard) and have hooked each HD up directly to the PSU. Once I'm up and running (ugh) I'd like to get 100 gb RAID 0 for OS, Office & Games, and the other 400 on RAID 5 (possible using Intel Matrix). I have each HD on the black conectors (leaving one for future HD addition) and the DVD SATA drive is on the Marvel connectors.

I just blew another 2 hours at work reading through another 20+ pages of the monster thread but most of the suggestions there are RAM related (I gotta try out GTJ's mem-calculator) ... does this problem seem like its RAM related? Did I screw up by going with cheaper RAM? I thought they were a good price/performance point.

What's the most likely cause of failure?
- BIOS settings
- bad MB (doubtful)
- bad RAM
- dumb noob (probable)

I haven't messed around with the RAID features on this board at all, after all the headaches I had with RAID on my 939 systems I don't use it. I do new OS installs/experiment with Linux a little bit and RAID just makes that a nightmare. I have all my drives set in native mode, don't bother with AHCI or RAID because there is no performance difference, and I don't plan to change my drive configuration.
I'm not sure how you are trying to set up that RAID config, I didn't think it was possible to run RAID 0 and RAID 5 both with only 3 drives. But I know one problem may be the drive formatting, any partitions on the drives need to be blown away when starting a RAID array or problems can come up. I think using the WD drive tools to format the setup once you have an array made could be helpful.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LazyBum

I'm not sure how you are trying to set up that RAID config, I didn't think it was possible to run RAID 0 and RAID 5 both with only 3 drives. But I know one problem may be the drive formatting, any partitions on the drives need to be blown away when starting a RAID array or problems can come up. I think using the WD drive tools to format the setup once you have an array made could be helpful.

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Thanks for your thoughts. When I started putting this system together, it was going to center on a motherboard that could handle RAID5 and potentially SLI the 8800 GTX. The problem with the WD drive tools is that the CD isn't bootable. I used the UBCD and the DLG (data lifeguard) product is on there but it hangs my system (possibly the USB mouse/PS2 keyboard issue). Going through Intel Matrix setup (CTRL-I) during boot certainly seems easy enough (and program let me set up this environment with RAID 0/5 across 3 drives). I am a bit concerned about moving to Vista however ...

http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets...rives_2005.jpg

er ... img shows 4 drives, but RAID 5 will work on 3 so I "assume" I'm safe :confused:

My first thing to try would be a different CD drive. If that doesnt help, read the rest of my post.

What are your temps? Be sure your temps are good on both the chipset and the CPU. make sure you are not overclocking in any way. Unplug everything not neccesary to install, this means sound card, extra usb ports, everything. Then clear CMOS, leave the ram timings at the defaults, yet raise the volts to 2.2v. Disable anything and everything in bios you dont need to install windows. Disconnect all of your HDD's from the board and from the PSU except the one you are installing with. If you have another videocard you can install with, use that.

Make sure you do a full format of your install directory and not a quick format.

Double check that CD, the only thing that has ever cause me to bluescreen in windows install is an unstable system or a bad CD. If it goes blue at the same spot every time my bet is on CD.

If none of that works, take the mobo out of the case and run it on the mobo box to make sure nothing is shorting. Also try a different wall outlet.

If it still doesnt work, RMA the board.

Hi Rambunctions, i just recieved your PM, ill try to help you as good as i can.

My experience with the badaxe 2 is really positive so far. I have tested dual Raid 0 (4 disks on each controller) + 1 Ide drive for system, = 9 disks in total, everything went fine. I didnt have any problem with Raid so far.

One thing i am maybe suggesting you is to try something else for your DVD reader. Thats the only one thing i havent tried on those sata controller with the badaxe2, im not sure if the fact that your dvd reader is plugged onto Marvel Sata can cause problem, my best bet would be to try with a normal IDE dvd reader and try with one single sata HDD onto the black sata (intel matrix controller).

Altought when i have built this 8 Sata drive rig, the first time i tried to install winXP32bit, computer hangs at : setup is now starting windows... but no bluescreen. I rebooted and everything works fine.

Make sure everything runs at default settings, check in hardware monitor if your cpu temp looks normal. set vcore to 1.35v, fsb to 266, multi to 9. Ram to ref freq 266, mem freq 667 (will underclock the ram but just to be sure)

Ill try with that. Grab a crappy IDE DVD reader instead of this SATA dvd reader you got and try.

As i told you a problem like this can be pretty much everything, you have to try several things, even things that looks stupid. I heard stories of peple having blue screen because their power outlet on the wall was bad!

Let me know if anything is helping

Excellent thoughts guys, will try an IDE CD drive tonight and attempt the install that way. Heck, I could even try to install onto a spare IDE HD and bypass SATA altogether.

Suppose I can start from square one, pull the battery out and reset BIOS (will this go back to 2333 or will I need to reload it from floppy?)

What do I do with the initial RAM settings in BIOS? Automatic setting shows 5-5-5-16 and V=1.84. Do I simply up the voltage to 2.2 (Manu. spec?)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shogo_ca

As i told you a problem like this can be pretty much everything, you have to try several things, even things that looks stupid. I heard stories of peple having blue screen because their power outlet on the wall was bad!

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:lol: Ok, that's a first.

Lord I hope its not the mobo - it took me days to get it sent to the local Microcenter!

Ill second the reply from Revv23

Quote:

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Make sure you do a full format of your install directory and not a quick format.
Double check that CD, the only thing that has ever cause me to bluescreen in windows install is an unstable system or a bad CD. If it goes blue at the same spot every time my bet is on CD

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.
but i would also DL new raid drivers because it very well could be that the ones you have are corupt or just wrong
Stop 0x0000007B or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE - The Stop 0x7B message indicates that Windows XP Professional has lost access to the system partition or boot volume during the startup process. Installing incorrect device drivers when installing or upgrading storage adapter hardware typically causes stop 0x7B errors. Stop 0x7B errors could also indicate possible virus infection.

Looks like you're getting lots of good suggestions. Just so you know, I've set up both XP and Vista-32bit about a hundred times each on raid configs with this board and haven't had a problem. Vista-64bit DOES have a problem with raid but not 32-bit. I'm testing your exact raid config with XP now but i'm not expecting any problems. BTW, your raid config is perfectly valid.

Trying a different CD-DVD drive is a good suggestion.
My process would be...
Different CD-DVD drive
One stick of memory
All BIOS settings at default (no raid).
1 drive connected to the Intel SATA-0 port

If it works, go back to your original CD-DVD and both sticks of memory.

If it DOESN'T work here, increase the memory voltage to 2.1v leaving all other settings alone.
If it STILL doesn't work, swap the memory sticks.

Things that have caused a windows install to fail for me: bad OS disk, failing hard drive (had 2 36GB raptors puke out on me) and the strangest one, a bad floppy drive. A bad floppy disk/drive/cable will make you rip your hair out in frustration, believe me. The cable is meant to go one direction as well, if you can find the twist it goes on the mobo end, otherwise find the pin marked as pin #1 and make sure the red stripe on the floppy cable is on that end. I'm not sure whether its because floppy drives are cheap and poorly made, because their design makes air get sucked through em and get full of dirt, or because floppys are obsolete and we are all using old media out of a stockpile somewhere, but the damn 3.5 drives are a nuisance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LazyBum

... or because floppys are obsolete and we are all using old media out of a stockpile somewhere, but the damn 3.5 drives are a nuisance.

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I have a few 8" floppies from an IBM System/34 if anyone needs them. :)

Well ... success ? Yes, success! :clap:

I reset the BIOS to default, didn't change a thing, and stuck the XP Pro installation CD into a ancient IDE CD drive and bingo, success! Pulled the CD out and put it back in the SATA drive (so the only difference was reset BIOS) and it crapped out again.

So... major props to :worship: Revv23 for being the first to suggest it. Not sure why the SATA DVD drive fails during the load process, I'll try a couple of different ports (it's on one of the Marvell SATA ports) Update this failed. Still using one drive, I'll hook up the others, setup the RAID and try installing in the optimal setting with this temporary CD/DVD.

Once Windows is installed, do I RMA the DVD SATA drive? or is it just a problem booting from it?

Did you also load the Marvell drivers at F6?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gtj

Did you also load the Marvell drivers at F6?

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:eek2: ... er ... for the SATA DVD drive? No ... will try that now to see if anything is on them.

Update: Ok ... where is that sheepish icon? :doh: Apparently you have to load Marvell RAID drivers to get a SATA DVD player to work in those slots. Are you kidding me?

GTJ you're a credit to the board and I gratefully thank you! :toast:

Glad it all worked out.

Glad you got it working! Thats what we are here for. :)

Yes RMA the drive.

good to hear, now overclock the :banana::banana::banana::banana: out of this board and come back with some results eheh

Thanks guys :) Now I just have to find out where I can get a good benchmarking/info program ... I understand I might be able to find a full version of Everest Ultimate out there :whistlin:

everest is free.

so is sandra, cpu-z, winrar, superpi, all of the 3d marks, systool, pifast, all the pc marks, and aquamark 3.

Thanks Revv23 - I've got ~3 pages of notes on how to oc this baby, just want to make sure I do it safely and correctly.