:confused: Hello to everyone again. Okay, my pc starts up and the windows logo appears. Everything "LOOKS" fine until about 5 minutes after the desktop loads up. Suddenly I get the famous blue screen with this error message:

*Kernal_Data_Inpage_ERROR

***STOP: 0x0000007A (0xC03E6570,0xC000000E, OxF995C384, OxO5D6D860)

*** atapi.sys - Address F995C384 base at F994F000, DataStamp 41107b4d

Begining dump of physical memory.

The screen remains this way for about 3 to 5 minutes, pc restarts automatically, then I get a black screen with this message:

Drive not ready - System Halted

Anyone have any idea what this means? Maybe the HD is having a problem? Thanks again in advance to all. :D

Okay, and now I'm writing because after trying to get into safe mode, now the PC just doesn't even display a picture or give out any beeps. This is this morning after I had shut the pc down yesterday. Power lights go on and the HD spins up...but don't hear anything at all...no screen no nothing....oh well.

Take your RAM out and see if there's a warning series of beeps. If so, the RAM is bad and POST is not completing. If no, then test the PSU first even though you get fans and HDD spin up because it could be other voltages than the 12 volt rails. If either it tests out or a new PSU doesn't help, it's down to your mobo or CPU and if you don't have a compatible replacement of either, you'll need to bring it somewhere to be tested.

Download a copy of my diagnostic flowcharts from here
www.erniek.eclipse.co.uk/downloads/sylvanderdiags.zip
and print them to leaf through.
Begin on the STARTUP chart.

See this:
NO POST, NO BEEP, NO VIDEO
www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=39685

Hey Fruss Tray Ted...heh... Well I pulled out the ram and restarted the pc. It beeps 3 times. Three long beeps...The thing I don't understand though is that the Computer here was working fine for about 20 minutes once I started it up. So now that it beeps when the ram is taken out, what does that mean I should do? Replace the RAM ?

Put one stick in at a time. Whichever one(s) doesn't allow POST needs to be replaced.

The problem seems to happen with each stick. However, they are PC 800 RAM and I believe they need to work in pairs. So I get an 3 error beeps when I put in one at a time. I just thought that would happen regardless being that they work in pairs. So now, I guess I need to have them both replaced? Or does it make a difference now that I should have mentioned...heh..sorry...that they are only working in pairs?

OUCH!! :eek: RD RAM is e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e!!! :( At a glance, it would be at least $40 for each 128 meg stick and $79 for each 256 megs so it would be a minimum of $80 just to find out if that's all that's wrong. That's a lot of risk for the money! Or is that the other way 'round...

Last ditch try:
Put the ram back in but perform a barebones boot.

Disconnect all drives and expansion cards except video. Use you mouse, keys, monitor, mobo, ram and processor with HSF. If it goes past POST and displays anything, great. If not, you are more likely better off buying a newer barebones setup with newer ram, mobo and processor bundle, or refurbed items to put in your tower.

I have been successful at getting some refurbed motherboards and ram from Newegg. All I needed after that was the processor w/hsf but sometimes those are available as well.

What is your PSU rated? Is this a full atx case? Maybe (but I doubt) you'll be able to reuse the processor? What is the CPU? UGH!! I just checked your sig, that's a laptop? Now the plot thickens as replacement ram is the better option BUT it will be even more expensive... I'd still try to do a barebones first.

Probably of no relevance but have a quick look at this link where individual had he same problem.
http://forums.thatcomputerguy.us/index.php?showtopic=202&pid=1118&mode=threaded&show=&st=?entry1096?entry1109?entry1118

On various search result pages on the web I have looked at for this error a few of them arive at the same conclusion as the above link.

Since the BSOD error involves ATAPI.SYS, the first thing I would do is check the IDE cables. Make sure they're all firmly attached to both the mobo and the drives, reseat them to make double sure, and replace them if the problem persists. That would be my first guess.

Alright, thanks everyone for the help. I have another pc here at the office that runs on PC 800 and the same kind of hard drive. I guess I should have tried running the memory and hard drive on another working pc to help me narrow down the issue. I'm trying everything everyone has suggested, thanks again.

Hello again all. I tested the parts on my home pc which runs fine. Turns out that both the hard drive and the ram doesn't work. Using the hard drive, the pc would boot up and I would get to the desktop...however, five minutes later, I'll get that error message I posted above. Plus the drive would make these nasty clicking noises when starting up... With the ram, after hooking up my HD back and making sure my pc still works...lol I put in the RAM and I would get 4-5 beeps and no display. I tried the RAM in all different slots, made sure they were seated properly, cleaned the contacts by reseating them and all that good stuff...but nothing but beeps.

HD replacments aren't expensive at all...especially for a 30gb ATA drive...but the PC 800 RDRAM is a killer....at least for me anyway. Stuff is really expensive. Thanks again to all you guys for helping me figure out what the problem is.

:confused: So...I replaced the RAM AND HARD DRIVE which I KNOW weren't working because I had ran them on PC's that WERE working fine. Neither one worked at all so what I did was, I purchased NEW RAM and a NEW Hard Drive for the pc.

I ended up having the SAME exact problem. PC will turn on but NOTHING DISPLAYS and there are NO beeps. POST does not run at all. Once I pull out the new RAM though, I get the same 3 beeps I was getting before. I tried replacing almost every part in the pc except for the CPU and Power Supply. The heat sink is stuck to the darn CPU with the thermal grease and I never messed with taking out a power supply, so I'm a bit skeptical about it.

So...with these symptoms, anyone have any ideas what the problem REALLY is? Again, pc turns on but there are NO beeps and NO display. I tried testing all parts and found that the RAM and HD didn't work when I tried them on a working pc...all other items worked fine.

I'm still very green when it comes to this stuff...but could it be the power supply? I definitely could be wrong, but wouldn't the PC beep multiple times if it was the CPU? Once again, thank you in advance for the help.

"I replaced the RAM AND HARD DRIVE which I KNOW weren't working because I had ran them on PC's that WERE working fine"
1. I hope you didn't expect the OS installed on the HDD to boot successfully on a totally different set of hardware, and judge it to be "not working" because it didn't. An OS is matched to the hardware on which it was installed.
2. Perhaps the RAM isn't compatible with the other hardware. Just because it doesn't work with it doesn't mean it's non-functional [broken].

"PC will turn on but NOTHING DISPLAYS and there are NO beeps. POST does not run at all"
I'm confused; in the previous post you said "I put in the RAM and I would get 4-5 beeps and no display" [therefore the POST is running with RAM in place and giving warning of some problem], and previous to that you said there were 3 long beeps, but only with the RAM removed; with it in place you got NO POST. By the way, which BIOS do you have?
See http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm for meaning of beeps.


"I tried replacing almost every part in the pc except for the CPU and Power Supply"
What you aught to do is connect only the bare minimum of hardware [preferably with the motherboard out of the case on a non-conducting surface] in an attempt to get the POST to run.
If the POST isn't running you won't hear the beep and the Video card won't be enabled, so no display.
Only when POST runs and you hear the single short beep and see a display on the monitor should you then repeatedly shut down, add one hardware item and restart. If adding an item results in NO POST, then you have found a troublesome item.

"wouldn't the PC beep multiple times if it was the CPU?"
If the CPU isn't working you get NO POST [therefore no beeps and no display].
If you get NO POST with only the CPU and video card connected [no RAM, no keyboard] then you know the problem lies with one or more of:
1. PSU
2. CPU
3. BIOS
4. Video card
If you have NO POST and remove the RAM and then get warning beeps, you know that POST is then running and it seems logical that the RAM was preventing the POST from running, hence there's a problem with RAM.
I've come across at least one case where this happened and when the RAM was replaced the problem disappeared. I think the RAM was tested and found to be faulty.

One of my friends' computer stopped working - suddenly there was very long (around 15 seconds) beeps, nothing else - whilie it was in screen save mode. He had checked for lose connections, disconnected the HDD, FDD, CDD, keyboard and removed the RAM but the result is the same - very long beeps. As the this P4 PC has Phoenix BIOS I tried to interpet the POST beep but I did not find long beep in any of the reference I reffered to. Fans are working fine. He has no voltmeter and therefore has no checked the voltage.

Do you have any idea, what might be the problem?

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Okay, sorry if I wasn't clear about what I may have been saying Sylvander. Let me try and explain again.

Before anything major started happening, the pc booted up. Windows loaded and I got to the desktop. About 5 minutes later, I got that blue screen message I typed above. PC would not respond at all. So I held the power button down to shut everything off. After booting up again, the power light indicators go on and for a few minutes a message came up on the display saying "Drive not ready - System Halted"

I restarted again after this...and THIS time only the power lights went on, NO beeps, NO DISPLAY, and only the sound of the HD starting up. Since then...that's all that happens to this pc...power light indicators turn on, but no POST, no display or anything else.

About the Hard Drive, I've successfully switched a HD from one pc to another and NEVER had a problem with that. Operating System loaded just fine evert time I did that and all I had to do was change a couple of things in the BIOS and reinstall certain drivers again but all worked 100% fine after. It just so happens my home PC also uses PC 800 RAM and an ATA HD just like the one I'm dealing with now that does not respond.

About the RAM problem...well...going back to the original pc with the problem I'm talking about... Once I REMOVED the RAM, I would get only 3 long beeps and then silence. So, the beeps would only occur when the RAM was removed from the problematic system. So I was told as you can read above, that the RAM could be the problem. I took out MY RAM which IS working and is also PC 800 and tried it on the messed up unit and had the SAME exact problem I mentioned....no display, beeps, blah blah blah...I tried the RAM on all four slots set up in pairs like they are suppose to be but nothing. The ONLY thing that changed...is when I removed the RAM from the original slots they were in and put them in the next two RAM slots over....I would also get the 3 beeps while the RAM was installed. I KNOW they were in properly because I pressed down, and snapped those small levers into place.

I tried loading MY hard drive into the pc...and as I've said, I've done this on many many occasions and it always worked fine...knowing that MY HD works of course...but still the same old problem.

The BIOS is AWARD BIOS. I was told that if the PC does BEEP when you remove the RAM then it's the RAM that is preventing the PC from starting up...but I don't know now. I'm sorry for being unclear about the problem and I hope that I was able to explain things a bit better this time.

Sylvander, thank you very much for trying to help me out. If you have any other suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

See this http://discussions.virtualdr.com/archive/index.php/t-107146.html and in particular...

"If the boot floppy is known to work, and the system will not boot from it or from the hard drive, then it may be a motherboard problem.
Check that the CMOS battery shows 3 volts. If not, replace it.
Also, make sure all of the drives' cables are properly and securely connected at both ends. Do the same for the power supply's main power connector to the motherboard.
If these do not work, then have someone check the power supply's voltages. If not up to spec, replace it. If they're ok, the MB may be bad."

My thoughts:
1. Assuming the RAM isn't faulty: POST doesn't get to the beep step [an error halts it] when the RAM is fitted, but with the RAM removed, POST does get to the RAM testing step and gives the warning beeps. Hence, a POST error is happening after the memory test but before the beep. Does that sound logical?
2. At 1st the BIOS was: running POST successfully, the beep was heard, video enabled, but then unable to read from the HDD, but that was a symptom of something more fundamental than a HDD problem [perhaps not a faulty HDD or bad IDE cable or connection as would be expected]. Perhaps a virus had altered the BIOS prog or configuration settings [reset the BIOS settings, re-flash the BIOS to fix the prog?], or the m/b battery had no charge [new battery], or the IDE controller had gone faulty, or some other motherboard fault [try a different m/b].
3. But then things got even worse. How come? Was the initial fault causing more problems in a cascade?
It SEEMED as though the POST was now not running [or perhaps just not completing, halting during].

Hi P.P.
How is your problem? have you found the solution???
i dont know what possibilities have you tried...this is what i would do:
1. slave, master cs selection and grey and black conectors match. is it ultraATA, sata or... - if this connections are mispleced it will work 100 times, but one day will fail.
2. before that i would reset CMOS(leave it without power and battery for couple of minutes, if you are patient couple of hours. Than disconect all devices which are not needed(cd-rom, pci cards) and make sure that atx power connector is 100% percent relaible.( this can be in many cases done by simple pluging it out and in several times(10-20)