BSOD when booting with WD Caviar Blue WD7500AALX HDD

[$Iain$]

Recently I have got a WD Caviar Blue WD7500AALX as a replacement for old 500GB Seagate (ST3500630AS) HDD. I have installed it in my Dell XPS 210 with 2GB memory. The system booted fine and the POST screen can show HDD installed. But when I run the Windows XP installation from CD, it loads for 30 seconds saying "Starting Windows" and then I get a BSOD: STOP 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0, 0). So far I tried many times but still the same issue. Should I RMA it or something else.

[Chachhi]

First of all you need to verify whether the HDD is faulty or not. To check it just use the DLG boot disk to run a test. If there is no problem with your HDD, then I can assume that the problem is with the outdated driver for the controller card. For the latest driver you need to take a look into the Dell web page.

[Jigisha]

I am also using the same HDD. From some time, I find a strange behavior. When you turn on the PC occurs (randomly) one of the following situations:

• Starts quietly within a few tens of seconds.
• Starts but it takes a little longer.
• Starts but it takes a lot more
• Start (appears on your desktop) but soon after crashes.
• Hangs on the screen with the scroll bar and then restarts.
• Hangs on the same screen but does not restart, remains freeze.
• Crashes and the BSOD appear

It seems to me that the problem is with all HDDs of same model or maybe same range. The WD should verify those HDD and send a replacement order for their customers as soon as possible.

[Upendra]

The BSOD error indicates that the Windows kernel has detected that the processor attempts to execute an unknown or invalid. This is often caused by a device driver or device. Try reinstalling or installing a newer driver.

[Ilampirai]

The problem occurs if you restart your computer during or after the installation of Windows. It may be due to three causes: the drive where you install Windows lack of free space, a device driver is defective or obsolete; there is an inconsistency in the BIOS. Troubleshooting: Windows install on a drive with enough free space, delete or disable the driver in question (in safe mode), update the BIOS (see the website of the HDD manufacturer or that of manufacturer of the motherboard).

[Victorious mind]

The BSOD error has something to do with the logon process. I suspect this has a communication problem with the disk or the disk itself a hit away, because of what has one can read / write.

Did you try the disk in some other computer with different motherboard and RAM sticks installed there?

Have you installed HDTune times and made a test sector? If a red box appears, the disk is very bad.

What do the smart values?

[Elucidation]

First of all you need to make sure that the Rams settings in bios are correct. The BSOD can also occur due to faulty or incorrect settings of RAM. Maybe because one of them is functioning at 100%, but if bad setup can lead to bsod, freeze, crash etc. You need to first identify the make and model of ram and see what the latency settings and vDimm and set the default values in the bios. Obviously if you are mixing modules by brand and model you have to set them all of the values of the counter slower.

[AzzamKhan]

I have an easy way for you. Without installing Windows, there is no way you can test RAM and setting and BIOS setting. So try Ubuntu Live CD. It contains Memtest86 + 4.10. When booting from the CD gives me some options:

• Try the SO
• Install the OS
• Check the RAM (Memtest with fact)

Other things that do not now remember. Just choose the option for the control of the memory starts Memtest86 + and part immediately the test. Do not touch anything else. Choose Error Report Mode and assume that there are a default settings.

[MarkBlaise]

$Iain$
I am having the exact same issue - same machine, same memory, same original disk and same replacement disk! what are the odds ??

Anyway, I've gotten a bit further ... BSOD occurs because the machine needs a disk driver installed during Windows XP setup (via F6 when setup first starts).

I just pulled it off the original disk drive (C:\Drivers\R130118), but you can probably download the driver from Dell. Let me know i you can't find it - I'll send it to you. It's called "Intel(R) ICH8R/DO/DH SATA AHCI Controller (Desktop ICH8R)", v6.01.

Installing this via F6 will get you all the way through setup ... but for me, after setup completes and the system goes to boot for the first time, I get
Error loading operating system

From what I'm reading, this occurs because this drive is an "Advanced Format" drive (which most are these days). But XP is not aware of this technology, so when it creates partitions during setup, it may not align them to be compatible with this newer type of drive (the partitions must be aligned so they begin on a multiple of 4 kb, which is the new sector size).

I've read that there are tools that can create such partitions before OS install, or modify them after. The idea I've tried is to use a Windows 7 setup disk to create the disk partitions - then quit the Win 7 install, and continue with the XP install. But that did not work for me - same error (Error loading operating system).

I'm now thinking that the Intel disk driver I have is too old - it probably does not support the newer "advanced" drives either.

So I tried downloading a newer version of the driver from the Intel web site, but that puts me back to where I started (and where you are) - with the BSOD Stop 0x7B during setup.

I'm starting to think that this drive is just not going to work in this machine - dang Dell does not even offer a BIOS update that might help (they've never offered one in like 4 years!)

Maybe I'll call Dell support to find out for sure - though my support contract has expired. Worst case, I'll just get a drive that the Dell web site says is compatible and use this Caviar drive in another machine.

If anyone else has any insights on this, please jump in!

Thanks

[MarkBlaise]

Well, I resolved the issue by purchasing a WD1002FAEX (1 TB caviar black), and using the hard disk driver (via F6 during Windows setup) - it all just worked. I don't know if there is a problem with the 750 GB WD7500AALX ... or it's just not compatible with my machine ... I'm guessing the latter.

You can pick up the 1 TB drive at amazon for $130
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...3327851&sr=8-1

Good luck ...