I'm working on a 3-year old Acer Aspire computer which suddenly stopped
booting into Vista.
I tried to reinstall XP, intending to reformat when offered that option.
But after copying the initial files and at the "Setup is starting Windows"
stage---before any actual installation----- I got "Stop Error 0x0000007B
(0xF899263c, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)".
Googling Stop Error 7B indicates a boot virus, or a failed Sata
Controller, among other things.
I removed the hard drive, inserted it into my computer, and reformatted its
2 partitions (full reformat). Checking disk size confirmed virtually the
whole drive is now empty. I ran antivirus (Avira) and antimalware
(Malwarebytes) scans on both partitions which both came up clean as expected.
While the drive was still in my computer, I installed XP Pro SP1. That
went without a hitch and I now had dual-boot from the 2 hard drives. My
computer booted perfectly into the new installation. I rebooted several
times into both versions of XP, no problems. It therefore seems that the
hard drive is fine.
I then put the hard drive back into the Acer computer but upon rebooting it
gave the same stop error before starting to load XP. I then inserted the
XP installation disk but trying to run the setup CD again gave the same
stop error.
Once more I removed the hard drive, inserted it back into my computer, and
reformatted both its partitions again. This time I left the hard drive
completely empty. I ran both security scans again. All clean.
Upon putting the hard drive back into the Acer, setting the boot order to
boot from CD, and attempting to run the XP installation, again it loaded
the setup files, then came up once more with the accursed same stop error
before offering the usual options.
I entered the BIOS and set it to optimised defaults, but that made no
difference.
Could it be that the Sata Controller on the motherboard has failed? Is
there a solution other than replacing the motherboard? Anything else I
should try?
Don Penlington
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