X31 New HDD Fresh Build BSOD

[Chimworth]

Hi guys, I have tried to find this or a similar issue already up but had no luck

I have a good working retired X31 that came without a hard disk. I bought a new Samsung HC 160 Gb HDD. After slapping it in and choosing the usb CD rom as 1st boot (the new HDD does show as a choice here so I know it detects the HDD) Windows XP Pro (Genuine SP2 non-OEM Disk) will start to install the default drivers and just where it would normally have you choose a new install and format the drive it goes BSOD instead

So far I have tried F11 which does nothing, I took the new HDD to a friend's and formatted it via usb adapter to make sure the HDD wasn't faulty, I have tried the diagnostic start up mode, and I have deleted the old image recovery blah blah what-ever thing in BIOS. And I always get the same BSOD at the exact same stage. My error is 0X0000007B (0XF7CAF63C, 0XC0000034, 0X00000000, 0X00000000).

Is there some hidden switch to allow these thinkpads to do a completely fresh install? Or might I have been given a dead Laptop and just wasting my time?

Thanks in advance for your time and any suggestions you may have for me to try

[Harryc]

Things Microsoft says to check -

You may receive a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message if your computer is infected with a boot-sector virus.

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.

The boot volume is corrupted and cannot be initiated by Windows XP. If the file system is corrupted and if Windows XP cannot initiate the boot volume during the startup process, either move the drive to another computer that is running Windows XP and run the chkdsk command on that drive or try to create a parallel installation of Windows XP on the drive (in a separate folder). The Windows XP Setup program checks the integrity of the volume before it copies files, and it may fix some problems in the process.

If you receive one of these error messages while you are installing Windows XP, update the computer BIOS

Things I'd also check or try -

Run MEMTEST86 on the machine to test the RAM. http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

Run chkdsk on the drive to check for bad sectors

Run a diagnostic on the hard drive from Samsung. http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... _Tool.html

If it's a used HD, write zero's to it using a utility like activekilldisk. http://www.killdisk.com/

Try a different Windows install Disc.

Run PC-Doctor tests and check out the entire machine. http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 44202.html

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

Several things to try:

- run a memory diagnostic to make sure you're not encountering a bad section of memory; memtest86+ works quite well
- erase the HD prior to installing XP; mainly, this means getting rid of any partitioning information. PC Doctor for DOS "Full Erase Hard Drive" utility works pretty good. You only need to run it for about 2-3 minutes (a couple of % points)
- once the drive is installed and prior to loading the OS, go into the BIOS and "Load Setup Defaults" (should be under the Restart option)
- if the previous steps have been done and you still have problems loading Windows, then you should probably use a factory recovery disk set; the BSOD error you quoted appears to be related to an improper IDE driver being used. I would have thought that a retail XP disk would identify the X31's drive controller correctly, but you could also be dealing with a bad CD.

ref: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso (memtest86+)
ref: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-56222 (PC Doctor for DOS - .ISO image)

edit: eh, never mind, Harry covered everything...

[Chimworth]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions guys, I hope to get a chance to try them either tonight or tomorrow and will I'll let you know how it goes.

[Harryc]

Moved to X3X forum.