BSOD when trying XP on DV3Z; RP also bogus

As the title says, I get a BSOD just after the install disc loads all the drivers and says "starting windows". It also did this with a clean drive, thus I can't blame the restore partition, at least not in that case.

I tried using the restore partition, and just get "Error 100a". My internet connection here is too bad to do a lot of research on this, so any help is appreciated.

The only install that worked was of a Vista Ult. on the clean drive. Vista Home freezes at "completing installation".
Ran Memtest and sector scans of both HDD's. All %100

 

I had a problem once installing XP Pro on a new hard drive, and got it to work by booting the system with a DOS 7.0 boot disk made from Windows 98 and doing an FDISK /MBR, thereby rewriting the Master Boot Record.

 

I don't have access to windows 98. I'm guessing some of the dos programs on Ultimate Boot CD would do this as well. I will give that a shot. If anyone has any other ideas let me know.

 

Bootdisk.com is a great resource for DOS boot disks.

 

As closure to this thread, I should note it had nothing to do with the mbr. This thread got me through it fine:
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Operat...l-XP-Downgrade-Guide-for-HP-Laptops/m-p/83267