I tried to install Windows XP on a HP 256 G3 Laptop and I got a BSOD on “Setup is starting Windows” during the textmode setup. Error code is 0x000000A5.
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Having problems installing Windows XP
- Thread starter eeeepc
- Start date
- Dec 28, 2019
- 542
- 57
Hello @eeeepc - welcome to Computer Forums 
I will preface this with something you probably already know: Windows XP is now very out of date and should’nt ever be connected to the internet as chances of malware are a lot higher than with more modern OSes.
With that said, there’s a couple of things you can try.
I suspect your machine might be a bit too new to successfully run XP natively, in which case I would recommend using something like Virtualbox to run XP. This will also let you share files to/from XP which can be quite convenient.
As a rule of thumb any machine made after 2008 will have hit and miss compatibility, anything after 2012 is unlikely to be able to run it at all. Check your CPU supports 32 bit, if it doesn’t you can try the 64 bit version of XP but this can be very hard to find drivers for.
One other thing you could try is hitting F6 when prompted to do so via the setup but unless you can find XP native drivers for this machine this is probably a dead end.
Let us know how you get on
I will preface this with something you probably already know: Windows XP is now very out of date and should’nt ever be connected to the internet as chances of malware are a lot higher than with more modern OSes.
With that said, there’s a couple of things you can try.
I suspect your machine might be a bit too new to successfully run XP natively, in which case I would recommend using something like Virtualbox to run XP. This will also let you share files to/from XP which can be quite convenient.
As a rule of thumb any machine made after 2008 will have hit and miss compatibility, anything after 2012 is unlikely to be able to run it at all. Check your CPU supports 32 bit, if it doesn’t you can try the 64 bit version of XP but this can be very hard to find drivers for.
One other thing you could try is hitting F6 when prompted to do so via the setup but unless you can find XP native drivers for this machine this is probably a dead end.
Let us know how you get on
- Dec 28, 2019
- 542
- 57
In this case it should be pretty easy. As far as I’m aware as long as the machine came with Windows 7, 8 or 10 it should automatically be licensed to run 10.
All you need is another PC and a USB stick. You can use the media creation tool to create a USB that will let you install W10:
Media Creation Tool
All you need is another PC and a USB stick. You can use the media creation tool to create a USB that will let you install W10:
Media Creation Tool
