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JoeJe

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XP install won't boot up - BSOD

I reciently managed to get an old PC from a member of the family, it's a Compaq S4500UK. It has a pretty nice spec, AMD Athlon XP @ 2.1GHz 1.5GB RAM and a 120GB HDD.

I booted it up, and I found the machine had a bad install of XP. I dont have the original backup CD's, so I grabbed my XP CD, popped it in, and I get the BSOD (STOP: 0x0000007B) - I looked this up, and I found out that 0x7B is an error to do with the Hard Drive. So out of interest, i opened up the case, disconnected the Hard Drive and tried again. Same thing happened. (What!?!?) - I've tried different RAM sticks in the machine, I've tried booting the XP installer off a USB, same result. Out of interest I tried a Vista CD, it managed to copy all the files over to the Hard Drive, but failed at the last minute and gave me some garbled message.

I've formatted the hard drive numerous times, deleted all partitions and made it into one big partition, still no sucess.

The only way I can get this machine to work is if I install Slax onto a USB Drive and boot from there.

I am absolutely stumpted in what to do. Any ideas? - I don't want to throw this machine away becuase it still works and I don't want it to be thrown into landfill :)
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Joseph Daly
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does the machine have SATA drives in it? If so try switching the bios sata option from ACPI to classic, legacy, or comatibility mode.
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Mandeep Khalsa

Take your XP CD and boot from it. Choose the option to "Install" windows and on the next screen choose the option to "Repair".

Remember not to choose the repair option on the first screen (the one listed with Recovery Console). That option will do you no good.
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ASKER

1. No, the computer is around 5-6 years old, it doesn't have any SATA Devices

2. I can't get that far, the BSOD comes up when the CD finishes loading
Unplug everything from the computer (internally) except the hard drive, like CD floppy etc. and then give it a try. If it still does the same thing, remove the memory chips leaving only one in the machine to verify that the memory is not the culprit here.
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OK will do, I will let you know when I have a result.
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ASKER

Nope, hasn't worked. BSOD comes up as soon as XP installer finishes loading.

STOP: 0X0000007B (0XF8B30524, 0xC0000034, 0x0000000, 0X0000000)
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ASKER

Any other ideas?
Restart your machine using the XP CD you have and choose the option for Recovery Console. If it boots to Recovery console then do the following:
1. Select the OS Partition
2. Type in Admin Password
3. once you get the prompt "C:\" or something similar type in chkdsk /r and hit enter
4. Reboot after this and see if it helps. If it doesn't come back and redo steps 1 and 2 and then jump down to 5
5. type fixmbr and hit enter
6. type fixboot and hit enter
7. type bootcfg and hit enter

Give it another try after that and if none of those thing work then you might want to get your data off the drive and start all over again by reformatting the drive and doing fresh installs.
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ASKER

I can't get to the menu that allows me to install windows or go to the recovery console, thats the problem. The drive has been formatted around 10 times. I really need some help. I'm installing from a USB stick becuase I have slipstreamed a lot plugins and such. IT IS NOT THE SLIPSTREAM THAT IS CAUSING THE PROBLEM. - I tried with a standard unmodified version of XP and I get the same result.

Any ideas on how to get round this issue?
wierd things to look for/try:

boot into the  bios and check the time/date
see if it has the correct ide cable listed (some let you choose between 80 and 40 wire)
disable all the onboard stuff you don't need (nic, modem, sound, ports, etc).
try a different ide cable(s)
Can you get UBCD to run?
www.ultimatebootcd.com

if yes, run the makers hardrive diags and/or zero-fill the drive.

Might as run some of the other system diags as well

Check the cpu fan and heatsink for dust buildup
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nobus
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The HDD in the machine is a 120GB Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Series. - I will try downloading the ultimate boot cd and get back to you.
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