# New Motherboard, Blue Screen at Windows Boot



## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Hello,

I installed a new motherboard along with new DDR3 RAM, and I transfered all my old parts into the new board. Everything looked good in the case so I booted up but I cant get into Windows as I get a Blue Screen every time. Here's the message I got:

"Windows has shut down to avoid damaging your system blah blah..

Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a driver is identified in the stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video adapters.

Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical information

*** Stop: 0x0000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF880011A5EE0, 0xFFFFF880037091E8, 0xFFFFE88003708A40

*** ACPI.sys - Address FFFFF880011A5EE0 base at FFFFF880011A40000, DateStamp 4a5bc106"

I might have mistyped something, but that's the gist of it. I obviously have adequate disk space, over 500gb of it. I really doubt the problem is my video adapter. It's hard to go wrong installing a video card, but if it is the case, how can I confirm it is the video card?

At first I thought I might have fried my CPU as I tried some Arctic Silver 5 and might have applied it wrong, and BIOS is reporting the CPU temp at around 40C, which is high. CPU is amd phenom II X2 3.1GHz Dual Core. Think this might be the problem? 

This is a new motherboard, an Asus M4A77TD. The RAM is DDR3 G.Skill 4GB, could the RAM be faulty?

I reformatted and reinstalled Windows 7, and it didn't stop the blue screens.

I'd really appreciate a little insight about this. I'd like to know if I have to replace any parts or if I can fix the problem before it comes to that. Thanks.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Have a look at this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953356


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Did you install the ACPI driver? Check in the device manager to see.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Tyree said:


> Have a look at this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953356


Thanks, but I've always used AMD processors, and I'm running Windows 7. I don't see how this is the same problem. Also, I'd have no idea how to fix this. I can't even boot into safe mode without a blue screen.



Amd_Man said:


> Did you install the ACPI driver? Check in the device manager to see.


I'm not sure if I've installed the ACPI. How do I get to device manager if I blue screen before windows boots? I have the CD that came with the motherboard.


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## makinu1der2 (Jan 1, 2008)

Boot into BIOS.

What is the SATA Configuration set at (IDE,RAID,AHCI)

Try setting to IDE to see if can boot system.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

makinu1der2 said:


> Boot into BIOS.
> 
> What is the SATA Configuration set at (IDE,RAID,AHCI)
> 
> Try setting to IDE to see if can boot system.


Ok checked in BIOS:

OnChip SATA Channel: Enabled
SATA PORT 1 - PORT 4: IDE
SATA PORT 5 - PORT 6: IDE

Primary IDE Master: ATAPI DVD A DH1
Primary IDE Slave: Not Detected
SATA 1: Hitatchi HDT725050V

So this looks right to me. All SATA ports are set to IDE. My HDD is in SATA port 1, and there's nothing in the other SATA ports.

Btw the exact time I'm getting the bsod is just after the Windows Logo has disappeared and Windows is just about to appear. Sometimes the bsod doesn't even show up and I just get a restart, sometimes it shows up for 2 seconds then a restart, sometimes the bsod stays until prompted.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Can you boot into safemode?


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Hypernon said:


> Thanks, but I've always used AMD processors, and I'm running Windows 7. I don't see how this is the same problem. Also, I'd have no idea how to fix this. I can't even boot into safe mode without a blue screen.


The link applies to AMD but if you can't bet into the Bios I would suggest testing on the bench.

1) Remove EVERYTHING from the case
2) Set the motherboard on a non conductive surface. The motherboard box is perfect for this. DO NOT PLACE THE MOTHERBOARD ON THE STATIC BAG! It can actually conduct electricity! 
3) Install the CPU and heat sink.
4) Install 1 stick of RAM.
5) Install the video card and attach the power supply connection(s) to the card if your card needs it.
6) Connect the monitor to the video card.
7) Connect the power supply to the motherboard with both the 24pin main ATX Power connection and the separate 4 or 8 pin power connection.
8) Connect power to the power supply.
9) Do NOT connect ANYTHING else. Make sure you have the power connector on the CPU fan connected.
10) Use a small screwdriver to momentarily short the power switch connector on the motherboard. Consult your motherboard manual to find which two pins connect to your case's power switch. Then touch both pins with a screwdriver to complete the circuit and boot the system.

If all is well, it should power up and you should get a display. Then assemble the parts into the case and try again. If the system now fails to boot, you have a short in the case and need to recheck your motherboard standoffs.

If the system does not boot after this process, then you most likely have a faulty component. You'll need to swap parts, start with the power supply, until you determine what is defective.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> Can you boot into safemode?


Nope, it usually hangs while loading some file like windows/system32/drivers/disk.sys, it has hanged on other files as well. Then it proceeds to load windows and I get a restart at the same spot.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Tyree said:


> The link applies to AMD but if you can't bet into the Bios I would suggest testing on the bench.
> 
> 1) Remove EVERYTHING from the case
> 2) Set the motherboard on a non conductive surface. The motherboard box is perfect for this. DO NOT PLACE THE MOTHERBOARD ON THE STATIC BAG! It can actually conduct electricity!
> ...


Even if the link applies, to AMD, the solution involves booting into safemode to edit registry (I can't boot into safemode) or using the windows cd to do a repair. I've already tried reformatting and reinstalling windows 7, and doing a repair. The automatic repair said it made some changes to my startup settings but it didn't fix the problem.

You said if I can't get into the BIOS i should test on the bench, but I can get into the BIOS no problem. I just can't boot Windows in any way.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Tyree is suggesting a bench test because it's the best way to narrow down your issue. If you follow what he's saying you should find what piece of hardware is causing these issue's.

Edit: Have you tried loading the Bios defaults?


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Opp's! Disregard!!!!


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> Tyree is suggesting a bench test because it's the best way to narrow down your issue. If you follow what he's saying you should find what piece of hardware is causing these issue's.
> 
> Edit: Have you tried loading the Bios defaults?


Yes I've tried loading the BIOS defaults. Didn't help.

I've also tried swapping my HDD SATA cable, trying the cable in a different SATA port, swapping my RAM around, etc. I guess I'll try a bench test now.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Booted up the first time with the bare bones and it said it needed a boot device, so I plugged in my HDD and restarted, it got to Windows and restarted again. So according to Tyree I have a short in the motherboard or a faulty piece of hardware.

If the motherboard standoffs are secure and the motherboard is screwed in properly, what else could cause a short in the motherboard?

What are the main candidates for hardware failure? I assume it must be the HDD or the PSU, but could it be something else? I do have spare hardware for pretty much everything, but I only have this one DDR3 compatible motherboard to go with my set of DDR3 memory. My other stuff is all DDR2 boards/ram. If I replace the HDD and the PSU and it still doesnt work, what should I do next?


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Sorry for all the posting, but I can't edit my other posts anymore. Since all my old hardware worked fine before I added the new mobo and ram, why would installing new mobo and ram make my other stuff fail? Isn't the problem surely either the mobo or the ram? So basically I need to confirm which one it is and replace/fix it. Does this sound right?

Also, while I had my comp running with the case open I could hear a very faint high pitched noise, kind of like a whirring noise. My PSU is corsair HX620 and worked perfectly fine in my old system.

This is most likely irrelevant, but in order to install my RAM into my Mobo I had to apply an extreme amount of pressure, so much that the skin on my fingers became raw. Finally the things got clipped in, but I found it pretty ridiculous.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Seeing the problem occurred after installing a Mobo & RAM I would have to assume those items are where the problem lies. 
Are you certain the CPU & RAM are compatible with the Mobo?
Listing all of the hardware you are using (Brand & Model) might prove useful.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Tyree said:


> Seeing the problem occurred after installing a Mobo & RAM I would have to assume those items are where the problem lies.
> Are you certain the CPU & RAM are compatible with the Mobo?
> Listing all of the hardware you are using (Brand & Model) might prove useful.


Here it goes:

Motherboard: ASUS M4A77TD
CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 3.1GHz Dual Core
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850
RAM: G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 RAM
PSU: Corsair 620HX 620W Modular
HDD: Hitachi HDT7250 500GB SATA 7200RPM HDD
CD: ATAPI CD/DVD
Sound: Onboard
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 920

CPU is AM3 socket, motherboard is am3 socket/ddr3, ram is ddr3. I thought everything was compatible.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

What are your settings for the ACPI in the power section of the Bios?


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> What are your settings for the ACPI in the power section of the Bios?


I found 3 settings that involved ACPI:

Suspend Mode, I have it set to Auto. Other options are S1 (POS) only, and S3 only.

ACPI 2.0 Support. I have it set to enabled. I tried running with this disabled, nothing changed.

ACPI APIC Support. I have it set to enabled. I tried running with this disabled, windows still failed to boot but I got an error message with the code: 0xC0000225

Also, thanks a lot for the help so far. I've posted this same problem on three other boards and this is the only place I've gotten any decent responses.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Do you know what Bios revision your using? They've came out with 8 bios revisions on your board since it came out.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M4A77TD&product=1

Edit: If you pause the Post screen, you'll see what Bios revision that you have near the top of the screen.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> Do you know what Bios revision your using? They've came out with 8 bios revisions on your board since it came out.
> 
> http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M4A77TD&product=1
> 
> Edit: If you pause the Post screen, you'll see what Bios revision that you have near the top of the screen.


I'm using version 0316. They've come out with 3 BIOS revisions that are newer than mine. Do you think flashing to the latest BIOS might help? I checked on the ASUS site to see if my CPU was supported by my board with revision 0316, and it said that it was. So the Mobo and CPU are definitely compatible.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Ya! I seen that too. I don't think that flashing the Bios will help in this situation. Do you know what voltage your memory requires to run at?

Edit: If the memory voltage is set incorrectly it will cause BSOD's.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> Ya! I seen that too. I don't think that flashing the Bios will help in this situation. Do you know what voltage your memory requires to run at?


Hah, I just thought of that also. I noticed that at POST it thought the memory was 1333MHz instead of 1600 so I found that weird. My memory says it should run at 9-9-9-24 with 1.5v. Looking in BIOS, everything is set to AUTO. Memory Over Voltage is set to Auto, and in the side panel it says Min = 1.3500V Max = 2.2050V Standard = 1.50000V Increment = 0.0150V. DRAM 1st Information in BIOS is: 9-9-9-24-5-33-10-4. Options such as TLC, TRCD, TRP etc are set to Auto. DRAM 2nd Information is: 8-2-5-4-2-90-90. Options such as TRWTTO, TWRRD, etc are set to Auto. DRAM Frequency is set to Auto but in the options I can force it to run as 1600MHz, think I should give that a try?

Edit: Read a review of the board on Newegg. Here it is:

"Pros: This board had a great layout. The only weird thing was the placement of the battery and CMOS clear (usually they are next to each other).

Cons: Raid... really slow to scan the drives at start up, and it does it every time.

Windows 7... For some reason my windows 7 installation which I had on a previous amd x64 wouldn't start on this board.

Ram... I couldn't get my DDR3 1600 to run at 1600. It reverted to DDR(1) 133 or something atrociously slow.

Power... As others have indicated, there seem to be some problems with power control on this board. After updating settings in the BIOS, it wouldn't restart. I would save Save and Exit and have to manually power down.

Bios... It wouldn't accept the download I pulled from the ASUS site.

Other Thoughts: I realize that all these problems probably /could/ have been fixed, and maybe this is a great board if you don't have these problems. However, I'm looking for a simple and compatible board, not a 3 day project just to boot into Windows.

ASUS has gone the way of feature bloat and poor implementation. I'm moving on to another brand."

Well there's someone who had similar problems.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

If it's suposed to run at that then yes. Also manually set the voltage to 1.5v. All motherboards are getting tricky to work with, with all the different settings. I liked the days when all you had to do was set the date and time and some minor things. It's gotton to the point where a novice is in over their heads.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> If it's suposed to run at that then yes. Also manually set the voltage to 1.5v. All motherboards are getting tricky to work with, with all the different settings. I liked the days when all you had to do was set the date and time and some minor things. It's gotton to the point where a novice is in over their heads.


Manually set frequency to 1666MHz, and voltage to 1.5v. Restarted, POST correctly detects it as 1666MHz Unganged Mode, but I still can't boot windows. I haven't even seen a BSOD for a while now. It just restarts after the windows logo. This is quite frustrating.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

If it's not BSODing then after post press the F8 key and repair Windows or even better wipe the disk and reinstall. It may have corrupted the Windows install.

Edit: Not seeing the "blue screen of death" is a good thing.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> If it's not BSODing then after post press the F8 key and repair Windows or even better wipe the disk and reinstall. It may have corrupted the Windows install.


Yeah I've done both of those things, but at this point I'd do it 5 times if it fixed my problem, so I'll try again.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

Did you try re-doing it after you got the memory sorted out?


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Amd_Man said:


> Did you try re-doing it after you got the memory sorted out?


Ok, so I tried to load Windows off the Windows CD and I got the BSOD again after the Windows Logo except it didn't have the part about ACPI at the bottom. I tried again with the Windows CD and it worked. I reformatted my drive so there were two blank partitions, one system, one primary. I installed Windows 7 on the primary partition, it installed, went to restart to finalize the installation, then as Windows loaded up again I got an extra long BSOD. Text scrolled the screen and at the bottom I saw a number going up quickly, something about cache data? Then the computer restarted. Now whenever I load Windows it says something like "Startup is completing installation" then an error dialogue comes up saying Windows experienced an unexpected restart during installation, please restart Windows to continue the installation. I press OK, computer restarts, Windows loads, and I get the same error dialogue, and the cycle repeats.

If this is beyond fixing I might revert back to my old motherboard and ram, make sure that works, then try returning the new motherboard. This just seems like such a strange problem that I'm wondering if I'm doing something incredibly stupid to cause it.


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

try doing a diagnostic on your hard drive. It's all a process of elimination as bad as it seems.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

Edit: Write down the errors that you've gotton so far. That way you can explain to the people that you bought the stuff from. They may be able to fix it or replace if they can't.. I'm trying to help, but without physically being in front of your computer it's difficult to exactly pinpoint the problem. It's possible that you got a defective part.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

Well, I went back to my old motherboard and RAM, and I get the same problem. So I'm 90% sure it must be the Hard Drive. I don't know what happened to it but something obviously went wrong during the installation. I'm currently going to try a different Hard Drive.


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

I tried using an old IDE hard drive with Windows XP on it. Booted up, went to the Windows XP logo, and restarted. So, this means it isn't the hard drive either? If it isn't the motherboard, RAM, or hard drive, that leaves only 3 parts left in my system that it could be: The PSU, the Video Card, and the CPU. But why would it possibly be the video card? I'm having no video issues whatsoever. I'll try replacing it though just to be anal. If it was the CPU, would I even be able to get to the Windows Logo? The logical choice is the PSU I guess. Let's try replacing that next. If it isn't the PSU or the Video Card, then it absolutely must be the CPU right?


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## Hypernon (Jul 12, 2009)

EUREKA! Problem solved. It wasn't my hardware at all. It was Microsoft's fault! There's a small bug with the Windows 7 installation process that is fixed by removing the Windows CD after the first restart after the initial install. Wow, this whole thing was so stupid. Here's the link I found on Google that saved me: 

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...l/thread/876d552c-428b-402b-be19-adeab4fd618e


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## Amd_Man (Jan 27, 2009)

I'm glad that you got it solved. That is weird as I've installed it on several machines and did not have that issue. I left the Dvd in and when it restarts after the intial install, it will come up and say "press any key to boot from dvd rom (or cd rom, something like that)". I just don't hit a key and it finishes the install without a hitch.


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