0x00000007b BSOD during installation of Windows XP on an old computer

[Barhoum]

For a few days now I've been trying to install Windows XP on an old Gateway Select 700 PC with no luck. It boots into the CD just fine, I reformat and setup does do the "copying files to HDD" phase. Then when the computer restarts to boot into the HDD to continue the installation process, I get a BSOD with the error 0x0000007b. Now I've done some research and it has to have something to do with driver incompatibility, incorrect BIOS settings, or Hard Drive failure/corruption.

I've tried flashing the CMOS, swapping the CMOS battery, trying to install with only graphics card and ram installed, trying different XP disks, trying different IDE cables (I have two HDD's in the computer, one's a 30GB and one is a 20GB,) playing around with BIOS settings, using different HDD's, and bashing my head against a wall all to no avail.

Specifications of the Computer
AMD Athlon-700
384MB of SDRAM (PC100)
Two IDE HDD's (30GB and 20GB)
ATi Rage 128 Ultra (16MB)
Sound Blaster 128
200W Power Supply

Not too sure about the motherboard though.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[badge]

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Maybe some of the information here will help. You might try using 1 DIMM of RAM in slot 1 when loading Windows XP. Also, it is possible a hardware driver for ther MB is necessary to be loaded at the F6 prompt during installation as mentioned in the article. You might check with the online product page for the system for any related information regarding drivers neded to load XP. Also, I wold be sure to use an XP installation disk that included at least SP2.

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

 

[Barhoum]

I tried using one stick of ram but that did not work. The XP disk has SP3 on it, and another one I tried had SP2. I honestly doubt that a extra driver is needed for the Hard Drive as Win98SE works perfectly fine on it. And also, any generic hard drive controller could work.

I also can't find any online product page for it, Gateway also don't have it on their site either.

 

[badge]

I thought Windows 98 would load up problem free. If you happen to have an XP Upgrade CD load Win 98 and the Upgrade CD should load XP no problem. Give this a read.

Device Driver Issues
You may receive a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message in the following scenarios:
A device driver that the computer boot controller needs is not configured to start during the startup process.
A device driver that the computer boot controller needs is corrupted.
Information in the Windows XP registry (information related to how the device drivers load during startup) is corrupted.
Windows XP requires a miniport driver to communicate with the hard disk controller that is used to start your computer. If Windows XP does not supply a device driver for your controller or if Windows XP is using a corrupted or incompatible driver, you must replace the driver with a valid copy that is compatible with your controller and Windows XP.

During the first phase of the Windows XP installation, Setup displays the following message at the bottom of the screen:
Press F6 if you have to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver.
Press F6 and then follow the instructions to install a mass-storage device driver from your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). For additional information about using F6 to load an OEM device driver to support, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
314859 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314859/ ) Limited OEM driver support is available with F6 during Windows XP Setup
To determine if your hard disk controller is compatible with Windows XP and to obtain information about drivers that are included on the Windows XP CD-ROM or that are available for download, see the latest Windows XP Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). For additional information about the latest Windows XP HCL, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
314062 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314062/ ) The latest Windows XP hardware compatibility list
If your hard disk controller is not listed on the HCL, contact the manufacturer of your computer, system board, or hard disk controller for information about the availability of a driver. Microsoft does not guarantee that a resolution is available for non-HCL equipment. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
315239 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315239/ ) Microsoft support policy for hardware that does not appear on the Windows HCL
If the System hive in the Windows XP registry is corrupted, Windows XP may not be able to load the miniport device driver that the boot controller requires. To resolve this issue, restore a registry backup. For additional information about restoring a registry backup, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307545 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/ ) How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting
Back to the top
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:
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.
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.
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:
314082 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082/ ) You receive a Stop 0x0000007b error after you move the Windows XP system disk to another computer

 

[badge]

You have to realize the system was realeased before Windows XP was. I'm sure that is the root of the problem. A driver needed for the MB hardware at the F6 prompt. If Windows 98 were loaded, an XP Upgrade CD would use that Windows 98 hardware driver to proceed and load up XP.

 

[Barhoum]

Ah, that makes perfect sense, I think I may know someone that has an upgrade CD.
Thanks for the tip! I'll post again if I have success.

 

[badge]

Yeah, I have an ancient Pentium I 450MHz. running currently. I have to load up the Wind 98 CD then just run the Windows XP Upgrade from desktop and voila! I have XP up and running.

 

[badge]

I have and I meant to use an actual XP Upgrade CD, which I have. With Windows 98 installed, I just run the upgrade to XP from the desktop. I saw this article. Not sure if this helps you in any way. If you can get your hands on an XP Upgrade CD I am pretty sure it will work for you getting easily from Windows 98 to XP.

Article.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316639

 

[badge]

This is an XP 'Upgrade' CD. I have the Home version of this.

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Professional-UPGRADE-SP2/dp/system-requirements/B00022PTT8/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&n=229534&s=software

 

[Barhoum]

That article helps me a lot, thanks again. Yeah, if my friend still has it, I can get my hands on an XP Upgrade CD, so hopefully I'll have XP running soon .

 

[Barhoum]

I reinstalled Win98 without problems, but when I start up the Windows XP Upgrade installer, it stops with giving me a error Setup cannot copy the file (i forget the name).dll. I thought it was the CD so I copied all of the files from the CD onto the hard drive and tried it then, same error. I explored into the disk and I found the file, but it's extension was .dl_ , same thing with every other file, they all had a underscore at the third character of the file extenstion.

Any ideas on how to fix that?

 

[badge]

Do you have the option to skip the file and continue the installation? Sometimes the installation files try to load files (drivers) that are not needed and the file pops up as an installation error. Continue on without the file if possible. If you can skip the files and move on do so.

 

[Barhoum]

There's no option to skip it, setup just rolls back any changes made and exits.

 

[badge]

Other than try with an Upgrade installation CD, I have about run out of ideas. Does this guide provide any new information/ideas?

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1659&page=1

 

[badge]

Check back here later. See if I can get some help getting XP installed.

 

[Barhoum]

That guide just pretty much goes over everything I've already tried.
By the way, the error occurs at the beginning of setup and the file is D:\i386\MFC42.DLL if that helps.

 

[Zoron]

Have you tried a different optical drive or disc? Also, try booting from the upgrade CD.