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18 Comments
- qoolalex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Apparently, Dell still won't acknowledge it has a problem. My brand-new XPS 410 (mfg 120406) came with an outdated IaStor.sys. Worse, IT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SET UP AS WITH A RAID CONTROLLER BECAUSE IT ONLY HAS ONE HARD DRIVE!
After hours on the phone with Dell tech support trying to prove it was MY problem, I'm now waiting on a call back so they can talk me through setting up my PC the way it should have come (i.e., without an onerous RAID controller with known problems) which necessitates a re-install of Win XP Pro. Great! Exactly what I wanted to spend this holiday doing after spending over $2,000 on this machine. PC buyer beware! - Lanchula, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hi,
I am one of Dells Gold support techs, good call on this! Consumer RAID is a loathsome thing that generates MANY calls :( . If I can help with any other Dell Pc issues I'm happy to try, the original poster of this story nailed the fix and the issue so I wouldn't add anything. Please note I am just a sympathetic person and any thing I put forth is not per DELL it is per me...... - ydeologi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've now seen over 6,000 hits on the topic. How many calls must Dell have received?
- ydeologi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2To be clear, I like Dell - I recommend their products all the time. But the frustrating thing here is that even after a few months, they still don't appear willing to acknowledge the problem, even though one clearly exists. The average customer must waste hours upon hours on the phone with support representatives who are trained to tell them that Dell doesn't know about the problem and that it's the customer's responsibility to back up their data (which they can't access) and reformat the computer to reinstall Windows... where the problem might very well recur, because that does nothing to relieve the underlying problem.
- joddug, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I stumbled onto this site yesterday while looking into a sudden onset of BSOD when I try to launch Outlook Express. Does anyone know the limit as to which Dell computers are affected and can someone walk me through the steps to try to correct the problem. Here's my story: I have a Dell Dimension 8400 purchased in April 2005. It runs XP Home and just has a normal hard drive set up. (I was a little confused by the mention of RAID and different other abbreviations used in the blogs, sorry.) I haven't done anything to my computer in the two years I've owned it besides adding software and miscellaneous hardware. I added a WD external hard drive, but that was months ago. I checked my email yesterday morning around 10:30 and everything was fine, went back in an hour later to send an email and got the BSOD. The first screen I got mentioned "driver_irql_less_or_equal" and had a stop code that included 0x000000D1. After the stop code it had "iastor.sys address 0xF739525F base at F7386000, DateStamp 42b2df42. I read the blogs here, and decided to call Dell. Spent the next three hours with tech support. We updated my BIOS, updated my intel chipsets, and even did the uninstall/reinstall of Outlook Express where you go into add/remove programs and uncheck then recheck the box. After all of that, he said to use Outlook since it worked and that the only way to fix Outlook Express from causing the BSOD was to reinstall XP. Just like in the blogs, I no longer get a BSOD that mentions the iastor.sys, later yesterday I got one with stop code 0x000000F4, and then today I got a new BSOD that had "kernel_stack_inpage_error" at the top and a stop code of 0x00000077. After that particular BSOD, my computer had a warning upon reboot that said that the system just recovered from a serious error and sent an error report to Microsoft. Microsoft reporting just said it was caused by a hard disk drive error and didn't have much else. Sorry this is long, but if anyone knows if my problem is similar to these problems you're reporting with 2006 machines, please let me know. My computer is still under warranty, and if this really is an issue Dell should be addressing and correcting, it would be really nice if they could do it before my system goes out of warranty!
- betawind, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Actually, sending the system factory RAID enabled is the *smart* thing to do. If you *ever* want to add a second HDD to set up a RAID configuration and don't want to have to reinstall your OS to do it, you *need* to have RAID enabled in the BIOS when the OS is initially installed at the factory, otherwise you'll BSOD if you turn it on in the BIOS then try to boot into Windows.
- dellhelp342, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1hi
i have a dell 9150, 1gig, 2x150 sata hd, ati video, i use adaptec firewire board an unnamed parelle controller.
my system crashed! i don't have a floppy drive only cd rom.
i see lots of post about dell and iastor.sys, i have tried many things to no avail. can someone help? can i save the data and recover from a crashed state?
email with suggestions jkmail06@verizon.net
thanks in advance
john - paranoiabacon, on 06/04/2008, -0/+1I actually have the same problem on my HP sometimes. It only seems to occur when it's idle for stretches of time but sometimes I'll come back to my computer and it'll be all BAM windows recovered from an error and blame it on iator.sys
- maddog59, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1I encountered the same problem with a computer at work. A Dell Precision 690 with RAID installed, although it only has one hd. The fix for me was in the BIOS setup. Entered Setup (F2 at startup), went into Drives & chose SATA Operation. Changed the option on the right from AHCI to ATA. Seems to have resolved the problem. Your system may or may not have the same setup, so that will determine if this works for you or not.
- carlxs99, on 10/18/2007, -0/+1Try a linux live cd to boot and then install on your hardware. I have often found that buggered hardware can have a bit more life with a linux OS after windows has given up. Give it a go... at least your hardware stops being an expensive paper weight. What have you got to loose????
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download - herbal9, on 10/17/2007, -0/+0I have/had an XPS 200 that suddenly will not boot. All I get is a black screen with a cursor, and the diagnostic lights reading 1,2,3 lit. I called Dell and was told it is probably my hard drive. I replaced the hard drive, and the same problem continued, I took it two computer shops that said it is possibly the power supply. Well, they were BOTH replaced, but nothing has changed. The computer is just two years old this October, and the warranty is out. I do not know what to do at this point accept buy another system which I can't really afford. If anyone have any ideas, please let me know. I've noticed that quite a few people systems failed just before or right at the two year time frame (including some I know), this very frustrating, expensive and too coincidental. Maybe Dell need to be looking at a Class Action suite for selling such inferior systems! I have not downloaded a lot of stuff on my computer because I only work on it on the weekends, so I wonder what their excuse could be for shi--y systems. If anyone as any info on this problem, I would really appreciate your response.
- momchou, on 10/06/2008, -0/+0TOSI - I too have a Dell Dim 8400, shipped in March of '06 or '05 (can't seem to remember), but am having the same issues, as well as others. Just this past week we had the motherboard (for the 4th time), the power supply (for the second time) and the hard drive (for the 2nd time in 2 weeks) replaced. I am so frustrated, as every time I call the tech on the other end (who is obviously in New Dehli or Bangladesh!) tells me they will own this call and stay with me until it is repaired to my satisfaction and never calls back when they say they will. I am glad that I paid for the extra service but grow very weary of telling my story to someone new each day and am forced to go back through the same tests over and over again. We have reinstalled XP 5 times on this computer since having it. I am almost ready to just buy a new computer that will NOT be a Dell. I have gotten bad_pool_caller errors, rundll32.exe errors, ntdll.dll errors, acpi.sys errors, .sif errors, vsapint.sys errors and the iastor.sys errors ALL in the last 3 weeks. Nearly everything but the processor has been replaced now, what do I tell the next Dell rep that I get on the phone??? Someone mentioned a full replacement (but taking about 21 days to request!) but of course I never can get that same rep back on the phone! I have been to the Intel page to download the file it mentions but I get an error every time I try that! I can't even go 1 full day without a BSOD(sometimes several a day!). What do I need to ask them to fix for once and for all for this stupid computer to work before my warranty runs out in March '09???? I hope someone who speaks discernable English can help me!! Thanks!
- nukka, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i have the same problem. got my Dell XPS 400 back in May 06 (i think it was may). Every time i try to defrag i get this error. I then read somewhere to defrag in safe mode. I was able to defrag most of my drive but at about 90% blue screen crash to iastor.sys error.
- Treeny, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I tried to restore my Dell DV051 to factory settings by hitting Ctrl F11 and once I did I rec'd the BSOD. My computer will not boot up now. Screen says that issues occurred and was shut down to prevent damage. Any idea of how I can get my system to boot up?
- krmilkman, on 05/11/2008, -0/+0Directly from Dell's Support Site:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx ... - tosi, on 08/17/2008, -0/+0I have the same problem, Dell DIM8400, when i try to install WXP again I get a blue screen again with another message "ntfs.sys". Does anyone know how to fix the ..... problem... ? I can not do nothing with this computer, cause does not boot.....
Please help !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 - Elkan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I found this blog because I had 2 BSODs today just trying to set the computer up. I purchased this xps 410 ATA 2 RAID Dual hard drives on 12/9/06. Most of you posting to this site are much more tech savvy than I am. I will attempt to follow the instructions posted to fix the BIOS. I'm constantly amazed how the 80% of us non-techie users are supposed to be able to fix these things when for some of us it is a major accomplishment to complete very simple computer tasks. Most of the time I can't even tell what you're talking about with all the acronyms. I have to stop and google each one, but I'm learning slowly. I have to agree with goolalex, who said it is pretty frustrating to pay over $2,000 and not have a functioning computer. I also agree that it is ludicrous not to expect that we'll want to use memory sticks to transfer data and drivers when networking issues are causing BSOD....NOT floppy disks. I guess the one positive thing is that I won't lose data in a crash because so far, I haven't even gotten to that point yet!
- DrStankly, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I have experienced a similar issue as well. I work for mail order pool supply company and one of our call center PCs was hanging up and restarting at the Windows loading screen. I was able to figure out it was iaStor.sys that was causing the problems because in safe mode that was the point when it would restart. The bad thing is this IS NOT a Dell only problem. This comp is a HP Compaq DC 7700, so i think there is potential that ANY PC running SATA and/or RAID using this specific driver could possible be affected. I am currently working on a way to fix this PC without doing a clean or dirty windows install, I will drop a comment when I can get it fixed.
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