- Feb 27, 2014
- 177
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OK guys this is an oddity, so much that I wasn't sure whether or not to place it in Motherboards section...but hear me out.
6-7 months ago I installed Windows 7 on one of my customers' dell Optiplex tower with an old P4 processor. Everything ran smooth except the DVD ROM would not respond like there was nothing in it. (or I'd get Device not ready message a few times (IDE DVD ROM was set as first booting device followed by SATA Hard drive). Eventually the system loaded and seemed to function fine - the updates and programs were installing, SFC check went fine, etc. No problems, no errors... I assumed DVD ROM was just old that's all.
Less than a month down the road the PC began experiencing all kinds of weird errors. The guy would complain that sometimes the OS would not load or hang or he would get a "Windows recovered from serious error message". There were multiple very weird seemingly unrelated windows errors. So in another 6 months he finally decided to have me take a look at the machine.
System file checker would run but immediately (1-2 seconds) would find "no integrity violations" I know it can't possibly check all the files this fast. Virus scans were negative except some minor adware (Conduit)...Hard drive was checked using SpeedFan and was next to perfect - nothing in red - maximal performance, etc. Of course SpeedFan is not 100% accurate and can't check for certain mechanical problems as I heard, but still...
Decided to re-install OS. This is when this nonsense with 0x80070017 error began to occur when windows files were copying. It would come on IMMEDIATELY. Naturally I assumed that either the DVD ROM was bad or my Windows 7 Ultimate disk was scratched. I replaced both - put in a brand new Windows 7 Starter Disk and hooked up a brand new SATA DVD ROM to 2nd SATA port. The same error occurred again (!).
OK I thought, - perhaps the hard drive IS bad. Why don't I use another good (this time IDE) hard drive. But, even then - the same error occurred again (!) while copying windows files.
I happened to have and IDE DVD ROM with me (which also worked fine before) Hooked it up to the only IDE cable as slave . 3rd DVD ROM, DIFFERENT HARD DRIVE (!) - same error. Also I began to notice other hangups - like the DVD ROM is either "not ready" or acts as if there is no bootable disk in -. Or all of a sudden the PC fails to read it's original SATA drive or SATA DVD ROM (happened a couple of times - and swapping SATA cables didn't make a difference. One time during boot it would recognize it, another time - it wouldn't (no Drive). Nothing to do with SATA ports either - same oddity occurred with both ports and in every possible combination of switched DVDs, ports, cables, hard drives and DVD ROMs.
I would have tried to connect my DVD ROMs through USB ports (SATA/IDE to USB adaptor) but it proved impossible. Despite USB booting option enabled in BIOS - it acts like the drive is simply not there....
Just out of curiosity I also tried loading Windows 7 64-bit and Vista Lite 32-bit. Same thing - same error, but not a scratch on those disks. All of these disks worked fine before with other computers. The 2 of my DVD ROMs (SATA and IDE) - also worked just fine with other computers and my SATA/IDE to USB adaptor also worked and works fine. Both SATA and IDE Hard disks I used were checked by SpeedFan and Windows 7 was successfully loaded on both drives before.
At this point I am quite frustrated, because I don't seem to be able to locate the problem. Is there a possibility the problem is with a BIOS chip? What reason could there be for this commonly known error which basically means the data is not making it consistently from the source to the hard drive? I mean - I installed windows 7-32 bit on this machine BEFORE (6-7 months ago) after a couple of DVD-ROM (seemingly) related hangups but there was no dreaded 0x80070017 error AT ALL then(!) And somehow in this time the situation deteriorated. No hardware modifications of any kind were done to the computer during those 6-7 months, it wasn't even moved from the same spot as far as I know.
I doubt that installing OS from a USB drive would work either - as it just doesn't seem to recognize that there are any drives connected to USB ports besides mouse and keyboard....
I would be immensely grateful for any new even unorthodox suggestions or conjectures on what this problem may be about and how to work around it (if it's at all possible). I am not a newbie at this but I seem to be overlooking something or perhaps misunderstanding the problem.
Thanks in advance.
6-7 months ago I installed Windows 7 on one of my customers' dell Optiplex tower with an old P4 processor. Everything ran smooth except the DVD ROM would not respond like there was nothing in it. (or I'd get Device not ready message a few times (IDE DVD ROM was set as first booting device followed by SATA Hard drive). Eventually the system loaded and seemed to function fine - the updates and programs were installing, SFC check went fine, etc. No problems, no errors... I assumed DVD ROM was just old that's all.
Less than a month down the road the PC began experiencing all kinds of weird errors. The guy would complain that sometimes the OS would not load or hang or he would get a "Windows recovered from serious error message". There were multiple very weird seemingly unrelated windows errors. So in another 6 months he finally decided to have me take a look at the machine.
System file checker would run but immediately (1-2 seconds) would find "no integrity violations" I know it can't possibly check all the files this fast. Virus scans were negative except some minor adware (Conduit)...Hard drive was checked using SpeedFan and was next to perfect - nothing in red - maximal performance, etc. Of course SpeedFan is not 100% accurate and can't check for certain mechanical problems as I heard, but still...
Decided to re-install OS. This is when this nonsense with 0x80070017 error began to occur when windows files were copying. It would come on IMMEDIATELY. Naturally I assumed that either the DVD ROM was bad or my Windows 7 Ultimate disk was scratched. I replaced both - put in a brand new Windows 7 Starter Disk and hooked up a brand new SATA DVD ROM to 2nd SATA port. The same error occurred again (!).
OK I thought, - perhaps the hard drive IS bad. Why don't I use another good (this time IDE) hard drive. But, even then - the same error occurred again (!) while copying windows files.
I happened to have and IDE DVD ROM with me (which also worked fine before) Hooked it up to the only IDE cable as slave . 3rd DVD ROM, DIFFERENT HARD DRIVE (!) - same error. Also I began to notice other hangups - like the DVD ROM is either "not ready" or acts as if there is no bootable disk in -. Or all of a sudden the PC fails to read it's original SATA drive or SATA DVD ROM (happened a couple of times - and swapping SATA cables didn't make a difference. One time during boot it would recognize it, another time - it wouldn't (no Drive). Nothing to do with SATA ports either - same oddity occurred with both ports and in every possible combination of switched DVDs, ports, cables, hard drives and DVD ROMs.
I would have tried to connect my DVD ROMs through USB ports (SATA/IDE to USB adaptor) but it proved impossible. Despite USB booting option enabled in BIOS - it acts like the drive is simply not there....
Just out of curiosity I also tried loading Windows 7 64-bit and Vista Lite 32-bit. Same thing - same error, but not a scratch on those disks. All of these disks worked fine before with other computers. The 2 of my DVD ROMs (SATA and IDE) - also worked just fine with other computers and my SATA/IDE to USB adaptor also worked and works fine. Both SATA and IDE Hard disks I used were checked by SpeedFan and Windows 7 was successfully loaded on both drives before.
At this point I am quite frustrated, because I don't seem to be able to locate the problem. Is there a possibility the problem is with a BIOS chip? What reason could there be for this commonly known error which basically means the data is not making it consistently from the source to the hard drive? I mean - I installed windows 7-32 bit on this machine BEFORE (6-7 months ago) after a couple of DVD-ROM (seemingly) related hangups but there was no dreaded 0x80070017 error AT ALL then(!) And somehow in this time the situation deteriorated. No hardware modifications of any kind were done to the computer during those 6-7 months, it wasn't even moved from the same spot as far as I know.
I doubt that installing OS from a USB drive would work either - as it just doesn't seem to recognize that there are any drives connected to USB ports besides mouse and keyboard....
I would be immensely grateful for any new even unorthodox suggestions or conjectures on what this problem may be about and how to work around it (if it's at all possible). I am not a newbie at this but I seem to be overlooking something or perhaps misunderstanding the problem.
Thanks in advance.
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