I recently (yesterday) acquired an HP Pavilion a6634f, fresh out-of-the-box, with the intention of putting Windows Server 2003 on it and using it as a home server. It obviously comes pre-packaged with Windows Vista. I tried installing Windows Server on it the regular way, by putting the CD in the PC's DVD drive, and booting off of it. When the installer said "Setup is starting Windows" (after loading drivers, Windows Executable, HAL, etc.) I got a BSoD. I bit of poking around suggested that it was a problem with the DVD drive being connected via SATA. I tried connecting a PATA DVD drive, but there's no PATA connector on the a6634f's motherboard. So I got an external USB DVD drive, booted off that. This problem disappeared, but then I couldn't setup because Windows didn't have drivers for the SATA controller (at all), and therefore couldn't find the 500gb HD. So I followed the instructions here: Installing SATA Drivers without a Floppy Disk (Intel Only) (Windows XP) - TACKtech Corp. To include those drivers on the Windows Server 2003 install CD. Tried again, and voila, it worked. Got done installation, the computer reboots, a BSoD flicks across the screen and the computer restarts. Don't even get to the splash screen... ...

Please click on the BSOD link in my signature and follow the direction you find there.

Thank you

I don't think you understand -- I can't get into Windows. After the install completes, first [attempted] boot up of the OS it goes to BSoD. The BSoD doesn't persist as per normal, I just see a flash of blue with the tell-tale white writing, and then the computer reboots. I can leave my computer unattended while it does this and it will just continually restart itself over and over and over. The "Blue Screen" is up for <0.1 seconds. I suspect the SATA / RAID controller is the issue, so I've set it to IDE legacy mode and am currently re-installing.

Re-install with IDE legacy mode and full NTFS format (not quick) fixed problem.

Thanks very much for the update Spike.

Marked as Resolved.