Thinkpads Forum

I have a X200 7450A66 tablet that originally had Vista. I upgraded to W7 through Lenovo and have those upgrade discs. I just bought XP professional and tried to install and got the blue screen of death. I then did a quick search on google and changed my bios SATA settings to "compatibility" mode as suggested. Same thing, blue screen.

I don't need W7 anymore on this computer and want to dedicate it to XP only for some automotive software that only runs on XP.

Please and thank you for any help.

I edited your post because one shouldn't post their serial number.

Exactly when are you getting the BSOD?

See if the instructions in the first post of this thread gets you past the BSOD.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo/ ... lease.html

See also (if needed).
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-t ... -x200.html

You should be able to install and boot Windows XP unless you have a hardware problem (or BIOS setup problem). If needed, you could check your RAM and hard drive and other components using a bootable CD with the appropriate software on it, such as PC-Doctor for DOS.

Zaz

The BSOD appears after about a minute of the XP disc loading files.

So basically I restart compter with external CD/DVD drive attached with XP install disc inside. Then press any key to boot from disc and about a minute later I get BSOD. I never get to any option screens or anything. It just loads initial files and eventually BSOD.

GomJabbar

Where can I get pc-doctor for DOS? Buy it or download for free?

Those links will help me if my install would make it that far, but my XP doesn't get nowhere near installing.

If it somehow helps my computer has a Lenovo upgrade SSD. Can XP be installed on SSD?

Not sure where to get PC-Doctor for DOS at the moment, but perhaps the following will work for you.

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/lenovod ... tablediags

I would suggest the following:

- Exactly what kind of XP Pro install disk set are you using? Retail? One designed for a non-Thinkpad system? If you are using a "wrong" disk, this could be your problem.
- Set the BIOS SATA controller to Compatibility mode and save BIOS settings. In my experience if you install the OS with this setting, as long as you don't change it later on, your system will work properly. It also should have a better chance at recognizing your hardware; recently ran into an issue with an non-Thinkpad optical drive not liking AHCI mode.
- Run a memory diagnostic on the system. Download memtest86+ from here: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso Available in floppy, CD or USB versions. Boot the system and allow testing to complete at least 3 full passes. Assuming that comes back okay...
- Run a disk diagnostic. Would recommend using whatever the HDD/SSD manufacturer publishes as their "standard". If none exists or you can't get a copy, you could try a general purpose disk diagnostic program or simply try using another drive. Windows XP and SSD drives are not the best combination but I don't think that you should be getting a BSOD as a direct result of using one.
- Assuming that memory and HDD/SSD are okay, I'd pull out any "extra" hardware that's attached via a connector; MiniPCI, PCIe, mSATA, etc. A defective board/module could be hanging you up.
- PC Doctor for DOS is not available from the factory any more. That said, I believe that if you look around for a file named 7tt123ww that will be the proper version that handles the X200t.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=105918 (PCDR info)

clayfosterr wrote: The BSOD appears after about a minute of the XP disc loading files.

So basically I restart compter with external CD/DVD drive attached with XP install disc inside. Then press any key to boot from disc and about a minute later I get BSOD. I never get to any option screens or anything. It just loads initial files and eventually BSOD.

Ok i have got it But i haven't X200t i have X201t
I have this bsod after "simulate reboot" phase (after loading files on blue with gray bottom line screen) it is a black screen for a couple of seconds. And only after this installer asks about install or rescue. If i connected USB CD to right bottom USB port it have BSOD. But when i connected CD to the left (yellow) port it works well! I have checked if "Always on usb" option have affected this - not. Even if "Allways on usb" is disabled installation is starting Ok. But check USB BIOS Support option!

Interesting hint. USE IT ON YOUR OWN RISK AND ONLY AS A LAST RESORT!
For older notebooks (X20?, X40?) where USB ports was not so powerful this glitch (BSOD after black screen) can occur on any port. And i have found another solution. First of all we need Y-usb cable. Commonly it have 1 mini-usb connector (to CD or HDD) + 1 normal USB with thick cable (this have power and data wires - to "notebook "where we want to install OS) + 3nd USB with thin cable only to get power from external "power source".
WARNING It is important that 3nd connector haven't USB data wires connected to it!
Second we need 5V USB "power source" (smartphone charger or.... another ThinkPad but it must be strong enough (>500ma)!!! Connect this cable to CD/DVD then to "power source" (CD begins working and can start spinning up). It is time to insert installation media. And then connect to "notebook" that needs OS installation and start it up.
WARNING do not connect both "notebook" and USB "power source" to AC simultaneously. If something goes wrong they can get different 0 potential. I have used X61 working on battery as power source.
And all goes OK. when XP come to "simulate reboot" phase CD don't stop because it have power from X61 and after end of this phase it continued working flawlessly.

You can use a Windows XP .iso image and a USB tool (Rufus is excellent) to prepare a USB flash drive to perform your install. You may copy additional drivers and applications to a folder on the drive to finish the installation. This is less prone to error IMO than using an external drive, though I keep one just in case and for working on ancient machines. I also keep .iso images to burn fresh install CD/DVDs if the old ones are damaged. That's superior to attempting to copy a damaged CD/DVD.

If Windows 7 will install, you can also run XP in a virtual machine by using Virtualbox. It's quite easy to do.

There are ways to run software designed for XP on Windows 7:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... =windows-7

clayfosterr wrote:If it somehow helps my computer has a Lenovo upgrade SSD. Can XP be installed on SSD?

I confess to being a little ignorant on SSD's as I have not bought one yet. That said, Windows XP should be able to be installed on a SSD.

I am reading that you must do an alignment with your SSD before installing XP. Likely this is the cause of your problem.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id- ... ssage.html

See also:
http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/3 ... ssd-how-to

Do a Google search of: installing "Windows XP" on a SSD for more info.

If you still have problems, note the following: With standard hard drives, sometimes an issue comes up when the drive was not initially formatted on the machine it was going to be used on. Subsequent normal formats will not fix this. The drive has to be low-level formatted or zeroed-out, then a standard partitioning and formatting is done. Not sure, but this may be true with SSD's as well. See if the SSD manufacturer offers any software for low-level formats and or zeroing out.

EDIT: A few more links that may help...

http://blogs.technet.com/b/jeff_stokes/ ... drive.aspx

Archive of broken link in above webpage: This link has a great explanation and how-to so I'm not going to re-invent the wheel.

http://oczforum.com/staff/meander/OCZ_S ... _Guide.pdf

https://tinyapps.org/blog/windows/20121 ... p_ssd.html

Thanks for all the replies and tips. I'm going to try in the next couple days as I've been busy with work. Thanks again