Windows XP BSOD 7B on new XP installation.

[kcurry1980]

Situation is I have a client that just purchased some old POS equipment on the cheep. He gives them to me to set up. Unfortunately he bought several XP machines and the POS program only works on Win 7 and up. I have upgraded one of the computers to Win 7 and the POS program works fine. However, the other two computers are unable to be upgraded as they don't have enough horsepower. I let the client know and he states that he just needs one to be used as a POS system the other two can be used just for inventory tracking. Therefore, I can just leave the others with XP. So far no issue but the XP machines have a password and the guy he bought them from does not remember the password. I then just decided I would reload XP on them so I can set the password.

Unfortunately when I try to load XP on either of these I get the BSOD 7B error. I have looked to the internet for the answer but they seem to gravitate to an option in the BIOS to set the SATA controller to operate in a different mode than the default.

These computers are Dell OptiPlex 330. Also want to mention I have an ISO loaded onto a flash drive and I am booting directly to the USB. I go into the BIOS and I am given what looks like a file/folder list on the left that is organized as such:
System
System Info
Processor Info
Memory Info
PCI Info
Date/Time
Boot Sequence
Drives
Diskette Drive
SATA-0
SATA-1
SATA-2
SATA-3
SATA Operation
SMART Reporting
Onboard Devices
Video
Performance
Security
Power Management
Maintenance
POST Behavior

There are other options within the each of the bottom categories but the list would be quite large if I listed everything.

Now most of the info on the net states I should change the SATA Operation to use something other than AHCI as older equipment may not be able to recognize the HDD under this operation. Before going into this I would like to state that if I look at the SATA-0 connection it does recognize there is a hard drive there and shows its ID and Capacity so the computer can see it in BIOS. I only have three options to choose from here: RAID AutoDetect / AHCI, RAID AutoDetect / ATA, and RAID On. I have tried both the AHCI and ATA and I get the BSOD. I don't have a RAID setup so I haven't tried the RAID On option. Also I have seen instructions on using a program called nLite to streamline the chipset driver into the installation, however, it wants you to have the actual windows installation files not an ISO to load it all together. I am not sure how to find the separate installation files as most downloads for XP are ISO and I don't have an original installation disk and even if I did these computers don't have working disk drives.

In conclusion I need help getting the xp pro installation on at least one of these computers and cannot. Need help getting past the 7b BSOD error. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Neemobeer]

Yes the computer (BIOS) will see the drives just fine. Windows XP will BSOD during install unless you have the sata drives running in a legacy mode or during the XP install there should be an option to load drivers if there are any available but you will need them on a disk the installer can read.

I believe the mode you want is "RAID AutoDetect / ATA"

 

[kemical]

Just to add to Neemobeer's post , I used to have to upload XP with a driver during installation. You should see a prompt for pressing the 'S' key if I remember correctly. This I would upload using a floppy, hopefully you can use either a disk or usb?

I did a little digging about and it looks like you may need this pre-install driver here:

This package provides the driver for Intel Matrix Storage Manager and is supported on Dimension, Latitude, OptiPlex, Precision and XPS Deskt...
View details

Intel Matrix Storage Manager (OS Pre-Install Driver Only), v.7.8.0.1012, A12 Driver Details | Dell UK

Support for OptiPlex 330
Support for OptiPlex 330 | Drivers & downloads | Dell UK

Post back if these don't help.


Edit:
Thread moved to correct section.