hmm. well, i went to the system diag like it says in the book (pressing f12 and selecting utility partition) and it says "system error nbsvc: can not locate SERVICE_SMI [4])"

 

i've put everything back in my XPS 600 and everything works perfectly. is there somthing wrong with this motherboard or am i missing a file for the BIOS?

try this link...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103

 

I believe you will need to do a repair because you have change the hd from on system to another and windows is not reconizing the new hardware

Let me see if I have this straight.

 

You got a BYO XPS 700 and put the HD (with utility partition) from your XPS 600 into the XPS 700 and you can't the utility partition/system diags.  Is that what you are saying?

 

And if you try to boot it up you get a BSOD 7b?

yes, i baught a BYO XPS700. installed my HD and Nvidia 7800GTX and get the error code.  i'd figured it was either the HD or video card throwing the codes but the HD scans passes. reboot with the video card they gave me and it still came out the same. the utility partition diag started scanning and a error came up.

 

"System_error NbSvc: can not locate SERVICE_SMI[4]"

 

i dont know what else to do exept call dell sometime tommrrow about it, unless i find a answer here. i cant even update the BIOS because i cant get to a window's screen and it locks up everytime with the same code.

 The OS build is for the XPS600, as is the utility partition etc. The two machines have entirely different motherboards and bios and the 700 will not boot with the drive from the 600 due the the MBR loaded on the drive from the 600 which will only recognize the 600 and not the 700. The only way to switch the drive into the 700 is to format the drive and do a fresh install of XP, the videocard is swapable between machines. You probably have a few more problems to deal with with product activation of XP that is tied into the XPS600. Unless there is a work around that deals with swapping OS's on drives to different machines, you would need to (a) format and reload the OS on the drive after install in the 700 (b) buy a new drive and OS for the 700(c) attempt to change the MBR on the dive in question, which may make the drive totally unreadable by either system resulting in (a) 

 

Hardware Issues You may receive a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message if there is a resource conflict between the boot controller and another controller or between SCSI devices. You may also receive this Stop error message if drive translation is not being performed or if drive translation was changed. To troubleshoot this issue: 1.If an IRQ or I/O port address conflict exists between the boot controller and another controller, Windows XP either stops responding (hangs) or displays a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message. If you recently added new hardware, remove the new hardware or reconfigure it so that it does not conflict with the resources of any other installed controllers.2.If you are using a SCSI hard disk, check the SCSI chain for correct termination. Remove any unused SCSI devices or make sure that each SCSI ID is unique.3.Make sure that drive translation is turned on (if it is required) and that it has not been changed. For example, if you recently switched controllers, this issue may occur. For additional information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

 

It would appear to be a new hardware issue, in this case it is the mobo and chipset drivers that are probably causing the majority of the problem.  You may want to poat over to the Software forum under the XP section and see if one of the regulars there knows of a workaround.

hmm. hard to believe the new ram could have caused it. my XPS600 should take the same. i'll try that when i get home and swap it out. this BYO just arrived the other day, so its practically brand new.

I have to agree with jdwssll and his response is exactly why I asked my questions the way I did.

 

You do not have the proper sata or chipset drivers for the XPS 700.  You will need to do an OS install from scratch on your XPS 700.

 

The same is true for the utility partition - it doesn't like seeing the XPS 700 mobo and model, as the older XPS 600 diags blow up when it sees an unsupported model upon BIOS inquiry.

 

Get you another HD (some good HD's are rather inexpensive) and do a fresh OS install - since you don't have a Dellized copy of XP for the XPS 700, you will need to add the sata drivers via F6 (or else you will get another BSOD 7B during the install).