XPS Gen2 Win XP won't boot after CMOS battery died and was replaced

Question

I have a DELL Dimension XPS Gen 2 desktop that doesn’t get used very often. It has a Maxtor SATA hard drive. It is Windows XP OS.

When I turned the computer on recently, it gave a “low battery warning”, then went to a blue screen that included “STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF789E524, 0xC0000034, 0x0000000, 0x0000000)”.

I installed a new battery, but still get the same blue screen message when trying to boot.

I had a paid tech check the system and he says the hard drive (and all other devices) check out as good, but when he tried to reinstall Win XP, it wouldn’t find the hard drive. The tech believes it is looking for an IDE hard drive, and needs something that tells it to look at the SATA hard drive instead.

Where can I get such a thing, and how would I install it with Windows not working?

I am an intermediate user.

Thank you.

jackshack · Accepted Answer

I suggest you start the computer and access System Setup by pressing F2 during the self test page.  Once there, search the menus for a SATA configuration menu.  Your SATA controller may need to be set back to something like RAID Autodetect/ATA or RAID On.  When you removed the battery, everything was reset to Default, and your controller was obviously not in the Default state originally.

joembennett · Accepted Answer

I changed the SATA RAID to 'Off' and two new previously hidden choices showed up for Primary and Secondary drives.  I sent the primary to 'hard drive' AND IT IS BOOTING WINDOWS!!!   Yeah!!   Thank you very much!

joembennett · Answer

The first section didn’t help at all.

I ran the “IDE Drive Diagnostics” and got these results:

“Primary SATA

Drive 0: Maxtor 6Y120MB – PASS

Secondary SATA

Drive 0: No device

Primary IDE

Drive 0: LS-120 Floppy Diagnostics Not Supported

Drive 1: No device

Secondary IDE

Drive 0: HL-DT-STDVD-ROM Diagnostics Not Supported

Drive 1: Sony CD-RW Diagnostics Not Supported”

The test then ended, but still would not boot.

DELL-Vikram M · Answer

Hi joembennett,

I will recommend you to perform BIOS defaults on your system:

Restart the system and keep tapping F2 as soon as the Dell logo appears.
Press Alt + F, then Alt + E followed by Alt + B
Exit BIOS and see if the issue is fixed.
If you still face the same issue, enter BIOS again and make sure 'OS Install Mode' is 'OFF'.
In case it is 'On', change it to 'OFF' using left/right arrow key and press Alt + B to save changes.

In case the issue still persists, run the diagnostics on your system to check the hardware functionality:

Restart your system and keep tapping 'F12' as soon as the Dell logo appears.
Highlight 'Diagnostics' using up/down arrow keys and press enter.

Please let me know if you get any error code/message.

Keep me posted. Please reply for any further questions.

jackshack · Answer

Do you have any options for the SATA RAID setting?  As I stated, the settings are in the default state and something needs to be changed.  The settings for your Primary and Secondary controllers are for your IDE ports, the wide flat ribbon cables, and look normal to me.  Concentrate on the setting for RAID.

joembennett · Answer

After entering SETUP, I see:

SATA RAID.....On

Primary Master Drive.....ATAPI Floppy

Primary Slave Drive.....Off

Secondary Master Drive....CD-Rom Device

Secondary Slave Drive....CD-Rom Device

IDE UDMA.....On

Still will not boot to Windows

jackshack · Answer

You're very welcome; good work! Best of luck to you.

Locked Topics – Desktops General

XPS Gen2 Win XP won't boot after CMOS battery died and was replaced

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