HP/Compaq :: Hp Pavilion Dv7-1261wm Startup

when i try to boot vista, which was on the hard drive i get a BSOD that flashes really quick so that i cannot see what it is. i ran a hard drive diagnostic and it says that the hard drive is bad, so i thought this was the problem. i ordered in a new hdd and i got the same problem. i tried to load windows 7 onto the harddrive thinking that something may have just gone bad with the install of vista. but i get the same BSOD. so i decided to try and go back and load xp onto the laptop and about halfway thru the install i get a BSOD giving me a stop error message. so i tried to swap out the ram with some working stuff but i get the same problem. so its not the hdd and not the ram. the thing that really has me puzzled is that if i try to install linux onto the computer it works just fine, no errors or anything. this is leading me to think that there is no hardware problem.