Cixert Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 (edited) I have a pretty old computer saved many years in the closet that I had to take out to perform some tests. It has the I440BX chip (20th century) and Windows XP. The last time I tried to update the BIOS I looked for an updated version based on the motherboard name, but when trying to flash it I gave me the error "The program files part number does not match with your system". Desperate I flash it equally the surprise is that this works, but when restarting the message "NTLDR is missing press key to continue" appears to me. So I returned to the previous BIOS version and the problem disappeared. Now, in 2024 I have learned that the BIOS updated version is not sought by the motherboard name. This must be sought by the motherboard identification name that give programs such as Aida64, since I do not download a BIOS version for a motherboard review that is not admitted. So I have installed the BIOS correct version. The surprise is that the message also appears to me "NTLDR is missing press key to continue". And if I return to the previous version of the BIOS it works correctly. Any idea what reason is it? The strange thing is that the message appears in Spanish, when the BIOS is in English. How is it possible? Is it in any way detecting that Windows XP is in Spanish? I have tried other hard drives and they do work, the problem only happens with the installed hard drive. Motherboard Model: DTK PRM-0080I E1 ID motherboard: i440BX-w977-2A69KD1DC-00 BIOS download https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/dtk-prm-0080i-e1#bios BIOS right 80e1-308.bin (v. 3.08) BIOS bad: 80e1-314.bin (v. 3.14) It is for 2A69KD1KC (rev RC or newer ) Edited April 18 by Cixert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damnation Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 @Cixert Is your boot drive visible to the BIOS after you update? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripredacus Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 (edited) NTLDR is missing message comes from the OS itself, so this means it can see the disk. This message means that the BIOS did the hand-off to the disk, read the boot .ini and found where the OS is, but the path did not resolve. So the first thing to do is to check the boot .ini and see what is in there. One example of a situation where a BIOS update can cause this is if the OS volume where Windows is located had its drive letter change. Such as if you are using multiple hard disk and Windows is in D: a BIOS change could cause the re-enumeration of volumes and D: is now E:, etc. If it is a situation where your OS was on C: but now that volume is a different letter, then it may be better off reverting that BIOS version again as the Windows installation could have problems with the drive letter changing. NOTE: The forum will not let you type in the term I put in bold above without a space. You will get an error if you try to submit a post without the space. EDIT: I'd also like to report that while the retroweb (site linked earlier) is good for information, I find their software to be lacking. That site does not take into account board revisions such as is common with Microstar boards which means this issue will likely exist for other brands. That would be a reason why a BIOS update may fail. Also I've yet to find any drivers on there that have worked. For example, ones that are marked for Windows 95 requiring different OS like XP, or 32bit options are 64bit versions, etc. Edited April 19 by Tripredacus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cixert Posted April 24 Author Share Posted April 24 (edited) On 4/19/2024 at 4:20 PM, Tripredacus said: NTLDR is missing message comes from the OS itself, so this means it can see the disk. This message means that the BIOS did the hand-off to the disk, read the boot .ini and found where the OS is, but the path did not resolve. So the first thing to do is to check the boot .ini and see what is in there. One example of a situation where a BIOS update can cause this is if the OS volume where Windows is located had its drive letter change. Such as if you are using multiple hard disk and Windows is in D: a BIOS change could cause the re-enumeration of volumes and D: is now E:, etc. If it is a situation where your OS was on C: but now that volume is a different letter, then it may be better off reverting that BIOS version again as the Windows installation could have problems with the drive letter changing. NOTE: The forum will not let you type in the term I put in bold above without a space. You will get an error if you try to submit a post without the space. EDIT: I'd also like to report that while the retroweb (site linked earlier) is good for information, I find their software to be lacking. That site does not take into account board revisions such as is common with Microstar boards which means this issue will likely exist for other brands. That would be a reason why a BIOS update may fail. Also I've yet to find any drivers on there that have worked. For example, ones that are marked for Windows 95 requiring different OS like XP, or 32bit options are 64bit versions, etc. I think the Windows XP starting sequence is as follows: 1 MBR Sector-> Pre-Boot 2 NTLDR -> C: (System Partition Root) -> Preboot & Boot 3 boot .ini -> c: -> boot 4 Bootsect .DOS -> C: -> Boot (optional) 5 NTDETECT .com -> C: -> BOOT 6 NTBOOTDD .SYS -> C: -> Boot (optional) 7 ntoskrnl .exe -> Systemrootsystem32 -> kernel load 8 hal .dll -> Systemrootsystem32 -> kernel load 9 System -> Systemrootsystem32 -> Kernel initialization 10 devices .sys -> SystemroSystem32Drivers -> Kernel initialization I have applied the Fixboot & Fixmbr commands from a Windows 2003 start CD to try to solve the problem. Now the message "NTLDR is missing press key to continue" appears in English. Apparently the message is set in the MBR sector. If I execute the commands from the XP CD in Spanish, then the message reappears in Spanish. So the hard drive is detected, but not the operating system Pre-Boot file, NTLDR. If the hard drive was not detected, the BIOS put the message "Operating system is missing" I think there is an incompatibility between the BIOS version and this hard drive. Perhaps the hard drive is not in very good condition and the update has a feature that makes it fail. Edited April 24 by Cixert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cixert Posted April 24 Author Share Posted April 24 (edited) On 4/18/2024 at 6:29 AM, Damnation said: @Cixert Is your boot drive visible to the BIOS after you update? The hard disk drive appears in BIOS, contains a partition with XP and is in C: It seems that boot .ini is correct. I also have 2 more hard disks connected with data. I have tried to disconnect all secondary units and the problem persists. Edited April 24 by Cixert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damnation Posted April 24 Share Posted April 24 @Cixert Has the boot order changed in the BIOS since the update? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cixert Posted April 24 Author Share Posted April 24 (edited) 59 minutes ago, Damnation said: @Cixert Has the boot order changed in the BIOS since the update? I am trying right now with the boot order, I am putting in the bios that starts with: C: D: E: F: And nothing, the result is the same. I am starting a virtual XP on CD-ROM, I am going to try to align the partition with Minitool Partition Wizard. Edit: Minitool Partition Wizard Free cannot be executed in Winpe. Paragon Alingnment Test says it is aligned. It is a IDE Hard Disk Maxtor with 10GB Edited April 24 by Cixert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cixert Posted April 24 Author Share Posted April 24 (edited) SOLVED It's a strange hard drive alignment problem. I have verified that the partition is active with WinPE. From this all the data on the hard drive is perfectly accessible. However, I have booted a CD with MiniTool Partition Wizard Home 8.1.1 and I see that it does not indicate any active partitions. When I click on the "Boot Active partition" option, MiniTool tells me that it could not find the Windows installation. It's weird, with the Windows installation CD I can log into repair mode. Then I clicked on MiniTool on the align partitions option. Now the partition has been aligned to LBA 2048. I don't remember how much this one was aligned to before, surely 63. When I rebooted the error persisted, but I clicked in the BIOS on the "IDE HDD Auto Detection" option and then Windows XP began to boot. It is a strange problem, also with the BIOS update the hard drives have a hard time being detected, when I restart these make noises trying to boot for several seconds, with the BIOS old version it does not happen. There is no problem if I start the computer directly, the problem is when resetting. In any case, updating the BIOS has not solved the problem I was trying to solve. ACPI does not work for me on Windows XP. The HAL installed is Standard PC and if I install the HAL with ACPI when XP starts up it gives me a blue screen. Updating the BIOS did not solve it. Edited April 24 by Cixert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damnation Posted Thursday at 01:28 AM Share Posted Thursday at 01:28 AM @Cixert Have you tried the updated community made 7777 acpi.sys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cixert Posted Thursday at 02:00 AM Author Share Posted Thursday at 02:00 AM 31 minutes ago, Damnation said: @Cixert Have you tried the updated community made 7777 acpi.sys? Thanks, I didn't know that. I will look at it. Although this seems like it's for modern hardware, it's not my circumstance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damnation Posted Thursday at 02:09 AM Share Posted Thursday at 02:09 AM @Cixert You may as well try it and see if it works for you. What ACPI BSOD are you getting btw? have you got a screenshot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cixert Posted Thursday at 04:18 AM Author Share Posted Thursday at 04:18 AM (edited) 2 hours ago, Damnation said: @Cixert You may as well try it and see if it works for you. What ACPI BSOD are you getting btw? have you got a screenshot. I don't know if this message that appears in the post is correct. It seems that this board does not have APIC and that the IRQs are limited. The strange thing is that when I installed Windows XP it identified the board as "Standard PC" and not "ACPI PC". I try to install the HAL ACPI manually and the following blue screen occurs. I don't know if it affects the fact that when installing Windows XP the acpi .sys driver will not be installed and if now I have to install this driver manually in addition to the HAL. Edited Thursday at 04:19 AM by Cixert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damnation Posted Thursday at 04:46 AM Share Posted Thursday at 04:46 AM @Cixert It's not that simple to switch over to ACPI with an existing XP install. @Dietmar knows how to do it properly and can help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripredacus Posted Thursday at 02:27 PM Share Posted Thursday at 02:27 PM 0x7b stop error means the mass storage driver is missing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cixert Posted Friday at 12:38 AM Author Share Posted Friday at 12:38 AM (edited) 10 hours ago, Tripredacus said: 0x7b stop error means the mass storage driver is missing. I have inserted another hard drive with a XP portable with ACPI installed. Now, with the original BIOS old version the BSOD 0xA5 with the message "ACPI not fully supported" occurs, so I updated the BIOS and now the system boots correctly. So the computer is compatible with ACPI. On the original hard drive I think the problem is that the ACPI.sys driver is not installed. It does not appear in the XP boot process even though I have changed the HAL to ACPI. So I conclude that in a original Standard PC installation it is not possible to change to HAL ACPI. Do you know if there is a way to install ACPI.SYS on a Standard PC installation? (then I would change the HAL files) Edited Friday at 12:44 AM by Cixert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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