Problem attempting to install XP (after drivers load)

[Guest]

I am attemping to install Windows XP Home on a PC that
previously had WIndows 98. Since I am going to replace
Win98 anyway, I am doing a straight install from scratch.

I booted up with the CD, and it loaded all the drivers as
per normal. However, at the end of the driver load, it
says "Starting Windows".... and stays there. No more
drive or CD activity, it just stops.

This PC has had no problems in the past two years, mind
you.

I have done the following to try and troubleshoot it:

1) I tried a new, good Hard drive in case there was a
problem with the old one.
2) I tried another CD-ROM drive (actually two)
3) I tried another copy of Windows XP (that I know to be
good)
4) I replaced the RAM (twice, with brand new sticks that
had never been used before), and tried them in all 3 DIMM
slots.
5) I removed the sound card.
6) I tried a different IDE cable (and had the CDRom in
both the secondary channel and also tried it as a slave
drive on the primary channel with the HDD.)
7) I reset the BIOS to Optimized, and later to Fail-Safe
settings.
8) I flashed the BIOS last of all, and while everything
else still works normally, the problem with the Install
remains.

I have noticed one thing. When I switched the BIOS
(Award) to Fail-Safe, the Memory test spools up to 256
(which is the amount of SDRAM in it), and then starts
over again, several times. To me, this would suggest bad
RAM - but I've had the same results with 3 separate
sticks, two of them new.

Does this mean that all of a sudden, ALL three DIMM slots
have gone bad? And with no other symptoms, save this one?

I am at a loss here, I've tried every trick I know.

Brian

 

[Rich Barry]

What version of WinXP CD are you using. Retail, OEM, Upgrade ?

 

[Guest]

It was retail, actually. But I also tried it with an OEM copy that I had (for
troubleshooting purposes, in case the first CD might have actually been bad.)

 

[Rich Barry]

Try using fdisk and delete and create a new partition(s). Format and
use Xcopy to copy the contents of
the CD to the hard drive. At the command prompt type: xcopy
X:\*.* C:\/s/e/h/c/k/r X=Drive Letter of
your cdrom drive.
You can get a super Win98 bootdisk here www.bootdisk.com