I'm needing a genuine "guru" to help resolve a serious problem. Hopefully
someone here is up for the challenge. The following is long but perhaps
necessary to provide information which would most likely be asked for
anyway. The system is just short of a year old and has been working
perfectly up until yesterday.
System Specs:
Windows Vista Ultimate and XP Home (dual-boot)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Asus M2N-E
Mushkin PC2 5300 667 - 3 gigs
EVGA GeForce 7600 GT KO
Antec NS 430 Watt
WD 250 gig SATA II x2
Problem:
Most of the time when I bootup I get a BSOD with the following message:
I removed the CMOS battery and reset the BIOS with the mb jumper. No change."The BIOS in this sytem is not fully ACPI compliant. Please contact
your sysem vendor for an updaed BIOS."
STOP 0x000000A5 (0x00000011, 0x00000006, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
I just now tried "Last known good configuration" for the second time today.
No change.
I following the insructions in a MSKB article,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831691, that dealt with this error that
recommended removing the "hiberfil.sys" file, but I wasn't able to delete
it. When I tried to delete it I got an error message saying "File not
found"??? But it is definitely there.
I wondered if the same anomalies I'm seeing in Vista also would be in XP.
So, I tried booting into XP (dual-boot) system and the bootup hung and the
bootscreen logo. So, I can't get into XP to find out. I then used Vista
BootPro 3.3 to restore a saved backup but no change. I pulled the mb battery
and reset the BIOS with the mb jumper, no change. I have run 2 memory
diagnostic tests both with no errors. I have run WD's "Data Lifeguard
Diagnostic" utility and all passed with flying colors. I have tried booting
into "Last known good configuration", but again, no change. And I decided to
restore a week-old True Image backup, using the Boot Disk, but clicking
"Next" on the first screen of the Restore feature, the system hung and I got
one loud, long beep. I had to hard reboot to escape. I've flashed the BIOS
with 3 different versions, no change. I've also tried System Restore with 3
different restore points
I booted with the Vista DVD and ran the Boot repair/check and no errors.
Also ran Vista/Microsoft RAM diagnostic even though memtest86 said no errors
and Microsoft's test was good too. I ran WD's "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic"
utility, both Quick and Advanced with no errors or problems. I removed the
last two "Hot Fixes", uninstalled Logitech Mouse drivers, disabled the
Sidebar, etc. No change.
The only real change I have made is to install a new Samsung 931c LCD
monitor. And, I even disconnected that and tried an old CRT monitor out of
desperation.... no change. I am running the latest Nvidia drivers v. 162.66
and reverted back to an earlier version 158.44 and no change.
Another very strange anomaly is after the system boots into Windows Vista,
if I click on the Start Orb to open the Start Menu, a very long line of "+"
symbols fills the field. After about 30 seconds the same Search results are
displayed above. I can use "Ctrl + a" to select all the "+" signs and delete
them which then reverts the Start Menu to the way it should be. These same
"+" signs will appear in the "Instant Search" box of Windows Explorer if I
open that first.
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