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Blue screen when installing Microsoft Server Standard 2003 x64 on Dell Precision T7400

I have been running win xp 32bit on a Dell 64bit Xeon Precision T7400 (the C drive is Seagate Cheetah® 15K.5 SAS 3Gb/s 73-GB Hard Drive - ST373455SS) for several months, recently been having problems with corrupt indexes when run a chkdsk on the C: drive - the disk appears fine when I do a chkdsk at boot, but if I run chkdsk from win XP, the problems resurface. Incidentally, have been having continual problems with USB devices - also causing a blue screen, which I assume is due to running 32 bit OS on a 64 bit system? I thought that these issues could be solved by installing 64 bit version of Win 2003 server, as well as enabling full access to the 4gb ram that is installed.

So, I formatted the Seagate C drive using Acronis disk director, which seems to have worked as when rebooted, got a message NTLDR cannot be found. Then tried to install Windows Server 2003 x-64 from the installation disk, but received a blue screen message - as follows:

#######
A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down....etc.......etc........restart your computer.

Technical Information:
***STOP: 0X0000007B (0XFFFFFADF904323C0, 0XFFFFFFFFC00, 0X0000000000000000, 0X0000000000000000***
######

I have been able to fully restore the XP 32 bit using Acronis True Image, booting from the Acronis Boot disk, so the system is up and running again, but I would like to ultimately install server 2003 - but cannot get past this blue screen, which has repeated 3 times now.

The original installed software was vista 64 bit business edition - which I removed due to incompatibility with some of the software that I am using.

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Darius Ghassem
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Have you tried formating the drive with the Windows Server 2003 install disk? Do you have RAID on computer? If you have RAID do you install the driver when the Windows Server 2003 setup asks for it. When you first put the CD the install disk will start to get setup ready and will ask for the RAID driver then asking you to press F6 to install the driver. Do you have a legal copy of Windows Server 2003?
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guypp

ASKER

Thanks for your reply - I haven't tried to format using the Windows Server 2003 install disk as I don't even get to this part of the installation - the blue screen appears just as the install disk has finished getting setup ready. I don't have RAID. The copy I am using is legal - under a volume license from the organisation I work for.
Most Dell Precision T7400 have RAID on the capibilities built into the system by default.  If you give me the Service tag of your system I can be 100% sure. I haven't heard of a Prescision that didn't come with a RAID controller. Here is your model number driver page.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WV64&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=PREC_T7400&hidos=WLH&hidlang=en&TabIndex=
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ASKER

Ah - good information. My service tag is 47K2J3J.
Dell doesn't have the Windows 2003 server driver online for download but usually you can call them directly to see if the have it avaliable. You have 953 left on your warranty so you shouldn't have any problems calling them. You need the RAID controller driver to install the new OS.
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Thanks for the information - I have the Dell SAS RAID Storage Manager v 2.16 on a DEll Driver CD, but ut states that it is only for Win XP 64, Windows Vista 64, Win XP & Win Vista. do I need a specific driver for server 2003 64 bit?
Yes, you need the driver for Server 2003 64 bit.
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ASKER

I have checked with DELL local distributor, who told me that DELL doesn't support Server 2003 64bit on a Precision 7400. Do you know whether there is a way I can workaround this?
No, there isn't a work around unless you search the internet for it. I would call Dell not a Dell local distributor.
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ASKER

Ok, Thanks. I did try to contact Dell, but seems their support channels aren't available due to my location (East Africa), so am forced to go through local distributor. Thanks for your input so far on this, I will determine whether it is the lack of RAID driver that is causing this and let you know the outcome.

Thanks for now...
Have you tried installing another OS with the correct RAID driver like Windows XP?
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ASKER

I have been able to install XP sp2 32-bit and Vista Business 64-bit, but neither installs required a separate RAID driver - they install directly from CD. I checked the system specs, and RAID was seemingly not configured - when I ordered the machine, I did specify that RAID was not required.

I checked in the Device Manager, and for SCSI and RAID controllers the following device is listed:

Dell SAS 6/iR Integrated.

So I am not sure whether RAID capabilities are active or not........There is no mention of RAID in the BIOS menu or at Boot......
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ASKER

I should add that both the XP and Vista installs were from Dell OEM discs that came with the computer - do you mean have I installed a non-Dell OS?
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Darius Ghassem
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Thanks very much for your help, I managed to get the correct driver from Dell, and installation has now worked.
Hi,
Was this issue actually resolved or just marked as solved?

I have exactly the same issue and have not been able to locate a DELL driver that works with Win2k3 64bit which I'm trying to install.

Thanks.
Hi

Like dantegroup, I have the same problem and cannot seem to find the DELL driver for windows server 2003.

Can anybody tell us where to get the driver?

Thanks,
Change the Hard Drive, I recommend segate Hard Disk. Your problem will be sorted out.

Cheers
Jayesh
If you don't want to change your hard drive (which didn't work for me anyway) here is the correct solution:
1)  Download the Dell SAS 6/i drivers from the support site for the PowerEdge 1950 NOT the T7400, but the PowerEdge 1950.
2)  Put those on a floppy disk.
3)  Boot the machine and enter your BIOS.
4)  In BIOS, under Drives > SATA Operation, select ATA instead of AHCI.  Acknowledge all warnings and Save/Exit.
5)  Boot from CD to install your version of Windows, MAKE SURE YOU PRESS F6 to install drivers from Floppy.
6) VIOLA!!!  It WORKS!!!
Too bad this was falsely accepted, I would have liked the points ;)
Jason