No matter what I do, I cannot install xp pro on this computer. It will boot from the Cd, start the installation, but terminates after loading the initial drivers (after the setup screen indicates that it is starting windows setup- the area where it asks what partition you want to install xp on never gets there. instead, I get a blue screen of death stating that windows has been terminated in order to prevent damgage to my computer, with the stop error of 0x0000007B. I have reformated the HD, even to NTFS using another xp computer, and I still get that stop error, so I doubt there is any virus on the HD, as it would have been removed when reformatting. I have switched cd rom drives with a known good one, switched cables with known good ones (cables for both the HD (80 pin) and the cd drive(40 pin), removed one of the 128 mb sticks of ram, and even blew out the whole case with air to expell all the dust that it's accumulated, and put artic silver 5 thermal paste on the processor (in case it was a heat-related issue). Nothing worked. I can remove the HD and place it into another computer, and it will install xp fine on the HD then (using the same cd rom that I put in the HP), so I'm sure the HD is okay. The problem must be on the motherboard somewhere, or a driver/bios setting. However, the bios settings for this HP are very few, and nothing in it seems to pose any possible problem, and if I reformatted the HD, I can't imagine there being any drivers around to screw up the installation, so it must be the motherboard. The motherboard is labeled as an Asus cuw-am (the oem mb for this HP). It uses an intel 810 northbridge chipset with integrated graphics. The only components installed in the computer when I tried to install xp the last time was one 128 mb stick of Micron ram, the 30gb ata 100 seagate U series HD (1 mb buffer, 5400 rpm, oem HP), the orignal 56k modem (lucent), original NEC floppy drive, and the optorite 52X cd burner that I put in, which came from the computer I had used to successfully installed xp onto this HD. I'm all out of ideas. Installing the original Windows ME OS via the Hp recovery CDs still works, as does installing ME using a pair of Norton ghost image CDs, which I had made back in late December when ME crashed and I spent the better part of 4 days getting all the needless junk off the HD that HP packs into their recovery CDs and installed pertanent programs that the recovery CDs lack. Any more ideas anyone?

I see the title bar cut me off. The computer is an HP 6835 series, made in early 2001. Thanks Joe

0. Write zeroes to the hard drive. 1. Run memtest on your memory stick(s). 2. Reinstall XP with minimal components added..(hard drive, video card, mouse & keyboard) B4 you criticize a bigger man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, you're a mile away, and you have his shoes.

which program do you recommend for the writing of zeros on the hard drive?

Western Digital has a utility for that. B4 you criticize a bigger man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, you're a mile away, and you have his shoes.

Does it matter that the HD is seagate? Also, would this really be the problem, as the HD would install XP as soon as I put it into the other computer?

I just used memtest. It found nothing wrong with the memory after running it for an hour straight.