Blue screen of death (after 8 years!) on x61s (SOLVED)

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bodiless · #1 Post by **bodiless** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 5:41 am

Got my x61s with vista and made it dual boot with debian which I use as my main OS. After a few months decided that vista were to annoying for me so replaced them with XP Professional. Everything worked fine for a week. Then for a week or so, I didn't boot into windows at all. Then I observed some strange behaviour on debian for the two usb ports which are placed on the right side. The problem is that they will quite often refuse to mount anything attached to them, especially after a resume from suspend to ram. Then I wanted to check if this is happening also under windows xp and all of a sudden, after more than 8 years running xp without any problem on many computers, I got the blue screen of death, to remind me of the good old days!

Strangely enough is that xp won't boot into save mode, not even in last known good configuration (I am getting always the same blue screen). Also, the blue screen doesn't stay enought to write down the error code number.

Please note that debian boots just fine (except from the annoying right side usb problem) and R&R boots also ok.

Any ideas what might be the problem here? A usb port failure? Any ideas what to do to check it out before I try to re-install windows xp again?

Thanks in advance

icantux · #2 Post by **icantux** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:18 pm

Hi there,

It's quite possible that the SATA driverset wasn't installed properly in XP and that's preventing Windows XP from booting properly. WinXP does not natively support ICH8 Sata interface.

Try changing the hard drive option in the BIOS from AHCI to Compatibility.... then boot the computer again to see if that works. If it boots, then you will need to (re)install the SATA drivers provided by Lenovo and then go back to the BIOS and change the hard drive back from "Compatibility" to "AHCI".

You can obtain the SATA driver package for your X61s from Lenovo:
Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver for Windows XP

Please make certain to read the installation instructions carefully... those instructions are on the same page as the link provided above.

Hope this helps!

Aroc · #3 Post by **Aroc** » Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:36 pm

icantux wrote:WinXP does not natively support ICH8 Sata interface.

My Dell Optiplex 745s running Windows XP Professional at work disagree with you. (Ditto with my Optiplex 755s with ICH9). Please stop spreading misinformation on the internet.

Your long workaround is not needed. The native AHCI drivers can be installed either from a clean XP instalation (by using a USB floppy diskette, then supplying the Textmode drivers (txtsetup.oem) when prompted to press F6 using install) or by injecting them into a Hardware Intependent Image using the MS Sysprep tool. This seems either, so I recommend keeping the machine in AHCI mode, since you don't need to invoke compatibility mode at all.

bodiless · #4 Post by **bodiless** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:29 pm

Argggh! Of course!

I forgot that I switched back to AHCI mode after I finished the XP installation. It just happened that after switching back I didn't booted windows for a week so I forgot completely about it.

Anyway, thank you both for the info. The Lenovo site is down at the moment so I can not get the Intel driver but I'll try tomorrow.

One more question, just to make sure that I got you both correct. Since I have XP already installed, and I don't have a floppy drive either, I can't do the injecting thing any more so I need to run the install.cmd, as I found in other threads on the forum. Correct?

icantux · #5 Post by **icantux** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:26 am

Right. When you download the package from lenovo, double-click it, and it will then extract to a dir (c:\DRIVERS\WIN\IMSM), then double click "install.cmd" in the "PREPARE" folder.

Reboot your system, go to the BIOS, change compatibility to AHCI and you're all set. When Windows starts up, it will "auto detect" new drive interfaces ... just let it go through the motions.

bodiless · #6 Post by **bodiless** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:06 am

No luck! It didn't work for me.

I did exactly what the instructions say. When double clicking the "install.cmd", a command prompt flashes instantly for a second and disappears immediately without any sign of anything happening. When I change back into AHCI mode in BIOS, I still get the BSOD. I tried it several times with the same result. I also installed the Intel chipset utility which, if i understood correctly, needs to be installed before the Matrix Storage Manager.

Reading several other threads it seems that, although it is recommended to install the driver first, installing the driver after installing the OS should also be straightforward and easy. So I am wondering, has anybody else being unsuccessful in doing this?

icantux · #7 Post by **icantux** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 11:48 am

Hmm..

Does the system boot if you just leave the BIOS config in "compatibility" mode?

BTW, the behaviour of the installation is normal - meaning when you double-click on the "install.cmd" all it does is preps the system to install the SATA drivers on your system. You should still leave the BIOS setting in "compatibility" mode when you restart, XP will then "find" the hardware, then prompts you to reboot once more. That's when you switch to "AHCI" mode in the BIOS.

I noticed that the "AHCI" hardware would not be recognised properly if done precisely by the book. An extra reboot before switching to "AHCI" in the BIOS (as described above) always did the trick for me.

I've learned from that. What I did do, is create a new XP installation disk using n-lite to integrate the ICH8 drivers into the XP install disk. So ... my last install of XP went without a hitch and XP recognized all the SATA related hardware immediately without having to play around with a post-XP install of these drivers.

bodiless · #8 Post by **bodiless** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:48 pm

Yes the system boots ok in compatibility mode.

And since I've been trying various other ideas (the Intel chipset utility, etc.) I've already booted a few times with the compatibility mode on. But everytime I change to AHCI mode I get the BSOD.

I am already considering to start all over again, doing it the proper way this time

icantux · #9 Post by **icantux** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 5:56 pm

Right,

Well that means the drivers aren't installed properly and the hardware isn't recognised hence the blue screen.... Did you try going to Device Manager and "updating" the drivers for the controller manually? Does the device manager list the controller with the latest drivers at all? If not, then install from the "inf" file found in the folder I mentioned in the previous post. That should install the controller drivers that way.

On the other hand, if you do go ahead with a complete re-install, I'd suggest you follow this series of installations:

1) Chipset drivers
2) Intel Storage Matrix
3) ACPI Power Management Driver
4) Video
5) hotkey driver
6) ethernet (Intel pro-set)
7) wifi driver
8 ) High definition audio patch (depending on whether you're installing SP2 or SP3)
9) audio driver (soundmax)
10) modem driver
11) ATMEL (TPM) driver
12) Trackpoint
13) bluetooth
14) whatever else you need.

Reboot after each step. (no kidding! )

I've found that those steps always produce a nice and trouble-free installation.

For faster and better results, you may want to integrate SP3 into an SP2 disk first, and once that's finished then get rid of step 2) by integrating the ICH8 drivers using n-lite. You only need to select the following for the system to work properly:
- Intel 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller

By integrating SP3 you also significantly decrease the amount of hotfixes you need to install afterwards, and it takes care of step 8 ) as well (SP3 already has UAA, high-def patch included), so no need to worry about that...

Just keep in mind not to "integrate" IE7 using n-lite, less you want a system that has no "windows update" feature. It's a long story, but just don't integrate either MS Media Player 11 or IE7 using n-lite.... Once your XP installation is complete, then install MP11 first using "Windows update" and only then install IE7 last using "windows Update".... Based on experience.

Just a thought.

Off topic, but... how do you like SIDUX? I dual-boot with Mint5 but always found SIDUX intriguing...

bodiless · #10 Post by **bodiless** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:49 am

Yes, I think it is listed in device manager. What I get there is:

Intel(R)ICH8M 3 port Serial ATA Storage Controller-2828
Driver Provider: Intel
Driver Date: 15/11/2006
Driver Version: 8.2.0.1011

But when I try to update the driver I get a "Cannot Continue the Hardware Update Wizard"

Looking now at your advise, when I installed the various drivers I definitely didn't install them with the order you recommended and moreover, I was not rebooting after each driver install. I wonder if this caused me the problem.

So failing to come up with other ideas, I'll probably go for the other proper solution this weekend. I'll post back if everything goes ok.

As for sidux, although I fount it great, my experience with it lasted only a few months. You see, I am using my laptop for work, so I decided that I need a more stable version of debian. So it is lenny now, which is basically the same but rock solid. And I updated my signature.

icantux · #11 Post by **icantux** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 2:44 pm

Hmmm..

Here's what the device manger listing should look like

bodiless · #12 Post by **bodiless** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:34 pm

I finally did the whole install from scratch. I used the n-lite to slipstream the Intel Matrix Storage Driver into a working Windows Xp Pro CD. During the slipstream process, I just selected all the available drivers (there are drivers for mobile, workstation, servers etc.) since I was not sure which one was needed. I included also the Intel Chipset Utility since I wasn't sure if this was needed too.

After this, everything went flawlessly.

Upon completing the installation I just followed your advice installing all the remaining drivers with the order you suggested, rebooting after each installation. Now everything works as it should be.

There are still two devices in device manager however (under "Other devices"), that are still not recognized.

1. Ethernet Controller
2. Unknown device

I wonder what those might be. Could the ethernet controller be the dos ethernet driver?

Anyway, I am not bothered very much about those since everything else is just fine.

Thanks again for your great help.

artic_squirrel · #13 Post by **artic_squirrel** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:57 pm

the first one is the ethernet connexion

dl the right driver

for the second , i get it too and i think it's related to the modem

but i don't know what is the right driver for this

gunston · #14 Post by **gunston** » Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:18 am

any benefit of installing Sp3 for windows xp ?
i dun see the needs to install it anyway?

Blue screen of death (after 8 years!) on x61s (SOLVED)

Blue screen of death (after 8 years!) on x61s (SOLVED)

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