After you upgrade your computer to Windows XP, you may receive the following Stop error message:Note The four parameters in this error message may vary depending on the cause of the Stop error.

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This issue may occur if a system thread generates an exception that the error handler does not catch. You receive this error message if one or more of the following conditions are true:

•	If this issue occurs after the first restart during Windows Setup, or after the Setup program is finished, the computer may not have sufficient hard disk space to run Windows.
•	If this issue occurs after the first restart during Windows Setup, or after Setup is complete, the computer BIOS may be incompatible with Windows.
•	Incompatible video adapter drivers.
•	A damaged device driver or system service.
•	If the issue is associated with the Win32k.sys file, it may be caused by a third-party remote control program.

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Where to start

Use the Windows Error Reporting tool

Click Send Error Report when you are prompted to send the error report to Microsoft.

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If a fix or a workaround is available, click More Information after you send the error report to Microsoft. This helps you obtain the fix or information about how to work around the issue

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If a fix or a workaround is not available, you can use the "Advanced Troubleshooting" section to try to resolve this issue. If you are not comfortable with advanced troubleshooting, you might want to ask someone for help or contact support. For information about how to contact support, visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/ (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/)

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Advanced troubleshooting

To troubleshoot this issue, use the following methods.

Method 1: Make sure that you have sufficient hard disk space

Make sure that you have sufficient hard disk space. For problems during Windows installation that are associated with a lack of available hard disk space, you must free space on your hard disk. Delete any unnecessary temporary files, Internet cache files, program backup files, and .chk files that contain saved file fragments from disk scans. You can also use another hard disk that has more free space for the installation.

Method 2: Update the computer BIOS

Make sure that your computer BIOS revision is current. Contact the computer manufacturer to obtain the latest BIOS update for the computer. You may have to temporarily disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.

For information about how to contact the computer manufacturer, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Method 3: Disable or update device drivers

View the Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) to determine if the PCI devices in the computer are compatible with Windows XP. For information about the hardware compatibility list, visit the following Microsoft Web site
Update the video adapter drivers to the latest versions. If a driver is listed by name in the Stop error message, disable or remove that driver. Disable or remove any drivers or services that you recently added. If the error occurs during the startup sequence and the system partition is using the NTFS file system, you may be able to use safe mode to rename or to delete the faulty driver. If the driver is used as part of the system startup process in safe mode, you must start the computer by using the Recovery Console to use the file. For more information about video adapter drivers in safe mode , click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: If the problem is associated with the Win32k.sys file, the problem may be caused by a third-party remote control program. To remove the service, use the Recovery Console to start the computer, and then delete the specified system service file.

Method 4: Remove unsigned drivers

If you cannot start Windows in safe mode, remove all drivers that are not digitally signed by Microsoft.

For more information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Method 5: Remove all third-party drivers

In rare cases, you may be unable to determine which third-party driver causes the error. To troubleshoot this issue, move all third-party driver files from the Windows\System32\Drivers folder to a different location. To do this, follow these steps:

1.	Use the Recovery Console to start the computer, or start the computer from a different installation of Windows if you have performed a parallel Windows installation.
2.	Move all files from the Windows\System32\Drivers folder that do not have a creation date for Windows XP of 8/13/2001. If the computer relies on a third-party IDE or SCSI controller driver for correct operation, you must identify those driver files, and then leave them in the Windows\System32\Drivers folder.
3.	Restart the computer.
4.	Continue the Windows Setup program.

For more information about how to disable a service that prevents Windows from starting, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

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If the following conditions are true, the issue may be a hardware incompatibility with Windows XP because all the installed drivers are Windows XP drivers:

•	You receive the STOP 0x7E error when you first start the computer.
•	You receive the STOP 0x7E error after you run the Setup program.
•	You did not install any third-party drivers during the installation of Windows.

However, if you receive the STOP 0x7E error after you upgrade from Windows 2000 Professional, or if you recently added a new hardware device, this issue may be an incompatible driver or an incompatible hardware device.

If you are still experiencing problems similar to the one described in this article, it may be a different problem than the one described in this article. This is a list of articles that discuss similar problems that you can review to try to address the problem:
For additional information about other troubleshooting steps that you can use, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: If these articles do not help you resolve the problem or if you experience symptoms that differ from those that are described in this article, search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more information. To search the Microsoft Knowledge Base, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Then, type the text of the error message that you receive, or type a description of the problem in the Search Support (KB) field.

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