Comments on: Dell Dimension E510, iastor.sys, Windows XP blue screen error, stop code 0×000000D1

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 14:23:23 +0000

Hi, I’m quite surprised to find this website because I have exactly the same problem with my dell Dimension 9150 (bought in France.. in US > XPS400)
And I’m disapointed that the only way to remove the problem is a replacement…. I’m using Windows XP Pro SP2 and I had that BSOD three times and don’t know what to do…

By: Jens

Jens — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 17:47:48 +0000

having the excact problem on a dimension 5150.

No additional equipment in the PC - but still the same problem

Have tried out the BIOS upgrade - does not work.

By: Phillip Ruan

Phillip Ruan — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:15:47 +0000

I had the exact same problem with my system, which only has a video card and a firewire card add on. My system is 5150, same as E510 but it is giving me trouble since first week of getting this system.

By: Cary Formhals

Cary Formhals — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 16:05:17 +0000

I also am having the same problem. On July 3, 2006 my wife said she left the computer ( Dell xps 400 windows media center) and went in the next room for less than five minutes when she came back the famous blue screen was there. I can not accomplish any kind of work around but I have not tried removing the tv tuner card and downloading drivers. Thank You so much for Things Worth Knowing. One thing to note is I did not have any problems with this computer until two weeks after I installed a Western Digital SATA hard drive.

By: Cary Formhals

Cary Formhals — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 16:41:36 +0000

I just took the tv tuner card out and that did not solve the problem. I then left the tv tuner card out and took out one stick of RAM. Still nothing. I put that stick back and took out the other stick. Windows XP started up normally at first and then went into a checking file system mode I have never seen before. This mode indicated the type of file system is NTFS. The volume is dirty (whatever that means?). It checked files, then went on to check indexes, and then descriptors. After that it booted up normally. Now I am going to see about downloading the drivers. Thanks once again.

By: Louis

Louis — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 14:31:44 +0000

I too purchased the E510 with RAID mirroring and have been getting the blue screen of death lately. I have had three sessions with Dell Level 1 support and “GOD THEY SUCK”. I was promised by the technician on three occasions that the solution he was providing would fix the problem. The first was to increase virtual memory, the second was to do an XP restore, and the third was a complete DELL PC restore. I did the Dell pc restore last night and I am eagerly waiting for the Blue Screen to return!!! I don’t have a TV Tuner card but do have an IEEE 1394 card installed. My stop error is: STOP: 0X0000007E (0XC0000005, 0X00000000, 0XBA4FFA8C, 0XBA4FF788)

By: cheryl

cheryl — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 00:35:54 +0000

My sister purchased an XPS 200 last April. Today a blue screen appears with this technical information: STOP: 0X000000D1 (0X00000018, 0X00000002, oX00000000, 0XF73AF25F)
*** iastor.sys-Address F73AF25F base at F73A0000, DateStamp 42b2df42.
The message also indicates to remove any newly installed hardware or software and to disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. I have installed a brother MFC-3220C printer. I don’t know how to remove the printer i installed. Please help.

By: Robi

Robi — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 04:35:18 +0000

The other large related problem to the move SATA controllers and hard drives is that if you ever have to reinstall your OS and don’t have the DELL Restore CD specific to your machine (which by default they don’t send you, and you have to pay extra for), but you do have the OS CDs which they must give you, you can’t install Windows because Windows Setup doesn’t see a hard drive! Well the hard drive is there, but the the drivers for the hard drive controller are not, so it amounts to the same thing. Those drivers are not on the OS CDs. Ok you say, we’ve seen this idiocrisy before, go to dell.com get drivers etc.. sure, you get the driver for the SATA Controller from the now new SATA section of the driver downloads, but wait, they give you the R99740.exe file. Ok, you run it and it wants to make a floppy. A floppy?! Come on, these days all new systems from DELL do not come with a floppy by default. It’s an extra option. Same thing with PS2 port, so don’t even think about being able to use your PS2 Keyboard or mouse. So how the heck are you supposed to install Windows without drivers without a floppy drive, with a driver on a floppy?
Be thankfull the motherboard still has the floppy drive connection port. Grab a nearby PC with a working floppy drive, disconnect it’s floppy cable from the motherboard and attach it to yours. Turn on the machine with the floppy drive and then yours. Make sure to go into the BIOS (F2) and set the floppy drive from USB to Internal. Then proceed with your install and don’t take out the floppy until you first reboot, because for some stupid reason it will want to copy the drivers twice.
Isn’t this a little too much trouble for the level of technology that we’ve achieved? For pete’s sake it’s 2006. Come on DELL, clean up your act.
Same with Microsoft.. our floppies today are our USB sticks, so why not let Windows treat them like floppy drives and get drivers off of them? Why does DELL insist on making drivers only writable to floppies? I’d like to extract the drivers whereever I please.

These would be things worth knowing, and now you know just a little bit more.

By: Marshall

Marshall — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:48:21 +0000

That’s a good point I forgot to mention - the SATA driver isn’t bundled with the operating system, so if you want Windows Setup to recognize the hard drive, you must load the driver manually.

The floppy drive requirement is a problem with Microsoft’s Windows Setup generally, not Dell. Unless your system’s BIOS allows for you to map a USB stick to the A: drive, you must use a floppy disk.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 15:35:27 +0000

Same iastor problem with a 9150. No HD found when tring to repair. will try adding driver files to cd and update the oem section on cd.
This is rediculous

By: Marshall

Marshall — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 15:43:48 +0000

There is something a bit ironic about having to go to extra trouble to reinstall the very driver that causes system crashes in the first place…

By: Don Royer

Don Royer — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 23:49:47 +0000

Having the same issue with an XPS 400. System hangs after rebooting and connects to the network. Disconnect the network cable and the system stabilizes. Plug the network cable back in and all works fine until I put a heavy load on NIC such as doing a file transfer.

By: Robi

Robi — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 05:31:47 +0000

Must be the onboard NIC, swap it with a pci or look for firmware updates, mobo updates..

By: Marshall

Marshall — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 10:21:42 +0000

It’s not the onboard NIC if he’s getting the BSOD with “iastor.sys”. It might be the case that the NIC is the issue in a situation where you don’t know there’s another problem, but as we see in other examples here, “iastor.sys” is a driver that appears to create resource conflicts with just about every other system component.

Dan Royer: Did the BSOD mention iastor.sys?

By: Don Royer

Don Royer — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 15:14:25 +0000

That is correct. The BSOD specifically says “iaStor.sys”. It’s really pissing me off. I update the BIOS and the drivers to the latest and it still is happening. I am going to dig into it further to see by chance if some “virus” has latched onto my kernel but I seriously doubt it.

By: Brent reynolds

Brent reynolds — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 23:52:11 +0000

I am actually a Gold Level Dell Technician in Nashville, TN, and I happened across this site while attempting to dig up info on this same issue for one of my customers. It would seem from my research thus far that the IASTOR.SYS file is part of the Intel® Matrix Storage Technology. I have not yet figured out what the cause of this issue is, or a sound resolution for it, but figured I would let you guys know what I know at this point. If I happen across more info, or a valid fix, I will post it here for all of you.

Sorry you guys are having trouble! I’m dealing with it now, too!

Brent Reynolds
Dell | Nashville
Americas Client Services

By: Brent reynolds

Brent reynolds — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 00:15:33 +0000

UPDATE: Fortunatley for me and this customer, they had backups readily available (as everyone should), and they opted to just go ahead and wipe the hard drive, and reinstall windows. Of course, if you do not have backups, then I do not have a fix available for you at this time.

Considering that all OEM manufacturers cannot be held liable for data loss, it is always a good idea to backup files on a regular basis - that way if you do encounter an issue such as this, you can bounce back within a day. I sincerely hope that those of you without backups will be able to fix this issue without loosing any data. You can be assured that we know about the problem, and so does Intel, and any solution that is found will be added to our Knowledge Base.

Best of luck!

Brent Reynolds
Dell | Nashville
Americas Client Services

By: Brent reynolds

Brent reynolds — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 15:05:57 +0000

MORE INFO: I thought it might be worth mentioning that this error occurs regardless of the system model or type. The issue is tied to a software problem within the Intel chipset drivers, and not to hardware.

By: Shanon

Shanon — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 21:20:13 +0000

I frequently receive this error on my Dell XPS 400 while capturing video with the Dell installed single TV Tuner. It occurs when I manually hault the recording process. It does not occur when I use the timed recording process. I assumed it had something to do with the capture card configurations I set up in NeroVision as this error does not occur when I use the MCE environment to record from the capture card.

By: Steve kochmaruk

Steve kochmaruk — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 03:46:24 +0000

Can anyone tell me how to do a lean restore without Restore disks—-Is it built in?—-CTRL and F11 do not work—-How do I get my system off this damn blue screen???

By: Marshall

Marshall — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:56:10 +0000

Steve: If you don’t have your system restoration discs, you may have to reinstall your system from the Windows XP operating system CDs. Which version of Windows XP do you have?

By: Bill Graham

Bill Graham — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 15:52:27 +0000

I received the same type of bios error. I think you are right.

By: Allen Lobus

Allen Lobus — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 10:57:25 +0000

Sure glad I saw this blog! I was going crazy! Been to Dell Chat sessions with 4 different techs, and still no resolve! They seem to hide under the fact that my system was not purchased with Raid option, so the problem was not their’s to fix! Now let’s get real! After enabling the RAID 1 option in the bios, I attempted to re-install WIN XP MCE from the OS CD and same blue screen of death occurred. So I decided to download the controller drivers from Intel’ website and insert them with the F6 key on Microsoft Install screen (at the beginning of the installation for those that don’t know), says that the Windows embedded driver was newer. I still used the driver from Intel, but same outcome. BSOD! Actually, I didn’t know that the SATA controller was on the MS CD. Actually had a decent Dell tech last night in chat, but he just confirmed that I was doing the RAID install correctly. Still no resolve.

By: John

John — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 20:17:28 +0000

Having same problems with iastor.sys here, with an XPS400 purchased on 29 June 2006 (system was built by Dell on 23 June 2006). BSOD happened 3 times today within a 5-hour span.

By: Vlad

Vlad — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 14:17:43 +0000

Same problem with Dimension 9150. BSOD at least twice a week.

By: Vlad

Vlad — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:03:06 +0000

I am getting BSOD about twice a week with my new Dimension 9150 Windows XP PRO

Here is what I did:

Dimension 9150

1. Run XP051A05.exe. BIOS update http://ftp1.us.dell.com/bios/XP051A05.EXE
2. Restart.
3. Run infinst_autol.exe
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2115&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Professional&lang=eng&strOSs=44&submit=Go%21
4. Restart.
5. Run iata60_enu.exe
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/detail_desc.aspx?strstate=live&productid=2529&dwnldid=10749&agr=n%E2%8C%A9=eng&prdmap=2529
6. Restart.

Done!

Will see if it will help with our problem. Before every time I tried to defragment the drive it would give me BSOD. Now Defragmentation completed fine. Like to see if it help anyone else.

By: James

James — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:52:24 +0000

I recently put together a new Intel based PC with everything new and glorious you could possibly find…. then I hit F6 to load drivers, I pick them offr the floppy - works fine… setup starts… Cannot Copy File: iaStor.sys etc etc… then it goes on to complete setup. I’m just thinking, well F, this isn’t going to work out well since it missed a critcal system file, which turned out to be the raid driver LOADED from my floppy!! On bootup I get the BSOD after windows splash about check disk and hardware problems and system stop. There needs to be a MS/Dell/Intel FIX for this now. The only info I got on it from the intel site was in reguards to unattended instals… I might have to get a ripped unattended install and edit the ISO to actually get the drivers loaded. I’ve put about 8 hours of work into trying different OS’s and various install fixes and raid configurations both in non-os and OS invironments. Complete bullshit. Windows will not load the raid driver I point to specifically on the floppy.

By: Marshall

Marshall — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:56:19 +0000

Vlad’s posted a link to a driver provided directly by Intel. Chipsets are often customized for OEMs like Dell and, as such, usually require customized drivers certified by the manufacturer… but seeing as how the driver Dell supplies has some obvious problems, this one’s worth a shot. Please post your results!

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 18:48:44 +0000

Having the same problem with a Dell 5150, only i think i’ve experienced ever stop error there is. I get the BSOD on a regular basis when using ‘certain’ programs and they are almost always different errors. You’d think with it being such a known issue, Dell might do something about it.

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 20:46:49 +0000

I’ve discovered a solution which works for me. The ‘certain’ program was azureus bittorrent client. I’ve started using utorrent and i haven’t had a stop error at all (keep in mind i’ve been using vlc player and i’ve been surfing the net whilst using utorrent and my pc hasn’t crashed. I’ll give an update if i do crash

By: Steve A.

Steve A. — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 21:50:07 +0000

Having the same problem here, Dell XPS-400.
Attempting to do a clean installation of Windows XP Pro.

Downloaded drivers for my system (ver 5.0.x), attempted to install via Floppy (F6) on Setup, used both the one on the disk AND windows default. The one on the disk ended in bsod before Setup could even start, the windows default actually allowed Setup to complete then bsod on initial boot into windows.

Downloaded the newest set of Intel Matrix Storage Drivers (ver 6.x.x), same results.

What good is a driver that causes an error even before you get to use it?! How did this past the Quality Control checks of whoever develops the damned software?! I know they didn’t actually attemp to use it, or they would most definitely come across this problem.

System runs in Combonation mode just fine, except if you attempt to install Linux, it won’t find the HDD.
Autoraid/Else ATA runs fine, but causes general instabability in both Windows and Linux.
Autoraid/Else AHCI causes BSOD in Windows no matter what, but Linux runs great with no instabability.

Would LOVE a solution soon. Thank God for this blog, been pullin’ my hair out over this one. The best part is, the system comes initially setup in AHCI mode…how the hell did the technicians pull this off?!

By: Billy Joe Jim Bob

Billy Joe Jim Bob — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 23:33:32 +0000

I recently decided to change the drives out in my Dell XPS gen 5 running raid 0. The PC had previously been running server 2003 with an odd mix of drives and I wanted to replace them with all the same size. Plugged in 3 matched Seagate 80 gigs and formated with XP Professional. No problems with the format, everythings running smooth until I decided to pull one of the 80 gigs for my Dim 8400.
I pulled the drive rebuilt the array and attempted to install XP Pro SP2 but no go. BSOD as soon as the OS begins the install routine. So I download the Intel Storage Matrix and press F6 on boot up - same rountine. Tried the same thing with XP Pro (no service pak), XP Pro SP1a all with same result.
So I go to the intel website for latest Matrix Drivers (iAstor.sys) and download all 5 versions going back over a year - still won’t install!!!!!

By: Billy Joe Jim Bob

Billy Joe Jim Bob — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 23:46:46 +0000

I recently decided to change the drives out in my Dell XPS Gen 5 running raid 0. The PC had previously been running server 2003 with an odd mix of drives and I wanted to replace them with all the same size. Plugged in 3 matched Seagate 80 gigs and formatted with XP Professional. No problems with the format, everything’s running smooth until I decided to pull one of the 80 gigs for my Dim 8400.
I pulled the drive rebuilt the array and attempted to install XP Pro SP2 but no go. BSOD as soon as the OS begins the install routine. So I download the Intel Storage Matrix from Dell and press F6 on boot up - same routine. Tried the same thing with XP Pro (no service pak), XP Pro SP1a all with same result. **Note that between the time of the original format and the last format I upgraded the bios from version A03 to A04.
So I go to the Intel website for the latest Matrix Drivers (iAstor.sys) and download all 5 versions going back over a year - tried each several times and the OS still won’t install!!!!!
By now I’m a little torqued but I’m not quitting till I find something that works. So I try Win2k with iAstor 5.5 from the Intel website - OS installed without a hitch. That’s okay I guess but who wants to run Win2k? Next idea; install WinVista Beta - that also installs and runs fine without a hitch. The problem is only half my software works : (
So Burt Reynolds if you’re reading this post what’s so different about Win2k and WinVista that they don’t exhibit the same problem?

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:17:18 +0000

How about this as an example of a typicall unhelpful DellTechSupport comment -

“The issue you are describing is software-related.

Unfortunately as we are hardware support we can only offer basic software troubleshooting. You can contact software support on 0870 6000 159. Please note that software support is a chargeable service. Alternatively you may find a solution on the Microsoft knowledge base found on the below URL or you could check on search engines such as www.yahoo.com or www.google.com for ways on which to resolve the issue yourself.

I have taken the liberty of doing this for you:

http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/winxp-stop-error-aec.html

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=330182

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic21621.html

If you have any further questions or concerns please reply to this email.

Regards
Paul McAllister
Dell E-Support
Dimension/Inspiron ”

Of course if I could only get my computer to boot up at all (this posting is being done at work) then I might be able to tell if this was of any use!

By: P. Zipf

P. Zipf — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 02:13:13 +0000

My BSOD took me about 4 months to solve, but solve it I did. I simply went to the Intel site and downloaded the latest version of their storage manager and all was well. It was version 4 that was soooo bad. As soon as I put in version 5, all was well again and no more BSOD.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:47:40 +0000

I’m facing the same BSOD on an E510 with Dell’s 160GB “DataSafe”, no floppy drive either. The computer worked great until we went on a 4 week vacation. Turning on the computer after the vacation, it booted fine the first time. A Microsoft automatic updates were done, which I believe was just the “Genuine Windows Validation…” only. I rebooted the computer since the email didn’t come since my cable modem was not on. At first, the computer frose in the bootup process with no indication as to why. I was sucessuful in getting safe mode started 2 times after that. But then the BSOD is now present, and nothing seems to let me get back to safe mode and potentially extract the data. So much for Dell’s “DataSafe”. I contacted their online support, and was told to do a Ctrl-F11 which would fix the problem. I didn’t do that yet since I would really like to extract the data somehow.

I’ve thought of trying to put the hard drive in another computer and copying it that way.
Some have said that they installed the latest Intel Storage Manager, but since I can’t get the computer to boot up at all, I don’t know how i could do this.
I’ve thought of pulling out or disconnecting one of the hard drives and hoping that it might boot with just one drive.
I’m wondering if I can boot off my Dell “OS Reinstall CD”, but based on the posts above, I’m thinking that I have no way to actually get this computer back up without a Ctrl-F11.

Did I mention that this is my wife’s computer, so as a result, since I have not fixed this yet, she is not happy. This is much worse that if it was my computer.

Any other ideas…

Jim

By: Marshall

Marshall — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:55:47 +0000

This problem seems to be most common on systems with DataSafe (RAID) configured. The good news is that, most of the time, your data can be saved — it’s just that Windows won’t boot.

To save your data, take out one of the two hard drives and connect it in another computer. (If you’re not comfortable doing this, you can buy an external case for your hard drive that connects to a computer via USB. Make sure you get the right case for your hard drive type. Most new Dell systems ship with SerialATA (SATA) interfaces, but older ones might still have IDE interfaces.)

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 03:45:43 +0000

I got a new computer out of them.

And no, you don’t have to have the resource CD for your computer. If you bought a computer with RAID-1, and you pay for the OS CD, the drivers for RAID control are there.

Install the OS by booting to CD, deleting and recreating partition, and continue as normal.

If your computer is BSODing out of the box, send it back. This is clearly a DELL problem — not yours.

Best of luck…

~B.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 10:43:51 +0000

Having the same problem as well. Only occurs when I push the HDD to the limit (like doing a ghost image, or copying everything on HDD across network). BSOD, with same error message.

By: Tony Lu

Tony Lu — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 06:43:09 +0000

I experienced the same BSOD problem (iastor.sys , error :0X000000D1 (0X00000018, 0X00000002, oX00000000, 0XF73AF25F) on Dell 5150c desktop today. And I turned to China Dell for further help, but the horrible level 1 technical support wasted my time. Finally, I fixed the issue by myself:

—unload the hard disk, then plug it to another desktop.
—it will let you do the disk scan ( acutally do some disk checking).
—after that, load it to the original desktop, the system booting up and running without issue.

wish It will help someone out on this case!

By: Steve A

Steve A — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 21:38:31 +0000

Okay, been doing a little (actually a crap-load of) research. This problem has still not been resolved, and I’m going on a couple of months now (I love punishment and pain apparently)…this is rediculous!! No help from Dell of course, they don’t seem to have a clue. But, I did peruse their forums and found the following article. I will attempt this solution tonight and post my results. Going to try slipstreamin’ the drivers onto a WinXP Install CD and see if that works.

What I’m finding out slowly is that the Intel Matrix Storage drivers don’t seem to be digitally signed, and so when installing Windows, even if you specify the drivers from the floppy, Windows loads its own default drivers because the Intel drivers fail the digitally signed validation test. The only way around this at this point (as far as I’m aware) is to slipstream the correct drivers onto the installation CD and over-write/remove the in-correct ones. I will let you all know what I discover…if you don’t hear from me…it didn’t work. lol!!

If anyone else has found a “WORKING” solution, please post it so the rest of us don’t work ourselves into an early grave!

Here’s the article I found on Dell’s forum.
Cleann Install Can Be Done on 9100/XPS

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:47:46 +0000

I experienced this BSOD on an XPS 200 running XP Media Center. This system did not have a tuner installed - just a simple base system, everything on the motherboard.

While I have resolved it (I hope), I am posting this in hopes it may help others, as this thread helped me locate the resolution.

Problem started when the sytem totally failed (no video, no post error beeps, nada. Power switch glowed amber, none of the diagnostics lit on boot - even when I unplugged the memory and SATA drive).

Called Dell, went through the 30 minute phone call dance, verifying that it was indeed Tango Uniform (DOA). They send a tech with a motherboard and power supply. Same problem - so tech requests they send a new CPU. Next day, new tech installs new CPU and RAM. So now, the only parts of the original system that remain are the SATA drive, DVD and case.

System complains during boot of no floppy (which does not exist), modify BIOS settings and it boots without error. Quick disk check, software restart and tech leaves. A little while later, I power off the system- and it is not powered on until the following day, at which time this BSOD appears during Windows startup.

Windows will start in safe mode with networking, so I check the Dell site for new drivers - they are all quite dated. (Even older than the chipset drivers on the system).

In reviewing other threads on this problem, I found reference to new drivers on the INTEL site: http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=2101&OSFullName=Windows+Server*+2003+Standard+Edition&lang=eng&strOSs=94&submit=Go%21

I first tried the Intel chipset ID utility (which gives an error when I tried to run it) - so I downloaed the above chipset driver install package and ran it. System restarted and it stayed on the Windows XP logo for over 5 minutes, then screen turned blue, but showed a registry read error (Not a BSOD).

Restart, selected ‘Last Good…’ and the original BSOD returns.
Restart, selected ‘Safe mode with networking’ - display shows driver list as normal for safe mode startup, but the process churns for 5+ minutes (hard drive remains active) vs the normal 45 seconds.

System finally continues and starts normally- even though I had selected ‘Safe Mode with Networking’ and it started loading in that mode (indicated by the typical list of drivers scrolling across the screen) - it took 10 times longer to boot and loaded Windows in standard mode.

The newly installed Intel software showed on startup menu, ran and showed the hard-drive, verified the dates of the driver as matching the newly installed ones. Restarted, powered-off and it seems to be resolved.

So, if you are facing this problem and do not want to wipe/reinstall, and can boot into safe-mode- try the above Intel drivers. Thanks to others who have posted info on this topic here and on other sites. The Dell techs were of no use and only wanted to walk me through a re-install (thanks, but no thanks Dell, I know how to install Windows - I do wish they had a process / test /something that I could pass so I could then buy-pass the usual ID-10-T filtering questions - (Is the power on, is the monitor connected, is the monitor turned on….) Yes, I realize they have to support plenty of people where this may be relevant, but don’t make everyone suffer through that.

Judging by the number of posts on this topic, it is a fairly common problem.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 15:08:03 +0000

I started experiencing the iastor.sys BSOD problem on a new (month old) XPS 400 several days ago. A few days before that, the PC started hanging when it was idle — nothing on the screen to indicate what the problem was. This problem started after I used Windows Update to install some XP patches and the Microsoft Update utility, so I wonder if there’s a connection.

At this point, the machine won’t boot, even in safe mode. In safe mode, it will display a list of drivers and stop (last driver listed is Mup.sys). If I try to boot Windows, either normal startup or last good config, I’ll get the Windows XP splash screen, and then it will either stop there or display the BSOD. This XPS is a basic config, no tuner card or other add-ons, so it’s probably not a resource conflict. The hard drive is the 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s model. I don’t have another desktop PC to try a hard drive transplant. I don’t have a bootable Windows CD, so I can’t try the access the hard drive by other means.

I called Dell Warranty Support yesterday, and it actually went pretty well. I got a human with no wait, and when I mentioned the iastor.sys problem, he didn’t seem to know about it, but did find a reference to the BSOD in his database. He eventually had me run the hard drive diagnostics from the boot device menu (which you get to by pressing F12 at startup), and the test reported a failure (return code 4). As a result, Dell is shipping a new hard drive to a local technician, who will come to my house and install it. I’m going to ask the tech to install the old drive as a second drive, so I can try to recover the data. If he (or she) won’t do that, I’ll hang on to the drive and do it myself. Based on other postings in the forum, there’s a good chance I’ll get the same defective iastor.sys driver on the replacement drive, so I’ll be real diligent about backing up the drive.

I came across this forum when researching this problem, and it was exactly what I needed. Thanks!

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 01:05:56 +0000

I just wanted to thank the author of this site for posting about this and keeping everyone updated. Luckily I caught it early and updated the Intel Matrix Manager after a couple of BSOD’s. I am glad, however, that I went for the “DataSafe” harddrive because one of the drives failed after this problem.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 14:52:21 +0000

This is a follow up to my posting from August 19. As I reported then, I had the iastor.sys BSOD problem and called Dell Warranty Support. They agreed to send a new hard drive to local technician who would come to my house and install it. I initially called on Friday 8/18, and was told I would hear from the technician no later than Tuesday 8/22 (two days ago). I also received an e-mail from Dell on 8/18 providing the dispatch number for the drive. The e-mail said I would receive another e-mail when the drive was actually sent.

As of yesterday, Wed 8/23, I had not heard from anyone or received another e-mail. When I initially called, the support technician gave me the extension of his manager, and told me to call that number if I had any questions about the case. I called yesterday, but only reached the manager’s voicemail, so I left a message. The e-mail I received from Dell aid I could reply to that e-mail and my reply would go to the case owner, so I replied and asked for an update on the status. I went to Dell’s web site to check the status of the service call online, but it gave me an error when I specified the dispatch number from the Dell e-mail.

Today is Thurs 8/24. I received no response to either my voicemail message or the e-mail, so I tried calling the manager’s extension again. Once again I got dumped into his voicemail, so I didn’t bother leaving a message. I decided to call the Dell Warranty Support number, and it didn’t take long to reach someone. That technician put me on hold to investigate the current status, and while I was holding, I decided to try to check my dispatch status online again. This time it found the information, which indicated the service call had been cancelled! When the technician came back on the phone, he also told me the call had been cancelled. I asked why, and he said someone decided that replacing my hard drive might not resolve the problem. I pointed out that (1) my computer was completely unusable, and (2) no one had informed me that the call had been cancelled. I asked to speak to the technician’s manager.

I was tranferred to the supervisor, Mark Herbert. He didn’t really have a good answer for why the call was cancelled. He suggested I try doing a restore of the original drive configuration using Ctrl-F11, but I pointed out that I wanted the opportunity to try to recover data from the drive, which I wouldn’t be able to do if I reset it. He did have me try one thing the original technician did not ask me to do, to rule out a USB device conflict: He asked me to get into the BIOS Setup, and switch the USB controller to No Boot. That didn’t make any difference. Mark said he would send a new drive, and the technician would come and install it either tomorrow or Saturday.

This is unbelievable. I’ll let you know what happens.

By: Carolyn Taylor

Carolyn Taylor — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:05:30 +0000

Have had the same problem with the intermittent BSOD on my XPS 400 purchased in Dec 05. DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL iastor.sys. Could not DEFRAG or complete and automatic backup to my SEAGATE Hard Drive, nor could I leave the computer in a wait state for any length of time…BSOD. Called numerous techs from DELL, needless to say….no help. Tried several things on my own…no help

UNITL…I found on DELLS website in Journal 06236GFRXB titled ” Why Does my Computer Freeze When I Run Disk Cleanup or Disk Defrag in Microsoft Windows XP. This procedure tells you to edit your registry and take out the COMPRESSED OLD FILES. I did exactly as it asked and I also noted that there were old MCAFEE files…sorry folks I am not a fan and tried my best to uninstall it and all of the other software that Dell included but it doesn’t appear it was a total success. So I removed the McAfee and Corel residue….rebooted my machine and I don’t know if it is going to last, HOWEVER….I did a complete Backup to my Seagate and a complete DEFRAG without the dreaded BSOD….hope this last for me and hope it may help some of you. BEWARE….take caution when editing your registry be sure to back up the registry file first. I will be watching the blog to see if it works for you. Good Luck

By: Elizabeth Dell

Elizabeth Dell — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 01:25:32 +0000

I have only had my INSPIRON E1505 for only a month and the damn screen came up on the second day. I called tech support and after five tech and 12 hours on the phone my computer was unusable. They unistalled stuff then reinstalled stuff.

I had recently got married and I tried to down load my wedding video so I could edit it and after working on it for sevral hours and saving it multple times the blue screen came up and deleted everything even the stuff I saved. So I called dell in a frantic and they sent me a new hard drive saying this would take care of the problem…. NO… didnt help. they then sent me a mother board, prossesor, memory. And six hours after the tech installed the parts the SCREEN CAME BACK. Now if I am understanding this corectly didnt they basicaly give me a new computer?

Does anyone know what

STOP:0X0000008E
Dumping physical memory
physical memory dump complete

MEANS BECAUSE DELL ISENT SAYING.

Now they want to send me a new computer but if I am having all this trouble then I think I will ask for my money back and get a toshiba.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 16:11:11 +0000

Here’s another update to my posting from Thursday 8/24. Today is Saturday the 26th. On Thursday, Dell promised me my new drive would be installed either yesterday or today. This time, they actually did send the drive to the technician, who received it yesterday. This morning, Dell called me to follow up, and asked if I had heard from the technician yet — I had not. Dell gave me a phone number to contact the technician directly, which I did. I was told they don’t work Saturdays, so the soonest I could get the drive installed is Monday.

I explained to Dell on Thursday that I would be out of town this coming week, and they assured me I would be able to get the drive installed today, if it didn’t happen yesterday. The technician told me they have to ship the drive back to Dell after 5 days, to avoid getting charged for it, so they can’t hang on to it until I’m back in town. They said I had to call Dell and open a new service call.

I called Dell again, and there’s nothing I can do until I get back in town, at which time I have to call them again and open a new service call. Plus, I’ll have to make arrangements to be home during the week so I can have the technician come over.

Meanwhile, I was able to boot with a Knoppix Linux CD and verify that the data on the hard drive is intact. If I can figure out how to get Knoppix to recognize my external Maxtor USB drive, I can copy my data from the old drive before it gets replaced, which will make things simpler. I don’t have a bootable Windows CD, and the Dell doesn’t have a floppy drive. I may also try replacing the iastor.sys and associated drivers with the newest versions from Intel, to see if that lets me boot off the original drive. It seems the Intel drivers are only available as part of an install package, so I have to see if there’s a way to get the driver files without actually running an installer.

Stay tuned…

By: Elaine Gittus

Elaine Gittus — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 23:39:01 +0000

I have just spent 2 hours online with a Chat person at Dell. I have an XPS 200 computer, and the BSOD tells me that I have the same problem that all of you have been complaining about! After 2 hours, we did NOT get the problem fixed!! I am ready to go out and get an HP!! They are going to send me restore CD’s, but unfortunately, I will lose everything that is stored now on my hard drive! I am not happy at all!

But I am glad to see that there are others with the same problem, so I am not losing it . . . .

By: Steve A

Steve A — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 04:32:37 +0000

Installing Windows XP with AHCI support for Dell XPS 400/9150 Systems (so far)

WARNING!!: This is an extremely long post, due to the fact that this is a somewhat complex solution that required an even longer than needed amount of time invested in discovering it.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

After many months of trial and error, research, and trying solutions that just didn’t quite work. I’ve finally managed to find a solution that fixes my problem! With the combination of massive amounts of trial and error, and tons of persistence, and the help of all the posters out there posting their solutions, and THIS wonderful site, I think I’ve found a solution that will work for anybody experiencing the same exact issue as I (and apparently many others) have been. And I am writing this for those who may not be “technically savvy” to the extreme.

My Issue:
Now, I usually build my systems myself, but this time I did not want to deal with the hassle of having individual bits and pieces being shipped to me at once and at different times (sometimes getting left on my doorstep for anyone to take), not to mention Dell was throwing in a nice flat screen monitor…hey why not! I thought! Dude, I got a Dell.
Like many others who tend to be somewhat technically savvy, the first thing I do when I get a new system, is wipe the drive and install a fresh copy of the Operating System. This ensures that I know exactly what gets placed on the system (well, as much as Microsoft will allow) and exactly what should be running in the background, etc… The new Dell Dimension XPS-400/9150 I purchased (now quite a few months back) was no exception to this rule. I figured I’d dump the crappy Media Center Edition they shipped with the d*** thing, and put my personal copy of XP Professional on instead. Since I do development work, I need IIS installed anyway.

So my nightmare began…

I attempted to perform a new installation of XP Professional only to learn Windows Setup did not even think I had a hard drive.
Reboot, check BIOS, flip it to ‘Combination Mode’, Reboot, Try Again…
This time Windows Setup actually acknowledges that I have a hard drive! Woo hoo!
Setup completes successfully, and reboots the machine.
Windows boots no problems, runs a little sluggish, but runs none the less.
I installed all the drivers for the system, Reboot a million times for driver installations and automatic updates, Reboot again after all installations and updates are done, enter BIOS, flip back to AHCI mode, Reboot.
Windows XP Logo appears and Windows begins to load…
And well, we all know what’s next…
Blue Screen of Death mentioning a STOP error of 0×000000XX. (I use the X’s because I got different STOP errors during the entire process of troubleshooting this. In this particular example, it was 0×0000008E.).
Attempt
Back to ‘Combination Mode’…Windows Boots, but runs sluggishly.
Anyway, long story short, I continued to experience this mind numbing problem and many similar problems while trying various solutions for the several months after purchasing the system and up until a little while ago. But somehow I managed to finally stumble across a solution that has finally worked, and if it worked for me, it’s gotta work for someone else who might not have as much persistence and patience.

Anyway, on to the solution:

The ultimate goal behind this is to create a slipstreamed version of XP with the LATEST Intel Matrix Drivers already installed along with the latest SP2. It seems like a pain, I know, but it’s apparently the only way you’re going to get your system running correctly. If you managed to get Windows installed in Combination Mode like I did, you can do this on your current system.

1.)Items You Will Need That You Can Not Download:
1.Licensed copy of Windows XP
2.A blank writable CD for creating a new Windows XP CD from your Licensed copy.
3.Software that burns ISO images (I used Nero).
4.A blank floppy disk (and a Floppy Drive if you don’t have one).
2.)Items You Will Need That You Can Download:
1.Service Pack 2 for Windows XP (The EXE file, NOT the Automatic Update).
2. nLite (www.nlite.org) for automating your slipstream process. (Freeware)
3.Intel Matrix Storage Manager for Floppy (Latest: Ver. 6.1 August 2006 as of this document).
4.Intel Matrix Storage Manager for Windows (Latest: Ver 6.1 August 2006 as of this document).
5.Intel Chipset Drivers for your System (Mine is the 945P).
6..NET Framework 2.0 (for nLite operation).

Now on to the slipstream process:

Step 1.) Put your Licensed copy of XP in your CD-ROM drive, and copy the entire disc to a temporary folder on your hard drive. (I copied mine to a folder on my Desktop called “WinXpPro”).

Step 2.) Insert a blank and formatted floppy disk into your floppy disk drive. Then run the Intel Matrix Storage Manager for Floppy to extract the drivers to the blank floppy. (Don’t ask me why they didn’t just zip the stupid files, they just didn’t!).

Step 3.) Copy the Intel Matrix Storage Manager for Windows and the Intel Chipset applications to a temporary media. (i.e. USB Drive, Burn to a Disc, somewhere OTHER than the current drive). You will need them after you get Windows installed.

Step 4.) If you haven’t already, install nLite. If you have, skip to Step 5.

Step 5.) Open up nLite, select the folder you copied your Windows XP disc to and wait while it processes, then select at least the following options from it’s list of abilities:
1.Integrate Service Packs.
2.Integrate Drivers.
3.Make Bootable ISO Image.
You can select others if you like, but I’ll leave their functionality how-to’s up to you.
Click the ‘Next’ button to continue.

Step 6.) You should get a window asking you to browse to the file that contains your Service Pack that you downloaded. Do so now, and add it to the list. Then click ‘Next’ again.

Step 7.) You should get a window asking you to install your custom drivers. Select “Install Single Driver” from the list at the bottom, and navigate to your floppy disk you just made.

Step 8.) Select the ‘iastor’ file from the two files that may be listed as drivers. One will say ‘hdc’ and the other will say ‘SCSI Adapter’ in the ‘Type’ column in your list after you add it. Make sure you added the one that says ‘SCSI Adapter’, if it doesn’t, remove it and select the other.

Step 9.) Proceed to the next step.

Step 10.) Eventually you should come to a screen prompting you to make your ISO image file. Do so now and save it to a location you’ll remember later. Then click the ‘Finish’ button to complete the slipstream process.

Step 11.) Using your favorite CD burning software (I used Nero), burn the ISO image to a CD. (Now, when I say ‘burn the ISO image’, I don’t mean ‘COPY’ the image…I mean make sure the software you use ACTUALLY opens the ISO file and burns the files it contains to a CD.).

Step 12.) You should now have a bootable Windows XP CD containing the latest Service Pack and your Intel Matrix Storage drivers.

Step 13.) Stick your CD in the CD-ROM drive, and remove your floppy disk from the floppy drive. Reboot the system (if your using it, if not just Power it on.).

Step 14.) Enter the BIOS and switch it to Autodetect/AHCI. (The factory default! Yes!!!)

Step 15.) Boot to the Boot Menu and select the CD-ROM from the list.

Step 16.) Proceed with Windows Setup as normal. When selecting your adapter, make sure you select the correct driver for your chipset and obviously select the AHCI unless you have RAID drives setup, which you wouldn’t, or you wouldn’t be reading this now, would you?

Step 17.) After successful installation, install the Chipset drivers FIRST, then the Intel Matrix Storage Manager for Windows.

Step 18.) Install all of your other drivers and updates.

Step 19.) You should be good to go, because if you made it this far, you’ve obviously gotten further than before and haven’t experienced the same problem!! Congrats!

I hope that my time invested in developing this solution helps some of you. And I hope, in the future, Dell takes note of these irritating setbacks that come bundled with their systems.

-Steve Antonucci

By: Steve A

Steve A — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 04:40:26 +0000

I apologize, on my last post I said the website that links to nLite is
www.nlite.org, in my haste to get this solution out, I did not verify the address. It is actually http://www.nliteos.com/

I apologize for the inconvience, this site apparently does not allow you to edit your posts!!

-Steve

By: Marshall

Marshall — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:52:37 +0000

Steve -

Thanks very much for the detailed post. I’ll be posting a wrap-up of everyone’s experiences and fixes shortly.

By: Stingray

Stingray — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 20:01:16 +0000

I have had the same BSOD problem with my Dell Dimension 9150.

With the help of the information on this page, the Dell support rep and I were able to fix the problem without re-installing windows XP.

Without understanding the full details of what went wrong, I believe that the original Dell Intel Matrix Storage Manager Drivers were the source of the problem. (I had version Intel Matrix Storage Manager, v.5.1.0.1022, A03 ). We fixed the problem by replacing them with the updated drivers from Intel (version 6.1.0.1002)

Here is how I fixed the problem:

(1) Download the Floppy Disk Tool to get the driver files from Intel:
(I started at the link from a previous post:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Filter_Results.aspx?strOSs=All&strTypes=All&ProductID=2101&lang=eng&OSFullName=All%20Operating%20Systems#DRV
)

I selected the 32-bit (I am running Windows XP Pro) Floppy Configuration Utility for version 6.1.0.1002 at:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProductID=2101&DwnldID=11310&strOSs=All&OSFullName=All Operating Systems&lang=eng

(2) Extract the files from the Floppy Utility (requires a blank floppy). My Dimension does not have a floppy drive, so I burned the file “iastor.sys” onto a CD. (You could use any removable storage media that is visible from the Windows XP Recovery Console).

(3) Booted my Dimension 9150 into the Recovery Console using the XP CD.

(4) Navigate to c:\windows\system32\drivers\ where the bad “iastor.sys” file is located.

(5) Rename “iastor.sys” to “iastor.old” using the command -> “ren iastor.sys iastor.old”

(6) Copy the new version of iastor.sys from removable storage to c:\windows\system32\drivers\iastor.sys

(7) Rebooted the machine into Safe Mode (This took 2 tries because I think the machine was performing Chkdsk on the drives the first time and forced a reboot afterwards.)

(8) From safe mode, I installed the Full Version of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver (Not the Floppy Disk Configuration Utility) that I downloaded from:
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=N&ProductID=2101&DwnldID=11309&strOSs=All&OSFullName=All Operating Systems&lang=eng

(9) Then, I rebooted my machine into Windows Normal Mode and everything seems to be fixed.

I was very happy not to have to re-install windows or lose any of my data.

I hope that helps.

Stingray

By: Will

Will — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 14:34:50 +0000

Yikes. I hope there is a simpler solution than Steve A proposes; i don’t have a floppy drive and i’m not that technically savvy.

My E510 gives BSOD with various stop errors 0×000000XX. Spent 4 hrs + with Dell Service and the only thing I’ve accomplished is to wipe my hard drive running recoveries.

Anxiously awaiting Marshall’s wrapup. thanks so much