# Fatal Error (ACPI Location)



## Powercore (Feb 22, 2011)

Okay. So here's the thing.

When booting up Win 7 x64, i get this:

''FATAL ERROR: Failed to find ACPI location. Not compatible with this system. Press any key to continue booting.''

After pressing any key, i get to the Windows Error Recovery screen.
This gives me two options:
''Launch Startup Repair (recommended)''
''Start Windows normally''

Choosing ''''Launch Startup Repair (recommended)'' just sends me back to the Error Recovery screen, whilst choosing ''Start Windows normally'' makes it go to the ''Windows is reading files screen'' - From where it reboots after some reading.

Of course, this brings me back to the initial error screen (ACPI location)

-------

First of all, - I am not by any means good at fixing windows before boot, and I'm not any good at BIOS settings.

I havent made any servere changes to the system in the last few days - No new software or hardware.

What I have done is install new graphic card drivers to suit BF3, as well as overclock my graphic card just a little bit, - but this was about a week ago.
Now, about that overclocking. I only overclocked it just a little bit trough the catalyst control center, at the system was running stable as every afterwards. I've been using these setting for about a week with no problems what so ever. 

Now.. what I could believe has caused this COULD be that i turned the power off on the button before this error occuring..(Well, I realise that it has to be this).
Now, - the reason for this stupidity is my display - sometimes it doesn't show anything at the first boot up, and the system needs to be restarted in order to make the display show anything. The thing is, i waited to restart the computer long enough to ensure that it wouldent be disrupted doing boot up.

Okay, I hope this was enough information about the main problem and my thoughts of the causes. Now to what I've attempted to fix the problem:

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To fix the problem, I attempted to gather information through search on the error.
This only gave me 1 hit, which was a guy that had the exact same error.
This guy solved the problem through bios. Turns out his ACPI settings weren't enabled. 
Naturally, I went to look through my bios to find my ACPI settings.. turns out I couldn't find any, it's not even mentioned once under advanced power manegement.
I guess it's not included in the bios for win 7.. But what do I know..

Since BIOS was a no-go, i tried booting into failsafe.. But it turns out that impossible as well, it just goes to the ''Windows is reading files screen'' once again - From where it reboots after some reading.

-----

Well, I hope this was good enough for starters, I would really appreciate if anyone would attempt to help me with this.

Oh, and since I'm not all that good at this stuff.. I can't describe my system to the detail:

- Maximus III Extreme ROG
- ATI radeon HD 4890
- Intel i7 8-core
- 8 gigs of ram
- 1 disk of 2 TB
..Yeah, sorry about that.

Oh oh and BIOS:
- American Megatrends V. 0261 (Maximus III Extreme V0503?)


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Boot into the Bios and look for Hard Drive or SATA settings. You should see ACPI setting or you might see AHCI mode, change this to IDE or compatibility mode.


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## Powercore (Feb 22, 2011)

Well hello there spunk.funk, thank you for the reply.

''Boot into the Bios and look for Hard Drive or SATA settings. You should see ACPI setting or you might see AHCI mode, change this to IDE or compatibility mode.''

So, I just booted into Bios:
Went into ''Main'' --> Storage Configuration, looked like this:

--

SATA Configuration [Enhanced]
Configure SATA as [IDE]

Hard Disk Write Protect [Disabled]
IDE detect Time Out(Sec) [35]

--

I guess this is how you would like it to look like though..

Under SATA config. I'm able to choose from Disable, Compatible and Enhanced
Under ''Configure SATA as'', I can choose from IDE, RAID or AHCI.

I tried to put my SATA configuration to Compatible --> Booted --> Same problem

I tried to put my ''Configure SATA as'' to AHCI --> Booted --> Same problem

I have reset the options to [Compatible] and [IDE] now.

I'm sad, thank you very much for your help so far though.


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

It sounds like your HDD has failed. Download the ISO image for *Drive Fitness* test in my signature and burn the image to CD using *IMGBurn* also in my signtature. Boot off of the newly created CD and run the short and extended tests. It either fails, then HDD needs to be replaced.


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## Powercore (Feb 22, 2011)

Okay so I've been trying to figure this Drive Fitness thing out.

I followed your instructions and burned the image to a cd - from which I have booted on.

I've tried a few different options, but it doesn't find ANY devices when i do the search. Am I doing this right? Or is this just the HDD being dead?


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, good advice from Spunk Funk 



> I have reset the options to [Compatible] and [IDE] now.


As it is, this is the correct setting, you might like to check the physical connection of the sata cable from the hdd to the MB, they are known to be not as secure as the old IDE.

SATA will by default have the controller set to IDE, AHCI offers a performance boost, you need to mod the registry to let windows accept the BIOS setting change to AHCI, you might like to do this after you get the drive sorted.


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## Powercore (Feb 22, 2011)

Thanks for the help so far, I'll be looking further into the problem after i get some sleep.


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## Powercore (Feb 22, 2011)

I'm back.

So I didn't find any devices running the drive fitness program, - not sure if I'm doing it right though.

I just ensured that all cables are properly connected, especially between MOBO and HDD.

Still getting the same error.

Is there any chance that a bios update would fix this?


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Boot into the Bios, is your HDD showing up there? If not, then remove the drive from the computer and attach it with a USB Adapter to a working computer. Out of the case, you can hear or feel if the drive is spinning up, is clicking or is cold (dead)


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## Powercore (Feb 22, 2011)

Thank you for the reply.

In the BIOS, it doesn't show anything under main.

--> SATA 1 : [Not detected]
--> SATA 2 : [Not detected]
..etc

But under boot device priority it says:
[IDE : WDC WD2001FASS]

I have opened the casing, and the HDD is warm. Furthermore, I can hear it spin up at boot.

At the current momnt, I'm not able to try it out on another PC (otherwise I would have done that already) - But I'll do so at the next opportunity.


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