xp keeps re-installing acpi uniprocessor pc. what is this?

Jackovarian

Ive looked it up online and can only fugure out its something to do with power, and the uniprocessor part means a single processor.

my laptop is very down on speed, its also failing to boot at all sometimes, or stalling mid boot. ive tried everything with it. updated the bios, messed with ram and hdd.

but after a big crash, when i get it going again, its very slow, and windows recognises new hardware the acpi uniprocessor pc. then reinstalls it. doesnt really fix the speed when it is reinstalled.


ive checked the cpu and it seems ok, heatsink gel applied ok. no reason to believe it was overclocked before i had it.

im thinking the processor could be damaged though...
any ideas?

majiktripp

Whats the make/model? Have you tried a clean full wipe & reinstall of XP on the machine?

zilog_jones

This is a standard driver that Windows needs for single-core/CPU machines. It's not normal for it to reinstall it regularly though.

Check the Event Viewer in Windows for any unusual warnings or errors.

Jackovarian wrote: »

ive checked the cpu and it seems ok, heatsink gel applied ok. no reason to believe it was overclocked before i had it.

You do know if you remove the heatsink you need to clean the surfaces and re-apply the thermal compound? Not sure what you did exactly, but it doesn't just stick back together.

gamer

Download ccleaner ,install run it, gets rid of old file remnents ,cleans the hd of unused files,temp files.YOU may have spyware or malware slowing down the pc.Download spyware terminator ,install do a full scan.Run antivirus scan.
IF no better back up mp3s, data files and try system restore.WINXP needs at least 2gig hd empty space to run efficiently ,maybe the drive is nearly full.
at some point you may need to do full winxp reinstall to get laptop working normally.Download drivermax ,import all drivers to folder my drivers.COPY this to A CDR DISK,or usb drive BE4 you reinstall windows xp.
YOU could try restoring a registry backup,thru dos mode if you are experienced in using dos prompt.

Jackovarian

yeah heatsink gel and is new dont worry.

no, this issue tend to happen before hdd startup even. so its nothin to do with that. tried new hdd aswell and no change.

its working now after a jumper reset. but its stalled twice before it worked...

something is telling me all it may need is a new cmos battery.

i know your all gona say, has your time and date been affected. no it hasnt, but that doenst mean the battery is fine. it may be starting to fail, but not at the point where it cuts out n blanks the clock.

could be the psu.
but thats a whole differnt thing and one i'd rather not mess with.

when the machine has heated up it works fine, but on cold starts its like an old rover. it just wont godamn turn over!

simple fix or near death?

Pete4779

Jackovarian wrote: »

Ive looked it up online and can only fugure out its something to do with power, and the uniprocessor part means a single processor.....

but after a big crash, when i get it going again, its very slow, and windows recognises new hardware the acpi uniprocessor pc. then reinstalls it. doesnt really fix the speed when it is reinstalled.

That is quite a strange error. Windows will treat your computer as ACPI or Standard PC. ACPI is how Windows automatically configures device conflicts (e.g., IRQs and so on) and Power. If it is installed as ACPI, you can downgrade/backgrade it to Standard PC. However, you can only restore to ACPI by doing the "Repair" or reinstalling Windows. Further to this, once it installed as ACPI, Windows will ignore any change you make to BIOS settings (such as adjusting for conflicts, etc., ).

You could try stepping back to Standard PC and seeing if your adjustments to the BIOS work. If youmake any adjustments or there is a critical hardware crash, Windows will still want to reinstall ACPI.

If your system is failing to boot sometimes, I would say it's more likely a HD error than a CPU problem. What type of laptop is it, and how old is it? You say "before I had it"- it is a secondhand laptop? Basically, I would get the HD out, hook it up to a functioning desktop and check it for all types of viruses/trojans (Spybot, AdAware) and scan it for errors. Due to teh nature of laptop BIOSs, it's exceptionally unlikely that anyone could have overclocked it; it's not like desktop systems.

Jackovarian

well all my original issues are null at this stage.

through investigation i have realised that with this laptop, as soon as you press the power button the hdd starts (didnt happen n my old machine, it was the third thing after lights + fan)
on thsi the hdd goes first. i changed the boot sequence, that doesnt help.
if i remove the hdd the machine loads and goes to bios fine every time. a lot faster too.


so i am in the process of using a diff window installation just to see if the sony recovery disks are fecked. im also removing the partition from the drive to see if thats the problem. the drive has been tested in a same model machine and seems to work fine. a diff hdd was cheked in this also and same issue. although both had the aprtition and dodge sony recovery windows.

guna try this and will pst results. although if its not the hddd its the ide controller...

Jackovarian

im still in the process of nuking the hdd and partition so i cant give an update as to whether that fixes the problem. dont think it will though.

could pressing the install key during boot save me the time of having to take out the cmos battery?

i duno, this is a very strange problem. if it was the ide controller, would i not be having problems when the os is running? coz its only on startup that the issue occours, and only sometimes. if the machine has been on running it reboots fine, but if i take out the battery for a while or leave it off for the night it takes a couple of tries to boot.
could there be a component not firing correctly, but whe it heats up and expands it works fine? thats a longshot though as it wouldnt have heated up in the time it takes it to boot. plus, it boots fine without the hdd in it.
(its not the hdd)

oh, the slowness i mentioned earlier was caused by sonys stupid recovery disks and massive amounts of useless apps that installed themselves. it was a small bit sluggish with the other xp installation, but im guessing thats because it didnt have the right drivers for the hardware and/or the gerforce go 6400 was sapping up valuable lumps of ram.

this is very frustrating.

zilog_jones

Have you checked the HDD for bad sectors/blocks? Do chkdsk /r /x in windows or badblocks /dev/hda (probably, might be different location depending on config) if you're using some Linux CD. Chkdsk will show you bad sectors when it's finished, or badblocks will finish and say nothing if there is nothing bad. Try checking the SMART readings too (SpeedFan can do this in Windows).

Jackovarian wrote: »

could there be a component not firing correctly, but whe it heats up and expands it works fine? thats a longshot though as it wouldnt have heated up in the time it takes it to boot.

It's plausible, but hard to find where the fault lies or if that's the cause. I'd make sure all removeable components are 100% OK than trying to assume anything like that though.

plus, it boots fine without the hdd in it.

What are you booting then? Do you really mean it's failing POST at times? POST failure could be due to a number of things, most likely RAM. What happens when it fails? Is there a particular sequence of lights (num lock/caps lock/etc.) shown? I know Dells have specific sequences for POST failures but dunno about other brands. It's a Sony right?

something is telling me all it may need is a new cmos battery. i know your all gona say, has your time and date been affected. no it hasnt, but that doenst mean the battery is fine. it may be starting to fail, but not at the point where it cuts out n blanks the clock.

From my experience the only obvious sympton from a dead CMOS battery is the clock going, unless it's some ancient yoke that doesn't auto-detect hardware like my 386 Don't know if laptops can run the clock off the main battery, but if it could it wouldn't make sense to not keep the CMOS state via the main battery too. Only way to know is measure it with a multimeter or put it in a PC that will display battery voltage.

Actually, the BIOS will probably warn you about low bat voltage anyway. I'd rule it out for now.

Jackovarian

hmm, ok.

yeah, it will go to post most times.

basically,, when the hard drive is in it, it might boot fully. It might stall either before post, after post or just after the initial windows screen with the blue or green moving bar at the bottom. then it bluescreens and resets itself. it also doesnt recognise the keyboard - sometimes, before windows boots. i cant enter the bios sometimes. software like partition logic or boot and nuke didnt read the keyboard because the system didnt read it.


when theres no hdd in the machine, it goes to post fine. keyboard is always recognised. it also loads about twice as fast. obviously to a blinking cursor!

now im trying to figure out if its software based or hardware based, and to me it seems like a hardware conflict thats causing a failure. a small short maybe?
thats wahy i thought cmos batery, as its right at the ide slot.

zilog_jones

OK, sounds pretty dodge then. What happens if you try and use some boot CD with the HDD out? Does it work OK?

Jackovarian

perfect. thats why im thinking it might n ot be the ide controller as that would control the cd drive also? am i wrong there?

i hope im not! lol coz that would be a good thing if it wasnt the controller. hope its just a bit of loose solder round a joint r sumthin.

zilog_jones

AFAIK the DVD drives in laptops are still PATA as the connectors haven't changed in yonks, which means the SATA hard disk (is it SATA?) could be controlled by something quite unrelated from it.

Are you definately sure the HDD is OK?

Jackovarian

yeah, well it was checked in another laptop of the same model and it worked fine, although that could have just been a lucky boot.

another hdd was tried in this with a low level format and the same problem.

ive spent the day nuking the hdd, have just finished reloading windows on it.

but i also spent some time, taking the machine apart and checking the hdd area, no breaks or burns, no strange areas. the cmos battery plug looked slightly out of place. i removed it for around 3 minutes.
the laptop is reset, and... it works!

well, for now at least. i'll know for sure in the morning.

the sluggishness with the new windows install has gone since i wiped the drive and got rid of the partition. the fresh install is quick and smooth. needs drivers, but works fine.

the keyboard has worked on every boot since i did the cmos. thats around 20 boots for testing. worked fine. no problems.

but again, i will only know for sure in the morning, and if it works, I wont know what the problem was! dammit, if it works, i wont care!
but i will invest in a new cmos battery. worth the few cents for piece of mind.

thansk for the help zilog.

Jackovarian

:eek:.........

now theres no post issue or early boot issue.
the boot problem is now happening on the welcome screen.
its booting fine up to that point, even on cold boot.

so... any ideas?

still losing the acpi uniprocessor pc though! windows just re-installed it.

the next thing i think i should try is re-installing windows without acpi support. i heard if you hold f5 during installation it will ask to install a normal pc or uniprocessor pc, on the very first install screen.


the cmos thing definitely did do something though, but its two small batteries, not the one battery i originaly thought.

maybe some kind of corrosion on the battery? i wont know till i take off the wrap.

any ideas? has windows ever reinstalled any acpi on you? how did you fix it???


oh yeah, windows is now slow again, a fresh install!, it wont run any driver installations in put onto it becaue they are all corrupt! apparently... also, the machine gave a warning that my virtual memory was low. but when i checked it was set around 730 to around 945 or something close.
so i reset it to 1gig to 4 gig small megs inclusive. there was nothing running when i got this error. i have 512 megs of ddr2 in it. and the gfx nly uses 96 meg of that, max.

recap:
Not PSU
Not HDD

i had an idea that it could be a damaged processor as the heatsink gel was hard and cracked. but, im sure that wouldnt affect driver loss.

the removal of the cmos battery seemed to do something (i havent reset the time yet)

ram removal and insertion did affect the boot pattern, but i think it was mostly a secondary thing. i.e not ram related.

ide controller and hdd. seems as if it guna be one of them. the hdd is ok. its been checked and checked.

Jackovarian

tried booting linux there. but it failed at some point. it also wouldnt let me use the keyboard, without the hdd in (tried it like that the 2nd time just to see)

removing the cmos battery definitely changed the symptoms.

this is guna sound ridiculous, but could it be a bios virus? its not a boot sector virus, coz ive wiped the drive back to a completely raw state.
and tested it also.

ive read that there are certain bios viruses out there. one in particular which grows over time and it causes the same symptoms as the laptop has. could just be coincidental.

anyways, reflashing the bios wont help as its sits in the acpi chip.

could be a load of codswallop, coz its a bit more difficult to reflash a bios chip than that, let alone adding to the flash file without kiling the computer afterwards.

if it were one though, how would anybody recommend ridding it?
maybe remove the cmos battery, try doing a bootable flash, blanking the hardrive.
its all a bit ridiculous now. im about to just rip it apart and sell its innards.

Jackovarian

completely unplugging the cmos battery has pretty much fixed it. although it will only run from live power, it wont turn on with just the main battery pack.

any ideas why this could be?

im not saying its completely fixed now, i will know 2m, but it would seem to be working alot better. i even ran a game on it fine.

zilog_jones

Could be a BIOS virus - never encountered one myself but I have heard of them. Have you tried flashing the BIOS anyway? Is there a newer version available?

Jackovarian

have the newest version installed dude.

im afraid if it is a virus it may be installed on my older machine aswell, they are both phoenix chips! Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo! . as i switched harddrives earlier just to check. and when i switched back my clock is suddenly 3 hours ahead!
my old machines hdd worked like a dream in the newer lappy! for the first load, then it just wouldnt load at all! could have been a windows issue, what with it not having being installed on that machine and whatnot! lol.

i dunno. ill give new info in the morn.

hope this has at least been an entertaining challenge! thanks zilog!

Jackovarian

nope...:(
lost keyboard on initial again. went into linux os choice screen and had no keyboard function. at least it booted first try.

i guess the most obvious solution is that its a loose component. when its warm it expands and connects properly, when its moved by me opening the case it will either work or not work. when its cold it will have reversed to its original size therefore not connecting.

i'm thinking ram slots.
its roughly a 2006 model machine with ddr2 ram. it was bound to go screwey at some stage. the ram itself is fine. ive looked at the connectors and solder points with a mag glass, but thats not to say their i'snt a microscopic fracture. earlier vaio models are notorious for those kinda problems. also, i put folded strips of paper in around the ram slots yesterday and they really exaggerated the problem. but the ram registers fully. i've checked it with software on that machine and found no errors, although, it was working fine for that hour or so... and why then would the problem have affected my other machines time and made it act weird after the hdd switch.

is it hardware or software. i think that is the main question. or is it both?

Jackovarian

ok, for anybody who may wish to help me!

i resat the cmos battery and rest the time as the laptop had become a little unstable again.

i have just reinstalled sony windows recovery.

downgraded the ram to the original release version

wouldnt post at all the first time,

posted the second time but too ages to do so, then went past the windows moving band screen to a blue screen. not welcome screen, differnt colour blue even.

third time same as second except it went through post fine.

fourth time is kept pressing f8 and it loaded fine, had to reinstall acpi uniprocessor pc.

in conclusion, the bios change radically affected the problem.
any ideas?

oh, the keyboard failure upon boot is a regualr problem for vaios. nothing bad. just crap if you have dual os's.

working fine again beyond the boot stalls. oh, battery life is erratic also.

please help!

Jackovarian

I seemed to have fixed the problem.

In frustration i took the machine apart, got the cmos battery (ni-mh i might add, i thought they were all li-ion) i charged and reverse charged it, as i thought it might wake the bloody thing up if the cells had dryed up or something.
then, stupidly and angrily, i began to gently push individual major solder joints and components, hoping that if their was indeed a hairline fracture on the board or solder i would either give a temporary fix or really agrivate the problem.
put it back together and it worked brilliantly for three days, until xpo service pack 3 decided it wanted to be installed. service pack 3 caused boot failures. i googled it and it seems a lot of people are having this problem with amd based systems. mines intel.
i uninstalled sp3. my machines running very unstable and slow, but doesnt seem to have a boot issue.
needless to say i am going to have to reinstall windows.

but yeah, the problem seems fixed.

SORRY FOR ALL THE RANTS ON THIS THREAD. YOU CAN PRETTY MUCH DELETE IT NOW MODS IF YOU WANT!!!

if anybody does know what the probelm actually may have been please let me know.

jimi_t

Maybe you did and I overlooked it, but have you tried booting off an external HD? Could be an obscure motherboard issue relating to the SATA handling. Maybe try a NIX on an external HD and see if you get a kernel panic - you can often isolate the problem better from a kernel dump than the obscure XP dumpprep nonsense - oh for the days of guru meditations :rolleyes:

As it stands, it might just be an idea to replace RAM, HD, CMOS and detach internal bluetooth adapters, optical drives - everything you can - to see if you can isolate the problem to the motherboard itself. It could be something as simple as a burnt out surface mount resistor.

Jackovarian

ahh im just a home hobbiest when it comes to these things, kinda learn on the fly.
a pc technician had it before me but couldnt give it the time needed to figure the problem out. he tried a lot of switching and narrowing down but really couldnt find the problem.

its only through the fact that i knew it was working intermittently that i got it to try fix. as i really suspected it was something to do with the bios and or cmos. due to the fact that the boot issue was, at the time, random factor based. a hardware issue tends to happen at least 90% of the time before complete failure. its also more solid in its failings, this wasnt sure what it wanted to do, no pattern, and no strict definition of failing. but upon messing with the bios and cmos i noticed a drastic change in the failings and indeed lack thereof.

the only spanner in my theory is the cold boot problem, which i would initally attribute to a split or fracture that mends upon heat. possible, but it would take a bit more than to attempts to start it if this were the case.

so my theory towards that is that the machine would start after the cmos battery had been exposed to some form of current.
anyways
not going to take it apart again until it calves!

VLuna1977

Hi Jacko,

Any luck on fixing your Sony Vaio??? I have the same laptop with the same exact issue. My little cousin claims he installed the wrong bios on this laptop and I tried a clean win xp install and sony recovery disc. and first boot is great but when windows installs the acpi uniprocessor it requires a reboot and then keyboard stops working and sometimes it doesn't even load up windows it just hangs at bios screen.

I eventually get windows xp to load up by hitting f8 and setting bios at default values but when windows xp loads up again it installs the same thing over again and it boots up with tons of errors.

If anyone can help me it would greatly be appreciated.

Victor

Jackovarian

ok, well it sounds similar to the issue ive had

em, if you take out the hard drive, and boot, does the keyboard work ok every time?

like, to get into the bios?

as for my machine, its has gone through many different problem forms at this stage. but, i have found the problem, well fixed the problem, i'm assuming the problem is a hairline fracture on the motherboard, near the modem controller. sounds stupid, but i stuck a lump of cardboard under the casing at the graphics heatsink. boots beautifully now, everytime. but, a new problem started a few weeks ago, where it will turn off and reboot if moved wrong. so its no longer stable or portable.

now, this started before the fix. so i dont know if its related, but i do know that it isnt affected by the fix. so i dunno.

i wouldnt try it with your laptop being honest, like, i could have really shortened mines life span, and i cant exactly sell it on like. hehe


ok, another you could try is messing with the boot order of things.

try a fresh install of windows?

re-flashing the bios did do things to mine, it would be worth trying.

being honest i really dont know. i worked mine down to a fault near the keyboard, and eventually got the fix. really nice laptop like, hence the effort!

let me know how you get on.

Capt'n Midnight

(i) to remove hidden stuff in device manager
first save a system restore state, and have your cd's to hand in case it goes pear shaped

at a command prompt enter these two lines
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
devmgmt.msc

when device manager starts right click to show hidden devices, it will list all the stuff it has ever seen. you might see some other stuff in computer there


(ii) playing with hal's in the boot.ini , one mistake and game over.
http://www.vernalex.com/guides/sysprep/hal.shtml - see option 3

hal files aren't backward compatible, if you choose a multiprocesor when you don't have at least a dual core can mean looking at a black screen instead of booting, doing it the other way around means you only get to use a single core,

Jackovarian

... was that reply for this thread?

Capt'n Midnight

indeed it was.