Tricky laptop problem...

Joe42

Joe42

Joe42

Soldato
Joined
18 Jan 2005
Posts
4,171
Location
Northants
I've been given a laptop to fix and i'm having a bit of a problem.

It comes up with a bsod when it boots, sometime after its logged on.
Usually it seems to be vtdisp.dll which is the via graphics driver, so i've tried a new graphics driver and a new chipset driver, and now i seem to be getting an atapi.sys bsod.
It seems to work ok with graphics hardware acceleration disabled but its a bit random so i can't be sure.
With just the new graphics driver it seemed to work ok in safemode and crash in windows, with the new chipset drivers it seems to give the atapi.sys bsod and crashes in safemode aswell.

The chipset is Via pm880 with integrated via/s3 graphics.
I've tried running memtest as it seems a little random which suggests a memory problem but it passed fine.

Any ideas?
 
Driver irql not less or equal

blah blah blah

Stop 0x000000d1 (0x03187cc5,0x0000000D,0x00000000,0xfab0d2d0)

atapi.sys address fab0d2d0 base at fab0c000, datestanm 41107b4d

Hope that means something to ya.

Does anyone know what atapi.sys is?
Before i updated the drivers i got vtdisp.sys which is the via display driver and thats why i updated the graphics and chipset drivers, now i'm getting this other one. I did google it and couldn't find out what it is.

Edit: I was going to use virtual pc to install another copy of windows but tis not even booting now, with graphics ahrdware acceleration disabled. Its always the atapi.sys error.
 
Last edited:
its a driver issue not your memory,

quote from aumha.org

Typically due to a bad driver, or faulty or incompatible hardware or software. Use the General Troubleshooting of STOP Messages checklist above. Technically, this error condition means that a kernel-mode process or driver tried to access a memory location to which it did not have permission, or at a kernel Interrupt ReQuest Level (IRQL) that was too high. (A kernel-mode process can access only other processes that have an IRQL lower than, or equal to, its own.)
Click to expand...


Check this webpage and try run driver veryfier to ensure it is a driver problem, it also has a nice guide on how to troubleshoot them
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=244617&sd=RMVP
 
Thanks, i've run that and i'll see what it says when the driver crashes. Unfortunately its really for developers to fix buggy drivers which isn't much use to me.

I just need to know what exactly atapi.sys is i'm assuming its chipset driver related... anyone?
 
atapi.sys is the IDE/Atapi port driver, it is usually used when Large Hard Disk Support is enabled or virtual disks are in use by a program (such as Daemon tools or Alcohol 100%).
You can find it in C:\Windows\System32\drivers

Some spyware programs rename themselves as the atapi.sys

If you want to ensure that file is correct run service pack 2 again (remember to get the subsequent updates afterwards)
 
Mp4 said:
format / repair windows
Click to expand...
Right, after trying to rescue the data in knoppix (which didn't crash) and failing because it could not mount my usb drive and i couldn't get it to network, i have removed the hard disk, rescued the data and formatted it.

When i install windows, as soon as it gets to the part of setup where it begins to install drivers, about 15 minutes before the end, it crashes and gives a bsod about atapi.sys.
I can tell its at the stage where its installing drivers because the display flicks off an on as it installs the graphics driver.

So i seem to have a hardware fault that only occurs when a driver is installed, possibly the graphics driver, possibly the chipset driver, i'm not sure.

So what do i do now?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom