Windows Xp Problems

[LimeFire]

*Disclaimer: I personally do not have this problem, my friend does but this is still relevant.*

 

So i am having a problem... windows blue screen on installation. Right after it finishes loading all the data up from the disc, it plue screens. My friend said it had a error about the PCI slot. But after 2 cards, diffrent hardrives, diffrent optical drive and everything but the cpu and MoBo have been replaced or switched out.

 

Here is the real kicker, it works fine with windows 7 so its not the hardware! My current theroy is the BIOS. Is this possible? The pc is about 2 years old so the components are newish. Could the BIOS be causeing BSODs? If so, how would i fix it, just a BIOS update?

 

Thank You in advance, LimeFire

[leadzor]

My guess is driver problems. Windows XP is not (at all) optimized for current hardware. Most vendors stopped offering XP specific drivers for some of their new products. My advice is, unless you (or rather, your friend) must run Windows XP natively on that machine, sticking with Windows 7 and virtualizing a XP environment would be a better solution.

[GoodBytes]

It seams you simply need to set your (well your friends) SATA controller to 'Legacy', or 'IDE' or 'compatibility' mode (which ever the bios calls it).

Depending on the SATA Controller, it might limit the speed to IDE speeds. And of course important features such as Native Command Queue will be disabled, so expect a reduction in performance.

Also, if he uses XP pre-SP1, expect it to not support PCI-E. So you'll be stuck with 16 or 256 colors. If that is the case, simply install the motherboard driver (and cross your finger that the drivers setup wont' tell you it can't run because the colors are too low (I am not kidding on this issue)), and it will be fine after restart and graphic card drivers installed afterwards.

 

If your friend wants XP, it's best and easier to install it under Virtual environment.

[AvoK95]

Check AHCI settings. They should be set to IDE mode. Also, check your RAM with Memtest86+ :)