[eugeneg]

I am trying to fix a PC that had a replacement mobo fitted (by me). I boot into Vista and it part loads numerous drivers before settling down and letting me do whatever I want, although the driver installation does request a restart to complete some driver installs. But if I restart the PC I get a BSOD with stop code 7b. I am then not able to start even in safe mode. I tried a repair install but am back to the same situation. Fortunately, I took an image of the disk before I did anything so I can get back to being able to boot once.

I understand that 7b indicates a problem with the HDD, but I have run a manufacturer's diagnostic, CHKDSK and virus scan and not found any fault. Vista's automated repair is not able to help (beyond telling me that a driver is bad). If I could identify which driver is causing problems I could just disable it from starting by loading the system hive from C:\Windows\System32\Config\System and (please correct me if I'm wrong) changing ControlSet001\Services\????\Start to 4

But how to identify which driver is causing me grief ? I saved a log file of an abortive start by booting off the installation DVD then from recovery command prompt editing C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.app.log and I will attach that file here. It contains several failures, but how do I identify the particular driver that is causing my BSOD ?

The only hardware in the PC is:
mobo: Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe (that replaced an Asus M2N DH)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
RAM: 4GB Ballistix Tracer (separately tested to be good)
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
HDD: WDC WD360ADFD
PSU, optical & floppy

Thanks.

[Rollin' Rog]

That is an "inaccessible boot device" stop code -- and, in your case it would usualy mean that the chipset for the IDE controllers on the motherboard is different from the one that the Windows version was originally installed on.

I don't think Vista's "upgrade reinstall" is the same as XPs which would normally fix that.
You may have to do a fresh install,

Stop: 0x0000007B >>> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935806/en-us