Dimension 2400 BSOD Driver IRQL Not Less or Equal atapi.sys

Does the computer use a Logitech mouse?  Microsoft has a bulletin on this here:  Stop:  0x000000D1.  If this is not the problem you might want to begin looking at other devices as this problem seems to be a conflict with interrupt assignments.  Does the computer have an add-on video card?

You might want to begin by removing anything connected to the computer and if that doesn't make a difference, start removing the PCI cards, if any.

EDIT:  I note that the error is also complaining about atapi.sys; this is the driver for the drives, both hard drive and CD ROM.  I note you have checked the hard drive; how about unplugging the CD ROM?

One thing about the hard drives; Dell uses the Cable Select jumper setting.  Anything else can cause weird problems.

You mentioned a PS/2 keyboard, but what about the mouse?  Are you still using the PS/2 mouse or is that on the USB?

With regard to the Dell disks, if you have submitted the electronic form you generally get the disks within a week.

Nope.  No logitech mouse. Actually, the only peripheral I have attached is a Dell non USB keyboard. 

No added on video card either.  The only additions that were made, some time before this BSOD started occuring, was a RAM upgrade and an additional hard drive.

I have removed everything.  Tried just the hard drive - BSOD.  Tried Hard Drive and Rom Drive - BSOD.  Tried different jumper settings/configurations - BSOD.

Tried different IDE Cables from my personal pc - BSOD. 

Crazyness.

Thanks for the reply.  Any other advise?

Does anyone know how long it might take to get the Dell Restore CD's I ordered off the website today?  Fingures crossed they might work.

I do not have any mouse attached at this time.

One interesting thing about this computer or motherboard is that it has two places for IDE cables. Neve seen this before, as I am use to my ASUS MB's and IDE/Sata.  Is this because the MB is rather old?

When I got the computer one IDE cable was hooked up to the hard drive with the OP on it as Cable Select. The second IDE cable was hooked up to both the secondary hard drive and a ROM drive via Cable Select. Therefore, I am going to go back and retry everything on cable select just to make sure.

Also, do you know which ram DIMM is the default slot for one module of ram? 

Thanks for the quick replies.  This computer will not beat me!

The Dimension 2400 is a design from 2003, so it is getting a bit ancient.  The motherboard has two IDE channels, each of which support a master and a slave drive.  There is on-line documentation for the computer that you will find here:  Dimension 2400 Documents<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>.  I had three of these for many years, and as I recall it originally shipped with one hard drive and a CD ROM R/W drive.  The IDE cable for the CD drive was a three connector cable so that a second optical drive could be added.  Dell was not willing to support a second hard disk drive on this computer, however, so the cable for the hard drive had only two connectors, the motherboard and the hard disk drive.  In order to add a second drive it was necessary to purchase an 80 conductor, three connector IDE cable.  Most of these are made to support the cable select system and have a blue connector for the motherboard, a black connector at the end for the master drive, and a gray connector in the middle for the slave drive.

If you are using only one memory module it should go into the slot nearest the processor; that is considered to be the first slot.  You don't need to worry about matching memory modules on this computer as the memory controller is only single channel.

If you can find nothing wrong with the hardware you might want to try booting to the advanced start-up menu (F8) and trying Last Known Good configuration.

Thanks for the docs/info re. the MB config. 

I obtained the original RAM that came from DELL, and put it in the "A" DIMM per the Dell docs.

I also hooked up the OP HD only with the Cable Select jumper settings.

I got the same BSOD.

I also tried to load into Safemode, but no luck (BSOD).

I am really hoping the System Restore CD's from Dell work some magic, because I am at a loss for other things to try.

Different HD's & RAM are all producing the same BSOD.

Yes the diagnostic lights eventually all turn green (A and D start off Orange).

I only hooked up the Original Hard Drive, but I have already wiped it totally clean and put a fresh install of XP Home on it.

Should I try t find a different XP Home to try?

So far I can't see this being a hardware problem, but just to be certain, are the four diagnostic LEDs on the back of the computer all green when it attempts to boot?  Also, when you made this last attempt to boot, only the original hard drive was connected?

Do you have any idea when the computer was purchased?  The Dimension 2400 is a machine that crosses the boundary of when Dell began delivering computers with a back-up image on the hard drive.  To see if you have one, watch the machine try to boot.  If you get a blue stripe at the top of the screen after completion of POST, followed by a message beneath the stripe about loading the descriptor for PBR2, the drive has the back-up image.  This can be accessed by pressing CTRL-F11, releasing both keys before the message about PBR2 appears.  If the drive is having problems the partition holding the image could have been corrupted, but you could also get lucky.  Don't try this, however, if your friend has data he needs to recover from the drive.  All data gets overwritten and made inaccessible by the restoration process.

Were you able to install Windows XP by booting the disk on the problem machine, or was the disk prepared on a different computer?  Also, do you have a PS/2 mouse to plug into the computer, and if you do, what happens?

Sorry for the delay in replying.

I prepared the disk within the dell computer. I do not have a non usb mouse at this time.

Looked for one around the house, but no luck.

I ordered the Dell Recovery CD's and got them today.  Did a fresh install in the Dell PC with the recovery disk, but same BSOD.

Are you suggesting that I try and install a fresh Windows using a different pc? Never thought to try and do that.

Any other suggestions.  I am at a huge loss.  Clueless on what else I can try.

Thanks

No, not suggesting you install on a second computer and transfer to the Dimension 2400.  Doing things like that bring another set of problems.  I'm just wondering if you can set up Windows on the machine.

I assume that since you achieved an installation, the Dell Windows XP installation CD works ok.  At what point in setup do you encounter the blue screen?  If you don't get the blue screen during setup, at what point does it occur?  I assume that the computer still has no PCI cards and nothing attached to it other than keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

Other things to try just to see if the symptom changes; start the computer without the mouse attached (I wouldn't pull it while the machine is running, but you can certainly plug it in if the machine boots successfully), if you have an additional memory card, swap it for the one you've been using, or move the memory card you have to the second memory slot.  These things fall in the category of strange things happening.  My E520 was giving me blue screens every ten minutes or so, yet the hardware POST was completing without trouble every time.  I have a disk with Dell diagnostics, ran it several times testing memory and hard drive, passed every time.  Windows, however, was catching something.  Finally fixed it by pulling all the memory and running one card at a time until I found one that caused the blue screen.  Replaced the memory and haven't had a blue screen in six months.

P.S.  What service pack is included on the installation CD Dell sent you?  I would expect SP-3, but didn't want to assume.