Kramy

Perhaps - or perhaps it's exactly as I'm supposing it is - leftover drivers. I have a feeling if I do a fresh install on the unworking drive, it'll work fine. Of course, then all his info is gone, unless I back it all up first.

Are you saying if you plug in a spare drive to the same IDE cable it works fine? Yep. Exact same cable, mobo port, and slave DVD drive. I know doing a fresh install will work fine, but if there's a way to get into safe mode, I can avoid doing that...

I had some trouble figuring out the BSOD error code, because it reboots so fast, but yes, it appears to be a 0x0000007b. Unfortunately, your suggestion doesn't help. First, the HDD is a PATA drive, and the CD has been slipstreamed to SP3. Windows installs absolutely fine on a secondary drive I had lying around, so the problem must be related to old drivers that aren't being purged. If anyone has any suggestions on how to kick it out of wanting to install windows, so I can get into safemode, please post.

Someone I know brought me a computer to fix. His old mobo died, so he got a newer one and new CPU. I had told him to "just do an XP repair install and install drivers off the CD when you're done". He followed the first part to the letter, but never got to the second. Unfortunately, the repair install doesn't seem to have disabled all the old mobo drivers, so it BSOD's immediately upon trying to enter Windows to resume setup. I tried to enter safe mode, but safe mode simply informs me that Setup cannot resume while in safe mode, and then reboots. How do I get into safe mode to purge the bad drivers, and complete the repair install? I have multiple other computers available, as well as a drive enclosure, so if it involves mucking around, simply provide instructions. Thanks. Oh, and he'd prefer not to have to reinstall everything - although if clearing it off is the only option, I suppose he'll have to. I just hope it isn't, since I'm sort of responsible for this mess.