I receive the following stop error when trying to install Windows XP: Stop: 0x0000007B

Anonymous

I need help with this error code: Stop: 0x0000007B (0xF7C85524,0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x000000000)

I'm a Microsoft Answers noob. I have an old computer I'm trying to reinstall Windows XP on. It's a Dell XPS Dimension 3 (3.40 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4, 1G RAM). It won't boot normally or in Safe Mode. I have tried using Fixmbr, Fixboot, Bootcfg /rebuild, chkdsk /r, Memtest86, Killdisk. I have tried installing using another hard drive (which leads me to believe it might be a hardware issue). It gave the same error code, I believe, although I didn't write it down. The only thing I've found that I haven't tried is "How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting" since it says that it won't work on OEM devices. The error code is Stop: 0x0000007B (0xF7C85524,0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x000000000). I tried installing Ubuntu on both drives and they installed and worked properly. I don't know what else to try except hardware troubleshooting, although I'm not too good with hardware issues. If you have any recommendations that might put me closer to a resolution I would greatly appreciate it!

P.S. Windows XP actually ran on the second hard drive I tried (which is currently the drive in the machine right now). I installed it and it booted straight into Windows. Yay! I rebooted this setup many times with no problems. But I had an issue with Microsoft Security Essentials updating so I thought a clean install would be better. In retrospect I wish I had tried harder to fix that issue but I didn't. The first hard drive incurred a Windows crash that caused me to upgrade to a Windows 7 machine. This was over 1.5 years ago. I just thought the full back story might help.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous

I wanted to post this update to help people that may experience this problem in the future. I finally got it to work. After many combinations and permutations, I ended up having a “NTLDR is missing” error message. I used this link

http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

I followed the instructions, made sure I had a version of Windows XP installed on the hard drive [after using Killdisk many times], and changed the boot preference to Drive>SATA operation>RAID Autodetect/ATA. I booted the FixNTLDRiso disk and after the first run rebooted and VOILA! My computer booted into Windows. Yay!!

After installing all the Windows updates its still working like a charm. Hope this helps!!

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Anonymous

Hi,

I am close to certain (but experience tells me very little is 100% certain), that a generic windows installation CD will install without the need for F6 diskette, provided that BIOS is set to RAID Autodetect/ATA (or possibly 'combination'). AHCI is a more efficient disk access method but does require F6 diskette or slipstreaming. If the CD is already slipstreamed for your PC, AHCI should work without F6. Given that you say your BIOS defaults to RAID Autodetect/AHCI, I would expect a CD targeted specifically for your system to support this, whereas a generic CD would not.

I doubt that they will provide F6 diskette but you never know. If you don't ask you probably won't get.

You can mark replies in this thread as 'Answers'...

...but if memory serves me correctly you can only mark a maximum of 2 'Answers'. I would suggest my final diagnosis (and maybe my first reply) as candidates but this is entirely at your discretion. You may even want to hold off on marking 'answers' until you get another CD from Dell and try it. This also helps other people who are looking at this thread hoping to find a solution to 7B stops.

You can designate any other replies as helpful if you think that it is approriate.

Tricky

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Anonymous

Hi,

Did this PC originally have Vista or Win7 installed?

I have seen the 0x0000007B BSOD caused by trying to install XP to a hard drive whilst BIOS is designating the drive as AHCI instead of IDE. XP does not have native AHCI drivers and the consequence is a 7B stop.

If BIOS is set to AHCI, change the BIOS setting to IDE/ATA.

There are other options but research on the Dell website leads me to suspect that these might prove problematical. Can you confirm whether or not your PC has a floppy disk drive (the Dell picture makes me think it doesn't).

Tricky

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93 additional answers

Anonymous

2012-06-08T10:15:13+00:00

Hi,

Firstly I am going to answer the question (as best I can)...

All you need is a blank, formatted diskette. Download from the Intel link that I gave to you. The download will be a zip file. Unzip the contents and transfer to the floppy. This is all you need to do. I cannot say if this can be done using Ubuntu. Maybe Daavee can.

Secondly, I have seen something in your most recent post that indicates to me that maybe all contributors may have been misinterpreting your original post, i.e. the post right back at the start of page 1.

when I was saving changes to the BIOS that the next screen (after saving changes to the BIOS) showed 2 versions of Windows XP Home to choose from. I went through each setting change for each version of Windows XP (even RAID on). They all ended up with the same error code.

BIOS settings apply to any operating system installed on the PC, they are not selective about which operating system they apply to.

If I am interpreting the above correctly, you are letting the PC boot to an existing Windows installation, or possibly even either one of two existing Windows installations. I thought that this whole thread was about re-installing Windows, i.e. booting from an installation CD. All other contributors have thought this too.

I do not believe that what you are describing above is an attempt to re-install Windows. If you are getting this stop 7B when booting to an existing windows Installation that is a completely different situation to getting stop 7B when booting to an installation CD (though the cause may be the same).

If your problem is with booting an existing installation, how did that installation get on to your PC, was it the original Dell installation? Or has it come to your PC by moving the disk from another PC? Is there data on it that needs to be preserved?

If your problem is that instead of booting from an installation CD, the system is just booting to an existing Windows installation, then this can be rectfied by changing the boot order of devices in BIOS (the section called Boot sequence) to place the optical drive at the top of the boot priority list. It may also be that there is a boot menu that can be invoked by an F key depression that will let you choose the optical drive (according to the manual this is F12), look for a message at boot time. If this is the case revert BIOS to the RAID Autodetect/ATA and boot from the CD. If that doesn't work try 'combination'.

Tricky
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Anonymous

2012-06-08T08:42:45+00:00

Sorry this thread is so long. I noticed yesterday when I was saving changes to the BIOS that the next screen (after saving changes to the BIOS) showed 2 versions of Windows XP Home to choose from. I went through each setting change for each version of Windows XP (even RAID on). They all ended up with the same error code. I just thought I would tell you this in case this might make a difference.

I'm going to try the F6 option and I was wondering what the easiest way is to get the ACHI drivers onto the 3.5" diskette. The only option I know of is to install Ubuntu and use that to copy them. Is it possible to copy them using a USB drive given that I only have DOS to work with in my present situation?
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