WD Hard Drive Puzzle

Dimension 8400's do not have the ability to have BIOS viruses.

There are malware that could DESTROY the bios but not any that could reside in the bios.

Bios viruses have to do with INTEL AMT and VPRO AND SOL.

It runs a webserver on port 16992 underneath your operating system.

The 8400 doesnt have this.

Drives Die.  Its not a matter of IF its a matter of When.

All Drives should be set to CABLE Select.  NOT MASTER NOT SLAVE.

Many drives now only come with 3 year warranty.

There are only 3 makers of drives left in the world.

Western Digital, SEAGATE,  TOSHIBA.

Thanks for the info.  I didn't know that about the 8400 Bios.  I was fishing for answers and tried the Bios flash.  I didn't make it clear that the hard drive works fine in the Opti 745 and 780 after wiping out and reloading XP Home Ed.  

As soon as it boots on the 8400 I get the blue screen.  It would seem that if it works fine on other motherboards then it should work fine on the 8400.  Like I said before the older drive works fine on the 8400.  I wouldn't think that the drive has gone bad if it works on other computers.

Let me understand...do each of your hard drives have their own installation of Windows on them?

Exactly what BSOD are you seeing with that drive now when you boot the 8400?

Did you install the SATA drivers during the reinstall of XP? If not, SATA Operation in BIOS Setup has to be set to RAID Autodetect/ATA to avoid the infamous Stop 7b error. If the other hard drive is also bootable and has SATA drivers installed, BIOS should be set to RAID/AHCI to take advantage of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager.  

If one has SATA drivers and the other not, you can either do that one over, or set BIOS to RAID Autodetect/ATA which will work for both, but without access to the  Intel Matrix Storage Manager on either.  

I'd also flash back to A09 since some of the earlier versions had serious issues. But keep in mind that there's always a risk flashing BIOS may brick the motherboard.

(I'm still using my trusty D8400 too!)

Thanks Ron.  I'll take a look when I get home this evening and let you know the exact fault and check the bios settings.

You can't boot an 8400 in AHCI mode.  

You Must put the sata mode operation into Raid Autodetect ATA mode.

UNDER CMOS SETUP Change the

Drive Controller Configures the serial ATA controller's operating mode.

Identifies and defines the SATA controller settings for RAID.

You can set the SATA controller to RAID Autodetect/AHCI,

RAID Autodetect/ATA,

or RAID On

System Setup: Dell Dimension 8400 Systems ... - Documentation

You cannot move a drive from 745 or 780 into an 8400 or vice versa.

You receive a Stop 0x0000007B error after you ... - Microsoft Support

After you move the Microsoft Windows XP system (boot) disk to a backup computer, you may receive the following Stop error when you try to start the Windows XP-based backup computer:

dimension-8400_Service Manual_en-us.pdf

dimension-8400_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

dimension-8400_Setup Guide_en-us.pdf

Which means you didn't install the SATA drivers when you installed XP on that hard drive.

I installed everything on the CD's.  Maybe I missed something.  Where would you find the Sata drivers?

Windows XP does not natively support AHCI.

The SATA drivers are F6 drivers.

Intel® Matrix Storage Manager

File name: f6flpy3270.zip	Version: 7.0.0.1020		Download
Date: 05/04/2007	Status: Previously released
Size: 0.28 MB	Language: English
Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003 *, Windows 2000 *, Windows Vista *, Windows XP *
File name: f6flpy64.zip	Version: 7.0.0.1020		Download
Date: 05/04/2007	Status: Previously released
Size: 0.36 MB	Language: English
Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003 *, Windows 2000 *, Windows Vista *, Windows XP *

Note Mass storage controller drivers can be loaded ONLY from floppy disks by using the F6 key.

AND not all USB Floppies support this it is a very very very limited subset.

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF741B84C,0xC0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)

INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

The following USB floppy disk drives are included in the Txtsetup.sif file and are therefore supported for use during Windows XP installation:

Collapse this table Expand this table

Plug and Play ID USB floppy disk drive model

USB\VID_03EE&PID_6901 Mitsumi

USB\VID_057B&PID_0000 Y-E Data; Sony part number 09K9835

USB\VID_0644&PID_0000 TEAC; IBM option part number 27L4226, FRU 05K9283

The following USB floppy disk drives are not included in the Txtsetup.sif file and therefore are not supported during Windows XP installation:

Plug and Play ID USB floppy disk drive model

USB\VID_03F0 &PID_2001 HP

USB\VID_054C &PID_002C Sony

USB\VID_057B &PID_0001 Y-E Data

USB\VID_0409 &PID_0040 NEC

USB\VID_0424 &PID_0FDC SMSC

The F6 drivers for the Dimension 8400 are Specific and Require a Floppy Drive to install.

A connected USB floppy disk drive does not work ... - Microsoft Support

support.microsoft.com/.../916196

Limited OEM driver support is available with F6 ... - Microsoft Support

support.microsoft.com/.../314859

STOP 7b Error Occurs When You Press F6 to Load Drivers During ...

support.microsoft.com/.../307099

During an unattended setup of Windows XP where you have set the Repartition option to Yes, when you press F6 to load drivers, the process may generate a STOP 7b error after the text mode portion of setup.

APPLIES TO

   Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

   Microsoft Windows XP Professional

   Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

When you are installing Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Server 2003 on a new computer or on a computer that has the latest SCSI or IDE controller technology, you may have to use an OEM device driver to support, for example, a new mass storage controller, to continue with the installation. The symptoms that you have to install an OEM device driver include the following:

   The computer may keep restarting and never start the GUI installation after the text mode Setup is finished.

   The Setup program may stop, and you may receive an error message if the Setup program does not correctly detect the controller.

   If you are booting from the installation floppy disks or CD-ROM disc, you receive the following error message:

   Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your system

   If you are upgrading by using the Winnt32.exe file, or if you are performing a new installation by using the Winnt.exe file, you receive the following Stop error:

   Stop 0x0000007B Inaccessible_boot_device

This behavior may also occur after you update the firmware or the BIOS of a supported SCSI controller if the update causes incompatibility with the SCSI driver that is included with Windows.

During the text-mode phase of the setup process, Windows pauses briefly and prompts you to press F6. This option is displayed in the status line and lets you use an OEM mass storage controller driver. The F6 option is provided strictly as a means to install OEM drivers for mass storage controllers only. This is required to let the installation of the operating system continue. Microsoft does not support using F6 to install any device driver other than mass storage controller drivers.

Note Mass storage controller drivers can be loaded only from floppy disks by using the F6 key. The F6 key cannot be used to load drivers that are stored on USB flash drives, on USB hard disks, or on other external storage devices.

Use of an OEM driver is limited to installing a driver that is not natively supported or that does not match a driver that is included with Windows. If you use a newer version of an OEM driver, and this new OEM driver has the same name or Plug and Play Identifier as a driver that is included with Windows, the Setup program ignores the new OEM driver and uses the driver that is included with Windows. Therefore, you receive the error message that is quoted in the Summary.

If you press F6 when you are prompted, you receive a screen that requires you to have the appropriate driver on a floppy disk and to insert the disk into the floppy disk drive to load the driver.

Upgrade to Windows 7 or 8 for AHCI support.

Whoa, my head is spinning.  You just shot that one across my bow.  I should have chosen a logon name of Ordinary Average (old) Guy.  

This is the second time I have had to load the OS on the new drive and both times I watched closely at what was going on.  There was never a floppy involved either time and I had no trouble the first time.  Both hdd's were set the same for sata op and I would turn one on and the other off when I needed to.  

The new hdd is now working fine as long as I change the sata op to auto.  I have just about decided since I bought Acronis 2013 to clone the old drive to the new one.  This will get all of the softwares that originally came with the system and it will be something new to learn.  I appreciate the help and paitence from both of you as this has really been an interesting problem.  

Thanks Steve

The instructions to press F6 to install third party (SATA) drivers comes almost immediately after you launch Win XP Setup. It's shown on the status line at the very bottom of the screen and it's only there for ~ 3 sec before the status line changes. So it's very easy to miss.

You can watch this youtube to see how insanely fast the request comes and goes...