Can't install Windows

After losing patience and buying another CPU, I'm trying to see if you guys can help me fix the old one.

Even with the Hard Drive wiped clean (or a brand new drive) I can't do a full Vista install; at the end it says "Hardware problem", non specific, and just loops itself.
It's a HP Compaq CPU, is this a BIOS issue after malware/virus?

Thanks.

 

If I install Vista on it from another computer, will it work? Also, can RAM be infected?

 

It may be missing the SATA drivers. I got problems when I was trying to install Win ser 2003 on top of vista in Acer Aspire AM5641. I used NLITE to create a CD with Win ser 2003 with SATA drivers incuded and it worked. Hope the below link can give you some idea.

http://www.nonoh.com/20080502

Thanks.

 

I'm sure this isn't your problem, but since I had similar outcome, fwiw: I ran linux for about a year on an old laptop I had, and then decided to give it to a friend, and reload XP from the original cd I still had: wouldn't load, all kinds of problems, and I figured it was the hard drive: Windows would load partially, then right before it booted into XP, give an error similar to the one you got...

Finally, I picked up another HD, another XP load disk, and *still* got the error, and I had been in BIOS about fifty times and had it memorized, and so figured it was just hardware beyond my pay grade...in frustration, I reset the BIOS w/f9, which is "default" settings, rather than my settings...and it booted up no problem...

Conclusion: I missed something in the BIOS, damn if I know what it was...humbling....best wishes...

 

You know it's strange but I took out the HD again, wiped it clean on another machine and then installed Vista with no problems.... Go figure..

 

Yup: it's happened to me...sometimes I think my hard drives just want to get out of town for a while, visit with other computers, tell lies about how cool they are, and then come home and behave like good hard drives should...and of course, once they are free and footloose, I always give'em a whack or two on the back, which sometimes helps ....mysterious ;-)