Just got a TC4200 tablet laptop and installed windows xp on it. Those of you familiar with the model know that it has no cd drive so I had to move the HDD to another laptop to do it so I know the install was good. However when putting the harddrive back in after the HP load screen but before it enters the xp load screen it goes to a black screen with a flashing white _ cursor similar to a dos command but with no text and I cannot type. I have no idea what the issue is nor how to solve it. Any suggestions?

As an extra note I tried the other laptops HDD and it gave the same results so that rules out the harddrive as an issue.

You're probably missing essential device drivers for your laptop's hardware (which would have been installed had you ran the setup on your system). Use an external optical drive enclosure or a flash drive to install XP with the HDD in your system.

Alternatively, if you can get into Safe Mode you might be able to provide the system with drivers manually. You could also probably get away a repair install of XP, but this too would facilitate an optical or flash drive.

trying this nowish just gotta download sdk so I can use a flash drive as I dont have a external cd drive.

Second I do wonder if this is the correct solution as it never gets to the XP load screen so it doesnt have a chance to realize its wrong. Although dont get me wrong I hope its the problem as its an easy fix...

Welp if it's prior to your OS actually booting, it's possibly related to a corrupt MBR/essential component of the boot process which can be repaired with the recovery console among other utilities, or again, by reinstalling XP.

I would say reinstalling XP with the HDD in your system is a great starting point, and if you're having issues afterward, there was no harm done.

Assuming it's not related to XP/drivers/boot data, I would try setting your BIOS to the factory default settings and then pray that it isn't hardware failure.

Ya Installing it on the laptop worked. Should of caught that but have never had that issue before when swaping harddrives. Wasnt thrilled about having to go buy an enclosure but what ev it works. Although it uncovered another problem with another one of my devices but I'll ask about that in the appropriate forum. Thanx for your help!