XP bluescreen at boot and instant restart (dual boot with Windows 7)

[oldikes]

I found an unused windows XP pro liscense and disc in my basement, which greatly excited me and I proceeded to install (dual boot) on my laptop that already had windows 7. it installed without any hitches. I had to go into windows 7 recovery and use the three terminal BOOTREC commands. I then went into windows 7 and used easyBCD to add the windows XP entry. Anyway, I know its installed CORRECTLY because it shows the windows XP loading screen for about 2 seconds before it bluescreens and instantly restarts. I dont know how I can disable the bluescreen auto restart so I can see the error (it only pulls up advanced options for 7, not XP). so can anyone help me? I cant imagine its a hardware problem as windows 7 is running flawlessly.

 

[Tmagic650]

Why do you want to bother with XP in the first place? Do you see options to select the 2 operating systems when the computer first boots? While in Windows 7 go to System, Advanced System Settings. Startup and recovery, settings and under time to display OS's, do you see XP in the drop down box? If you do, make sure that the time is long enough and not set to 0. This is also the area to disable the autostart

 

[oldikes]

They both show up at boot, yes. However whenever I select XP it shows the loading screen for a second or so then bluescreen and instantly restarts.

I wanted to bother with XP for two reasons. Ones for nostalgia (lame I know) and two is to play some old games that arent working properly on windows 7.

 

[Tmagic650]

It is probably an XP driver issue with the computers hardware. The are so many Windows XP updates needed even after Service Pack 3 is installed. Can you delete Windows 7 and try doing a fresh install of Windows XP? Once you get XP up and running, you can install Windows 7 again

 

[oldikes]

Nah, I cant delete windows 7. Maybe ill worry about it in the coming weeks.
But there is no way to disable windows XP's auto reboot on bluescreen? I can only seem to access the windows 7 settings for that

 

[mrtraver]

I am having the same issue (and am using XP for the same reason - old game compatibility). My dual boot with XP and Win7 worked fine previously, until I added an SSD and reinstalled Windows 7 on it. Now I am using EasyBCD to try to re-enable XP, but after the XP splash screen I get a glimpse of a BSOD and it restarts the system. Di you ever get this resolved?

 

[bazz2004]

The alternative is to run XP as a virtual OS within Windows 7. This works fine on my computer with VMware Player which is free. Program compatibility is the reason I do this. There's a good VMware forum if you want to research it. There are other Virtual solutions available too. One big advantage is that you don't put your main OS at risk.

 

[mrtraver]

Thanks, but a VM doesn't meet my requirements. I still have XP and some software installed on a separate partition; I just need to be able to boot into it again.

 

[bazz2004]

You have demonstrated why the recommended way to set up dual boot is to start with installation of the older OS and then install Windows 7. Good luck with finding a stable workaround solution.

 

[mrtraver]

Thanks! If I do find something I will share it here.

 

[mrtraver]

Found the resolution by accident while looking for something else! When I reinstalled Windows 7 on a new SSD, I set the SATA mode to AHCI in the BIOS. Since my XP installation did not has the AHCI drivers installed, it did not like this. Switching the SATA mode back to IDE in the BIOS lets XP boot up just fine. I found some methods of installing the AHCI drivers in XP so I can go back to that mode, but I admit I don't notice a performance difference in day-to-day use so I probably won't bother.

 

[Tmagic650]

It will be nice when XP goes away. There is really no need to run a dual boot Win 7 with XP at all any longer

 

[mrtraver]

I mainly use it for older games where I cannot get the 16-bit installers to work with 64-bit Windows 7, like X-wing Alliance. But yeah, not much need for it any more!