We bought a gateway DX 4720. Didn't realize it had vista x64 installed.
Decided to go back to XP when we found out that Cisco didn't make an x64 vpn client.

So long story short, I get a blue screen when trying to install XP, right after it loads all the drivers and is "starting windows"
Stop error 0x0000007B

I tried various drivers slipstreamed into a disk for the sata controller. No luck.

So I poke around, take a shot in the dark... write a ntldr and delete bootmgr... I figured I could aways go back and change it back with the recovery console (vista).

WRONG!

Cannot boot into vista, get error NTDLR is missing.

Booted to vista disk, load some drivers, and select the os to repair it. WRONG! I have a vista x86 disk, it cannot repair my x64 installation. I get an x64 disk, and it will not load any drivers I throw at it, be it the x86 or x64 drivers.

So i figure that I can just reload the OS completely. Wrong once again, it asks for CD/DVD drivers. after some googling, I learn that this should be just a misnomer for the sata adapter drivers... that vista x64 cannot see. I try to install x86, and get the same problem, even after loading the appropriate drivers.

So I'm at a loss. I've been messing with this for more than 8 hours. It needs to get running.

Does anyone have any insight? I'd greatly appreciate it. thanks for reading....


Edit: mother board comes up in cpuid as ms-7399 but I can't find anything via goggle for it.

The board appears to be an MSI MS-7399 GeForce 7100/nForce 630i, if that's any help.

I had this problem for weeks and microsoft technical support didn't help me at all. I don't remember exactly what I did but I think it was disabling something in the bios other than sata

flash to new bios?

Gladly... Just can't find one.

does the board have an eide port?
If so, try with an ide cd drive.....