Member Avatar for Brunke

so, im working on a friends computer for him...
he thought the hard drive was dead... it's fine...

anyways, i tried to run a clean XP pro install for him, and during the beginning of the installation, the BSOD (blue screen of death) pops up saying there's a problem with the hardware configuration or the hard drive has a virus.
- the hard drive is completely wiped out... i did that with another computer before i even touched his...
- i upgraded the ram thinking his had a bad sector... same thing.
- i tried a new video card... same thing.
- i read the BIOS over and over again trying to find SOMETHING that wasn't right... and i can't find anything our of the ordinary...

any suggestions??

i mean, RAM and video are the two primary causes of the BSOD aren't they??

please help

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Member Avatar for rch1231

I had a similar problem last week and i had to turn off the internal SATA controller in the BIOS to get it to work properly even though it was a sata HD.

Member Avatar for Brunke

i have a SATA hd aswell...
if i turn off the sata controller though, it will still recognize that there's a hard drive there??

Member Avatar for rch1231

Logically yes but I had to disable it to get it to work. It might be that windows is loading a drive that conflicts with the internal sata. It is just a suggestion if it does not work re-enable the controller.

Member Avatar for Brunke

thanks.

i will try that tonight.

Member Avatar for Brunke

so, i disabled it... and the installation worked perfectly... just like nothing was changed...
but when i take the install disk out, and restart the computer, it says there's no operating system.
if i try to turn the SATA controller back on, it starts to load, and then the comp restarts...

any suggestions??
i dont even care if the SATA controller stays off... i just want this thing to be able to boot up on it's own without the disk in.

Member Avatar for rch1231

What does it show in the BIOS as the boot hard drive? And is the hard drive an option in the boot order?

If not check to make sure the primary partition is active.

Member Avatar for Brunke

in the bios, it is set for the hard drive to be the primary boot.
there are no partitions on the hard drive at all...

i think im just going to leave it as it is... and give my friend a copy of the xp pro install disc to use as his boot disc... lol

everything else works perfectly fine... it's just at the boot up where things are messed up.

oh well

thanks again for all your help.

Member Avatar for rch1231

There has to be at least one partition to install the software on. Even if you used the entire drive it is still the primary partition. Check under Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management then Disk Manager and it will probably tell you what is wrong as it starts. Glad I as able to help a little. Good luck.

Member Avatar for The New Normal

I'd try the install with only 1 stick of RAM. May not help, but that'd be the next thing to try

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