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Need serious help with PC issue!
Yesterday I bought a 2nd 8800gt to install on my PC and go SLi. I have ran SLi a couple of times with older cards and normally its plug and play.
After installation I received an error I have not seen before.
* i get to the windows logo just before it loads and then the screen goes blue and I get an error, something like...
A problem has occurred and windows needs to shutdown to prevent damage. The bios in this system is not fully ACPI compliant.. stop (0x00000002, oxab96440; 0xe1d48a20, 0x8ab96600)
* I obviously took the new card out, still same error.
* swapped cards over, same error.
* cmos bios, managed to get to windows once on safe mode but it had absolutely nothing there.
* tried reinstaling windows, now instead of hanging on that blue screen it goes into a reboot cycle.
My specs: motherboard Asus A8N32-SLi, 2 gig of ram, 8800gt 512, AMD 4800, XFi soundcard....
I dont think its the video card because in the past I would not get anything or really bad glitches when it was. For once I am really lost and I have built my last 4 PCs. Has anyone come across this error and fixed it??
Any help would be awesome, thx
Comments
I'm no tech repairman so google search for the win. Turn off your ACPI in your bios. Or you could try a bios flash, although that can potentially kill your motherboard if you mess up.
Thanks Cleffy..I have been messing about with that all day and managed to get to the windows screen but on the wrong hdd and it wont recognise my sata drive either. I just got really frustrated so spent 800 pounds and upgrading the lot. Was thinking about it anyway so nothing like a catalyst!!
First, check your power supply, because that is what the computer uses to manage Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI); how many watts is it pushing? On an SLI system, the lowest recommended (if I remember correctly) is 500 watts; but power supplies rarely deliver their rating. So if you have a 500-600 watt PSU it may possibly not be delivering the full power required to run your dual card system.
This is particularly true if you are using a generic PSU.
It is also possible that it is just a BIOS / OS communication fault from installing a new piece of hardware.
Normally when you get a BIOS warning error like that from the OS, it means that previous settings on the BIOS have become incompatible with new hardware installed.
Because of the way that Windows is designed today, it takes all of its hardware cues from the BIOS; so if there is a conflict or error there, that would stop Windows from functioning properly.
My other recommendations if it's not the PSU (if you haven't tried these already);
1. Shut down the computer, unplug the power supply, and open the case.
2. Find your CMOS jumper and put it in the CLEAR CMOS position (normally I think on a three peg jumper, the CLEAR position is 2-3)
3. Plug the computer back in and power it up so that it clears the CMOS.
4. Shut down, unplug the power supply again and find the CMOS battery; remove and replace it, just to be on the safe side.
At this point, your CMOS and BIOS should be reset completely to its default factory settings. So any changes you may have made (overclocking, other adjustements) would be cleared.
Go ahead and plug the power supply back in and start the computer.
If you get no BIOS errors, you may or may not see the Windows DOS start options screen asking if you want to start normally, etc.
Select "Start Windows Normally".
If that screen doesn't come up, and Windows starts normally, you should be good.
Let me know if any of this helped, please.
Abbatoir / Abbatoir Cinq
Adnihilo
Beorn Judge's Edge
Somnulus
Perfect Black
----------------------
Asheron's Call / Asheron's Call 2
Everquest / Everquest 2
Anarchy Online
Shadowbane
Dark Age of Camelot
Star Wars Galaxies
Matrix Online
World of Warcraft
Guild Wars
City of Heroes
First, check your power supply, because that is what the computer uses to manage Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI); how many watts is it pushing? On an SLI system, the lowest recommended (if I remember correctly) is 500 watts; but power supplies rarely deliver their rating. So if you have a 500-600 watt PSU it may possibly not be delivering the full power required to run your dual card system.
This is particularly true if you are using a generic PSU.
It is also possible that it is just a BIOS / OS communication fault from installing a new piece of hardware.
Normally when you get a BIOS warning error like that from the OS, it means that previous settings on the BIOS have become incompatible with new hardware installed.
Because of the way that Windows is designed today, it takes all of its hardware cues from the BIOS; so if there is a conflict or error there, that would stop Windows from functioning properly.
My other recommendations if it's not the PSU (if you haven't tried these already);
1. Shut down the computer, unplug the power supply, and open the case.
2. Find your CMOS jumper and put it in the CLEAR CMOS position (normally I think on a three peg jumper, the CLEAR position is 2-3)
3. Plug the computer back in and power it up so that it clears the CMOS.
4. Shut down, unplug the power supply again and find the CMOS battery; remove and replace it, just to be on the safe side.
At this point, your CMOS and BIOS should be reset completely to its default factory settings. So any changes you may have made (overclocking, other adjustements) would be cleared.
Go ahead and plug the power supply back in and start the computer.
If you get no BIOS errors, you may or may not see the Windows DOS start options screen asking if you want to start normally, etc.
Select "Start Windows Normally".
If that screen doesn't come up, and Windows starts normally, you should be good.
Let me know if any of this helped, please.
Thanks Somnulus..
Funny enough I had the PSU issue before (1 year ago) because I had a 500 watt PSU and the computer did start but would reboot every 5 minutes. So I purchased a pretty expensive Corsair 750 watt which had some pretty good reviews for performance and cooling.
I found the error message on windows and it said that it was obviously the BIOS and it could be due to new hardware being installed. So I cleared the CMOS and BIOS and tried it again. Semi success I guess...windows wanted to repair or something so I did a clean install which is fine since I have a hdd just for booting it. I managed to get through to the windows but now its not recognising my sata drive for some weird reason. I am sure I could mess about and get it working also but I was playing with the idea of really updating my PC so in my anger went and spent a ton of cash on the latest technology and hopefully it will turn up on Tuesday. New mobo, cpu, DDR3 ram, cd, hdd, keyboard, mouse....basically new build...
Sorry answering your question its good advice and I would recommend to other people to try this first. Thanks again,
First, check your power supply, because that is what the computer uses to manage Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI); how many watts is it pushing? On an SLI system, the lowest recommended (if I remember correctly) is 500 watts; but power supplies rarely deliver their rating. So if you have a 500-600 watt PSU it may possibly not be delivering the full power required to run your dual card system.
This is particularly true if you are using a generic PSU.
It is also possible that it is just a BIOS / OS communication fault from installing a new piece of hardware.
Normally when you get a BIOS warning error like that from the OS, it means that previous settings on the BIOS have become incompatible with new hardware installed.
Because of the way that Windows is designed today, it takes all of its hardware cues from the BIOS; so if there is a conflict or error there, that would stop Windows from functioning properly.
My other recommendations if it's not the PSU (if you haven't tried these already);
1. Shut down the computer, unplug the power supply, and open the case.
2. Find your CMOS jumper and put it in the CLEAR CMOS position (normally I think on a three peg jumper, the CLEAR position is 2-3)
3. Plug the computer back in and power it up so that it clears the CMOS.
4. Shut down, unplug the power supply again and find the CMOS battery; remove and replace it, just to be on the safe side.
At this point, your CMOS and BIOS should be reset completely to its default factory settings. So any changes you may have made (overclocking, other adjustements) would be cleared.
Go ahead and plug the power supply back in and start the computer.
If you get no BIOS errors, you may or may not see the Windows DOS start options screen asking if you want to start normally, etc.
Select "Start Windows Normally".
If that screen doesn't come up, and Windows starts normally, you should be good.
Let me know if any of this helped, please.
Thanks Somnulus..
Funny enough I had the PSU issue before (1 year ago) because I had a 500 watt PSU and the computer did start but would reboot every 5 minutes. So I purchased a pretty expensive Corsair 750 watt which had some pretty good reviews for performance and cooling.
I found the error message on windows and it said that it was obviously the BIOS and it could be due to new hardware being installed. So I cleared the CMOS and BIOS and tried it again. Semi success I guess...windows wanted to repair or something so I did a clean install which is fine since I have a hdd just for booting it. I managed to get through to the windows but now its not recognising my sata drive for some weird reason. I am sure I could mess about and get it working also but I was playing with the idea of really updating my PC so in my anger went and spent a ton of cash on the latest technology and hopefully it will turn up on Tuesday. New mobo, cpu, DDR3 ram, cd, hdd, keyboard, mouse....basically new build...
I completely understand your frustration; I've felt it many times before myself.
In the long run, a new computer is always a good investment if you spend the money to ensure that the system you put together now is going to remain viable at least three years down the road (in order to pace with Moore's Law and a few other notables in the hardware / software industry).
On the SATA drive issue; does the BIOS recognize the drive? Also, what version of Windows are you running?
Vista has a funny way of not recognizing SATA drives after it formats them; I'm not sure why, but when I first installed Vista Ultimate on my own new system, it found and formatted the root C drive for installation, then reported that there was no drive to install Windows.
Then on reboot, it found the drive again and continued the install. Once Vista was up, my other two SATA drives were not showing in Explorer / My Computer.
I had to go to System Management, set the drives and format them there for the system to show them in Explorer / My Computer. Which is odd compared to earlier versions of Windows, which would normally still show the drive, but it would simply be inaccessible until it was formatted.
Anyway, good luck with the new build!
Abbatoir / Abbatoir Cinq
Adnihilo
Beorn Judge's Edge
Somnulus
Perfect Black
----------------------
Asheron's Call / Asheron's Call 2
Everquest / Everquest 2
Anarchy Online
Shadowbane
Dark Age of Camelot
Star Wars Galaxies
Matrix Online
World of Warcraft
Guild Wars
City of Heroes
slightly embarrassed here
When I was trying to sort the system I forgot to plug the SATA drive back in. I know I could mess with it and get it working well enough but the pain of going through the installation process knowing my new parts are turning up is too much to take. Wife is appreciating me off the PC to! Have to keep her on side because when she sees what I ordered she knows it cost a lot! 
I wish they had a PC recycle plant in the UK. I have so many out of date parts laying around which I just can't throw away. Might keep to show my future grandkids how bad we had it
I am using XP. Until I see a massive need to upgrade to Vista I will keep with XP. e.g. More games going Direct X 10...AoC for example...when or if it ever does. I will post how my new build goes here
Sounds to me you using the default bios (out of the box)(btw i am a full ASUS lover but have notice'd this many times while upgrading with them not havng updated drivers/bios) have you tried upgrading your bios, aswell making sure that after you full update everything for your OS? and every other drivers update. Talking from past experiance i had had once a similair fault and found out my bios tho spanking new board was outdated', this had to do i think with at the time XP2. aswell some outdate'd drivers that came with the m.board.
lol. Whenever I have to go through a tech support, things are usually something hard to fix and the parts need to be replaced. I always hate going through those early questions that are usually plain ofcourse. Like is your SATA cable plugged in. It turns out that would have actually been true with you.
take those old parts and create another PC, and then install a linux box. Thats what I do with my old PCs.
Just thought I would drop an update here about the new build. All gone well and new build up and running with insane speed. Had a few issues but worked them out. As you say I am tempted to build another PC and make a media centre or something. Have so many parts around the place I feel like donating them to a museum! I learnt one lesson from this and that is to:
A: backup
B: Have drivers on a USB stick so I dont have to run around searching for them.
C: Have latest BIOS on USB stick so I can re-install if need be.
Thanks all