Dell Optiplex 755's and Windows XP installation

Windows XP installer does a blue screen of death on installation, with a STOP: 0×0000007B error. Installation fails due to the BSOD and is not recoverable.

In this particular instance, it means Windows cannot detect and load the correct harddisk controller driver, because it does not support the default SATA operation mode in the Dell BIOS.

In BIOS, in the Drives — SATA Operation, you can change from the default RAID/AHCI mode to RAID/ATA mode (not Legacy mode), and Windows setup will now run.

This error occurs in both Windows XP and Windows XP x64, even with SP2 slipstreamed. As for the fix, I have only tried it with Windows XP x64 with SP2 slipstreamed.

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A user online has reported the same problem, albiet with a slightly different solution: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=107364c :

The user there recommends installing the updated BIOS, which then enables a “Legacy” mode to be selected in the SATA Operation menu. Then the user loads Windows XP and with F6, loads the Dell SATA drivers. From my testing, you do not actually need to load the Dell SATA drivers, but I believe this user was using a different OS (XP SP2 32-bit) and that may be a factor.

The Dell BIOS update (rev A04) was released 6 November and is available on the Dell site at http://support.dell.com/ .

" 5. Added SATA legacy mode support for older operating systems. "

This update is labeled as “URGENT” according to Dell. It adds a “Legacy” mode support for the SATA operation, although we do not need to use this mode, so I am unsure if we need it or not.

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Slipstream drivers as well as SP2 with the insturctions below, or use www.nliteos.com tools or similar.
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=414

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If the system is configured with a recovery partition. It may need to be removed before you will be able to boot from the xp disk.