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General discussion

My BIOS is bad? Computer crashing.........

Mar 10, 2004 12:56PM PST

Sorry, this is going to be a long one......

My computer has been freezing up (only power switch works to escape) intermittently for the past week or so. After trying system restore, removing programs, running AVG/Spybot/Adaware, nothing helped so I looked at the event viewer immediately after a crash and got the following errors (sorry, I have to post them all since I don't know which are pertinent or not)

11:33:10pm Your computer has automatically configured the IP address for the Network Card with the network address 0008C7C929CE. The IP addreess being used is 168.254.56.18

11:31:29pm The device, \Device\Harddisk 0\D, has a bad block.

11:31:27pm Same message as above

11:31:00 AMLI:ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal port address (0x71) which lies in the 0x70-0x71 protected address range. This could lead to system instability.

11:31:00 Same as above, except attempting to write to an illegal port address

I googled the error message about the BIOS, and came up with an article from Microsoft about updating the BIOS. Would this cause the computer to crash? Also, are there any possible other explanations for this?

I run a Compaq P3(80GB harddrive, partitioned, 256Ram)with XP PRO, and am using a Norton Personal Firewall.

Thanks so much in advance!

Discussion is locked

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Re:My BIOS is bad? The ACPI BIOS is out of date and this machine is not ready for XP.
Mar 10, 2004 8:07PM PST

In short, with that BIOS being out of date, it's unsure if XP will ever run without issue,

If Compaq doesn't have a newer BIOS, then install a compatible OS.
----------------------------------------------------------

"11:33:10pm Your computer has automatically configured the IP address for the Network Card with the network address 0008C7C929CE. The IP addreess being used is 168.254.56.18"

This means the network card may have been unplugged, not connected to a network, no DHCP server or other issue. Your post didn't tell what your setup is, so this doesn't mean much yet. Not a "crash" item.

11:31:29pm The device, \Device\Harddisk 0\D, has a bad block.

This means the hard disk has issues. Microsoft never handled this at all, so the drive is SUSPECT. You need to find a DRIVE FITNESS TEST that you can use AFTER you have secured what you can't lose on BACKUP.

11:31:27pm Same message as above

11:31:00 AMLI:ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal port address (0x71) which lies in the 0x70-0x71 protected address range. This could lead to system instability.

This one is the killer. XP is unstable on this machine. Unless you get a BIOS from Compaq to fix this, you can't expect XP to run for long. In short, the wrong OS for the hardware with this old BIOS. How much clearer can I write this?

"I googled the error message about the BIOS, and came up with an article from Microsoft about updating the BIOS. Would this cause the computer to crash? Also, are there any possible other explanations for this?"

FIX THE BIOS ISSUE. Stop running XP until you fix this because you are going to be upset about the errors. Don't rely on this machine with the BAD HARD DISK because the situation can get worse.

Bob

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Re:Re:My BIOS is bad? The ACPI BIOS is out of date and this machine is not ready for XP.
Mar 11, 2004 12:39AM PST

Daniela,
Before I did anything else I would run chkdisk on HD0, select to correct errors, and reboot.

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Re:Re:Re:My BIOS is bad? The ACPI BIOS is out of date and this machine is not ready for XP.
Mar 11, 2004 12:21PM PST

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea but...where do I find that? I did run-chkdisk but it said invalid. Any thoughts? Thanks

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Thanks, Bob and just out of curiosity..........
Mar 11, 2004 12:48PM PST

any idea why this might be happening to me now? I've had the PC with this OS for about 15 months, although I had to replace the harddrive about 8 months ago, after it bit the big one. Could the two be connected? I've wondered whether something in there is eating my hard drives. Could the bios issue be destroying my harddrives or is it likely just a coincidence?

Thanks

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Re:Thanks, Bob and just out of curiosity..........The why.
Mar 11, 2004 8:00PM PST

Is simpler than we think. Updates to the OS, your Antivirus and what else are just part of the simpler truth that what you have now is not what you had last month.

The error message is there. How much clearer can it be written that it will affect stability and needs attention?

If you posted the exact Make/Model, maybe someone will search for a BIOS. I didn't see that or missed it.

Bob

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Re:Re:Re:Re:My BIOS is bad? The ACPI BIOS is out of date and this machine is not ready for XP.
Mar 11, 2004 4:57PM PST

Hi Daniela,
Open 'My Computer' right click Drive C, and choose 'Properties'.
On the 'Tools' tab, click the 'Check Now' button.
In the Check Dsk dialogue, select 'Automatically fix file system errors' and 'Scan for and attempt recoveryof bad sectors'
Click the 'Start' button.
You will open a window saying the check can not be performed . . . .schedule the check for next restart,
click 'Yes' and reboot your machine.
Hope it helps, it has twice removed mysterious messages from my machine.
Roger