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Question

Error installing XP

Dec 28, 2013 10:03PM PST

I ended up buying a Dell Inspiron 660S. I formatted and partitioned the hard drive and tried to install XP. After loading the drivers and setup says starting Windows I got the 0x0000007B error.

This is a brand new computer. I called Dell tech support who remotely ran diagnostics and said everything was fine including the hard drive. They thought the xp install disk was corrupted and said to try another. I had another and got the same error at the same spot. I tried a friend's xp disk and got the same result.

It seems unlikely there would be 3 corrupted install disks. Any other ideas as to why this is happening? Thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: Dell 660S
Dec 28, 2013 10:24PM PST

I see this is being sold with WIndows 8. And from your experiences it seems it isn't compatible with Windows XP.
The only thing you can do: reduce the memory to 4 GB (if you bought it with more) and try again. Success not guaranteed.

If no success, reinstall Windows 8 from the recovery media you made and become a happy Windows 8 user. After all, Windows XP is 12 years old and soon no longer supported, so installing it on a new desktop seems a rather bad idea.

Kees

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Answer
did you do any research on 0x7b?
Dec 28, 2013 11:27PM PST

The most common cause is XP's SATA issue. That's a well done area of discussion and XP will give that error on perfect hardware. Workarounds are well discussed so can you reveal more?
Bob

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Answer
wished i could recall 0x07B
Dec 31, 2013 5:32AM PST

I've since moved from XP to Win7.(2 months now )...I remember this error code..If you were
abit more open concerning this XP & its service package , it may jog my memory....I do recall that XP
SP1 HAS to be installed before anything . So if your disk is XP SP3 , well it won't install..SP1 SP2 SP3
they're holding hands and need each other...Microsoft ActiveX comes to mind , it too is a must , i think
its part of SP1 Service Pack...Now I'm second guessing , i think XPSP2 w/ ActiveX is the bigg one....

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Uhhhhh
Dec 31, 2013 7:37AM PST

Uhhhhh... No.

Just for starters, how exactly can you install XP SP1 "before anything"? Surely you need the OS installed first. Then service packs have traditionally been cumulative, in that new service packs contain everything old ones did and then some. That broke down to a degree with XP where SP3 required either SP1 or SP2 to be installed, but SP2 contained everything SP2 did and then more. Of course if someone made a slipstreamed disc with SP3, you'd be good to go right from the start.

I also don't see how ActiveX could possibly come into play since the person doesn't appear to have even managed to get Windows installed, let alone gotten to a point where they might be running any ActiveX controls. And ActiveX is a part of Internet Explorer, has been since IE3 when Microsoft introduced it as an alternative to the Netscape Navigator plug-in system. None of this has absolutely anything to do with installing the OS, especially the first stage installer.

The OP doesn't seem like they're coming back, but the long and short of it seems to be another case of someone who thought installing Windows was as simple as popping in the disc. The OP was clearly disabused of that idea very quickly and has likely gone back to using Windows 8 as came with the unit assuming they didn't wipe out the recovery partition and leave themselves with no way to get it back even to factory spec. We don't know for sure what happened, but we can safely say it had nothing to do with XP service packs or ActiveX.