Is it possible a Machine Check Error Blue Screen (that is supposed to say "hardware" is the cause) to be caused by a driver issue?


If so, is there any possible way to fix this if the system can no longer be booted? The BSOD comes up before any mode of windows XP will load or finish loading.

Yes of course it can be a driver.

You can enable and disable drivers/services in the Recovery Console and you can also copy and replace any system files. You'd have to know which driver to blame of course.

Any idea if I can use any (like a regular) version of XP on this system, which is a Dell system? Do they modify the OEM versions of XP enough so that I can't use a normal XP CD on a Dell XP filesystem?

Also, could I just reinstall XP over itself to replace ALL the XP files with good versions? Or would this not work? I've done something like this before, but I can't remember why exactly... but it worked! ; )

You can use all the utilities regardless of the exact XP version. As for a repair install, you need the same (Dell OEM) version to do that.