cant install XP fom bios, laptop crashes to blue screen

Ok bought a M1710 of ebay it works great, trying to do a fresh install of xp thou a its running quite slow and getting loads of popups etc.

Any way put the XP CD and boot rom it via the bios. It begins to load all te XP files then suddenly crashes to the famous blue screen , saying something about a hardware problem, and my PC was shut down to prevent any damage.

Any ideas on what the problem might be ??

 

hmm try disabling AHCI mode in Bios or have latest AHCI driver in a USB and press F6 during XP Setup

 

Thanks for help!!! I just dont see a option in my bios for AHCI. any ideas if its called something else and were it is mate?

 

go into your BIOS, and under the DRIVES>SATA OPERATION> change RAID Autodetect/AHCI to RAID Autodetect/ATA.

and is that XP or XP with sp2 slipstreamed ?

 

Hi,

I'm having the same problem as the guy who started this post.

I understand we have to change the RAID from SATA>AHCI to SATA>ATA. But when I get into the Setup screen of the M1710, I don't see anything that talks about drives or SATA settings.

Could someone give us more instructions? Or is there any other way to install Windows XP?
I read somewhere else about slipstream a Win XP disk with SATA driver, but where would I download this SATA driver? Dell.com doesn't have it.

Thanks in advance,
bh5354

 

For those of you who are attempting to install XP, you can leave it in AHCI mode and follow these instructions:
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-021736.htm

Be sure to download the floppy configuration utility and run it - if needed, do this on another machine and run the utility and copy the AHCI drivers to a USB Flash drive. Then follow the instructions above and @ the prompt (after hitting F6) insert your USB drive and direct the XP installer to use those files.

Should have no issues.

 

Thanks Batboy,

Still need a bit more help. I tried to follow your instruction, as in copying the AHCI drivers to my USB drive, and tried to run F6.
After pressing F6, it ask for a diskette in A:, which I don't have. I don't have an external Floppy drive, or 3.5" disks, and I'm certainly not going out to buy one.

So anyway, I don't know how to force it to look into the USB key I inserted.
Could you clarify what you mean by 'do this on another machine and run the utility and copy the AHCI drivers to a USB Flash drive. Then follow the instructions above and @ the prompt (after hitting F6) insert your USB drive and direct the XP installer to use those files.'?
What utility am I suppose to run?

Thanks again,
bh5354

 

The easiest way is to enable IDE mode instead of AHCI.

Otherwise you will have to slipstream the AHCI drivers into the copy of XP.

I don't think the xp pre-boot environment will recognize a USB floppy.

 

Hi,

I really do appreciate everyone's input. But I am no closer to installing the XP to my Dell XPS M1710. The bios does not allow any changes to the hard drive. So suggestions about IDE, or changing AHCI to ATA, I can't do them.

Unless someone knows exactly where these settings are in the M1710. I certainly can't find them in the Setup Screen (hold F2 while machine boot up). Why does Dell make it so f**kin' hard for?

Back to the hard option, how do I slipstream the XP disk with the AHCI setting? I don't even know where to download the AHCI driver. I have heard of nlite to create the slipstream disk....

Thank,
bh5354

 

What you need is to download this file and use the switch in the readme to extract the files on another system. If your XP CD doesn't have at least SP2 integrated, then download the standalone SP2 or SP3 installer from Microsoft. Then go download nLite. Copy the contents of your Windows XP CD to a folder your hard drive. Install and open nLite, then browse to the folder where you copied the files off your XP CD. You'll want to choose Additional Drivers, Make ISO image (and Service Pack if needed). Then you should be able to follow from there. Make sure that you choose txtmode drivers to install. Make your image, then burn it. That should hopefully get your OS install done without the 0x7E. I highly recommend SP 2 or higher built in because that will have some updated text mode system drivers and hopefully keep that from coming up since it's PCI.sys that's bombing out on you.