Itcher

I had windows server installed alright but after some trouble after a graphics and sound upgrade I ended up getting stop errors and now thinking I should reinstall windows and start a fresh, I can't even install it. It wipes the HDD, installs the config files, restarts, starts the main windows installer then crashes, usually with a stop error (either that or it just restarts with no apparent error at all). The following two stop errors have occured:

A thread tried to release a resource that it did not own

and

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

It must be hardware, not software. I've trie dinstalling from a different disk (an original, rather than a slipstreamed copy i made), same problem occured. I've downgraded the BIOS to an earlier version i knew that worked. I've taken out the graphics card and replace it with a cheap and cheerful one I had lying around (replaced a new 9600GT OC with an old X300 SE), this didn't change much, except the windows loading screen comes up but rather than going into the installer and then failing with a stop message as it has been doing, it just goes to a black screen and apparently freezes.

I've removed my sound card, same thing happened. Removed the memory card reader that plugs into the usb header, same thing happens.

Only things it can be therefore is either the mobo (ASUS M2N32-SLi Deluxe), the CPU (AM2 Athlon64 6000+ X2), the hard disc (WD 250GB SATAII), the PSU (Antec 500w SmartPower), or maybe the DVD-ROM drive (Samsung DVD-RW). Or the RAM (Corsair, 2x1gb ddr2 800).

I haven't got any spares to replace out and test for any of these components though. I've taken the whole thing apart now, and looked at it all. I know looking at it isn't really going to provide me with any solid evidence of faults but I figured if something's got fried due to overheating (which i don't think it has), then it would probably be evident by black marks or something.

I've not found any such marks though. I'm at a loss to what's wrong with the damn thing.

Itcher

I've now taken everything apart, cleaned it all, then put it all back together again, reseated the RAM, even the CPU, everything. After putting it all back and plugging everything back in, I made sure the CMOS battery was out, cleared the CMOS, put the battery back in, plugged the power cord in, turned it on at the back, switched on the computer, booted from install disc, wiped the HDD with quick NTFS, waited for it to reboot, it reboots, loads windows installation... And it still dies on install with a stop error, same thing, IRQL not less or equal.

OMGmissinglink

That sould follow with an error # 0x0000000<-- example, post the exact error #

Itcher

Okay. I'll try and reproduce it.

While I'm doing that something new that just cropped up might shed some light on it (I hope). i was just reading elsewhere about someone who was having similar trouble an dit turned out to be something to do with their dvd rom drive, so I pulled out the ide cable from the mobo leading to the CD-ROM (the HDD is on SATA so that isn't affected), pulled out the dvd drive's power cord and started up, seeing as windows is already ready to be installed it didn't matter.

Windows loaded and then another stop error came up, only this time it says my Bios isn't fully ACPI compliant.

Itcher

"The bios in this syetm is not full ACPI compliant... etc etc"

Stop: 0x000000A5

OMGmissinglink

Is there a particular reason your using server? is server evaluation version?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256841

Itcher

Yea, I use it as a file server in my home office.

I just updated the bios back to the latest version. Tried to reinstall windows again, and got a stop error again in the same place only this one doesn't have any explanation, it just says th eusual help blurb and at the bottom gives this code:

Stop: 0x0000007E

Under that it says

acpi.sys - Address F7367FA3 base at F7352000. Datestamp 45D69997

Houndog777

Hi, have you considered flashing your BIOS to the latest version?
After you "downgraded" the BIOS, did you enter BIOS Setup upon restart, enable the Defaults and let it Boot?

We'd need to know the original, exact error code & explanation to diagnose it properly.
Do you have ACPI enabled in BIOS, or is it available?

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Itcher

Thanks for the link but the suggested resolution it offered didn't appear to work. I pressed F7 when it was asking to press F6 if I had any third party things to install, after that it did what it usually does, installed the setup files, asked me to selected a partition; I formatted, again, it rebooted, the windows loading logo comes up, only this time I got no errors or anything, the screen went black and two messed up yellow lines either side of the screen came up and that was it.

Houndog777

Sorry, was posting at same time as you.
Have you been loading SATA drivers from floppy during Windows install?

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Itcher

Yea, I just did. No change in circumstance though.

Certainly did. Went as far as taking the cmos battery out, used the jumpers to reset cmos, put the battery back, put the jumpers back to normal position, turned power on, went into bios, reset to defaults, saved and quit. Haven't changed anything else, but I'm still getting the problems.

I've been restarting and such now since the other guy asked, as soon as it chucks out one of those errors I'll post what it says exactly.

As for acpi, as far as I know it is available. The bios is phoenix award bios btw v6.00PG (revision 2001 which is the latest from ASUS for this board). Under the power option it says "ACPI APCI Support: Enabled" but this option is greyed out and cannot be changed.

Itcher

No, but then I only thought that was for when you use a RAID, which I'm not. I just have the one HD pluged into one of the main SATA ports.

Anyway, I got one of those stop errors again;

A thread tried to release a resource it did not own.

Stop 0x000000E3 (0x89BC00E0 0x89B974D0 0x00000000 0x00000002)

Houndog777

If you want to install Windows Server 2003 on a SATA-only system (i.e., no other ATA-based hard drives), you need to copy the appropriate SATA drivers to a floppy disk. During the Windows Server 2003 install, press [F6] when the system asks if you need to provide additional storage drivers. The Windows installer will prompt you for the disk during the installation.

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Itcher

But why would it start needing all this now, it worked okay before? I've reinstalled the system several times over the last year or so when I wanted a clean system and I never needed to install any drivers for it to work.

Houndog777

I honestly don't know Itcher, and I am puzzled as to why you are receiving so many different error codes and why ACPI is greyed out in BIOS.
I'll need to get some advice myself from some guys I know who use Servers.
Get back to you as soon as poss.

Meanwhile, you should check your manual to see if there are clues to the ACPI issue and also the Windows Knowledgebase.

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Itcher

Okay, thanks. Only other thing that happened that I've just remembered, we had a power cut yesterday that lasted a few hours. It happened right when i was surfing the net too (before all this trouble started).

Itcher

Okay I'm going to give up on most of it. I managed to fry the cpu last night testing it so I need a new one of them anyway now. Fairly sure the graphics is okay, HDD doesn't seem to be a problem, memory might not be but I need to do a decent memtest on it still. Either way I need to test the memory and get a new cpu and I can't afford a new cpu at the moment so I'll just have to leave it for the time being. I can live without it luckily, it was only a file server and I backed everything up before I went on my wipe/reinstall spree so its all good.

Thanks for the help anyway.

Itcher

Just to follow that up, in case anyone's interested, it wasn't the RAM - tested that fine, works perfectly. It does appear to have been the CPU anyway despite me cooking it (I managed to borrow one and got through the initial setup without any stop errors at all).