Bad Hard Drive? BSOD 0x0000007b

Background... my idiot ex-bf hooked up an antique power surge protector to my Dell Studio XPS running Windows 7. The surge protector caused my computer to do a few cold shut downs and after one of these it came back with a black screen displaying this error message... NOTICE - Hard Drive SELF MONITORING SYSTEM has reported that a parameter has exceeded its normal operating range. Dell recommends that you back up your data regularly. A parameter out of range may or may not indicate a potential hard drive problem.
Press F2 to resume

Pressing F2 took me to a blue screen that appeared to have options for BIOS(I am not very educated in these things). If I hit ESC, then confirmed that I wanted to Escape by hitting F10, it would boot up normally and I could use my computer with no problems. So this has been my procedure for the last 6 months or so. Yesterday I do a warm shut down and it comes back up with the usual error message, but this time after hitting ESC and F10, it took me to a BSOD. I tried Start Up Repair which said it could not fix the problem. The specific error message is 0x0000007b.

Trying to repair from my Windows install disk gives me this error...
Start Up Repair Error
problem event name: startuprepair offline
problem signature 01: 6.1.7600.16385
problem signature 02: 6.1.7600.16385
3: unknown
4: 209
5: AutoFailover
6:1
7: Baddisk

Attempting to run Check Disk gives this error...
The type of the file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current drive. Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected

I was ready to chalk it up to a bad hard drive and start saving up for a new one, but then something else off began happening. It seems like after a certain amount of time, my monitor says it is going to sleep and then proceeds to do so. The odd thing is that it won't wake up. Says No VGA Signal. Also, it goes to sleep regardless if the mouse if moving or not. I tested that out by leaving the mouse in my daughter's swing so it was constantly moving, and monitor was asleep 10 minutes later. Only way to get the monitor to turn on without shutting back off after VGA error is to reboot the computer. I was going to try running some hard drive repair programs on Knoppix, but am unable to do so because of the monitor going to sleep.

Is this likely a bad hard drive problem or could it be something else? Thanks in advance.


For help with Windows 7 BSODs, follow these steps, create a new thread in the Crashes and Debugging forum, and add your dump files zip as an attachment. I did read that post, but can't get Windows to load up at all, so am unable to retrieve any dump files.

I would Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

theog said:

I would Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

Thanks, but I don't think this is an option for me because of the monitor issue. I can't run anything that takes longer than a few minutes before the monitor goes to sleep and requires a full reboot to wake up.

So I bought a new hard drive even though I really couldn't afford to. Swapped it with the old one, tried to do a clean windows 7 install and hangs at black screen, then goes to another black screen telling me I have no boot device. Sata 1 and Sata 2 are listed on that same screen. My new hard drive shows up in BIOS. I threw in my Knoppix Live cd jut to see if it worked and it loaded, but after a few minutes I got the same problem as before with the monitor shutting off and not coming back on. Somebody please help me. I need this desktop running so I can do my online college work.