windowsXP install in qemu-system-i386 1.3.0 ends with a BSOD 0x7E in acpi.sys These are the commands: $git checkout v1.3.0 $./configure --prefix=/home/user/tmp --target-list=i386-softmmu --enable-sdl --disable-curses --disable-vnc --enable-kvm --disable-docs $make $make install In /home/user/tmp directory: $./bin/qemu-img create imgs/winxp.img 4G $./bin/qemu-system-i386 imgs/winxp.img -cdrom ~/Downloads/zh-hans_windows_xp_professional_with_service_pack_3_x86_cd_x14-80404.iso then it show a bluescreen after a few seconds. See the attachment for more information, please. It works well when checking out v1.2.0. Same as Bug 1096712 I reported It is most likely the seabios bits missing in 1.3.0, namely this change: http://git.qemu.org/?p=seabios.git;a=commitdiff;h=f64a472a481784231fbf8541825501df411b11d1 You may try this bios file: http://git.qemu.org/?p=qemu.git;a=blob;f=pc-bios/bios.bin;h=3910875311ceaed814f902e9e4e7e29cdf340fc6 at least it works for me on top of 1.3.0 version, and 1.3.0 without updated bios behaves like you describe. So I'm marking this as "fix comitted" for now, waiting for 1.3.1 release... Alternative BIOS works for me with both installed system and installer. I have also verified that the BIOS above works with Windows XP (SP2). Changing status to "Fix Released" since this should have been included since a couple of releases now.