XP won't install, i have new mobo + PSU + Mem

[Jose]

Let me give you details. Have in mind the it was
happening before the new mobo.

the Pc Specs. ( i had installed XP before )
ASRock M810LMR mobo
Duron 800mhz
2 256 MB Sdram chips (one new, one is the new one)
1 64 MB Sdram chip (not installed at the same time)
40 Gig Seagate HD
350 Watts Raidmax PSU
and everything that holds it together.

Well my problem is that when i go to install XP PRO
fresh, i go thru the formatt (NTFS {quick or normal}) and
when it starts to copy the files (b4 the first reboot) it
can't read files at random.

If i keep trying and put a a copy of the install cd and
just try to install it, it will then do the reboot and
when the install starts it will give me an error after a
while ( I relate this to the fact it didnt copy all the
files.)

Now, I troubleshoot the thing a lot and here is my finds.
Is not the XP CD, I re-installed my XP just to make sure
(This other PC is my wife's). Is not the CDROM, i took
the CDROM from my system and it does the same. Its not
the memory, I tried infinite combos with my old 256 stick
and the 64 meg, i then decided to buy more and tried the
new 256 stick with no luck.

Is not the IDE cables, i borrowed working cables from my
system. Is not the HD, I actually installed XP using the
same CD on this HD, by physically putting it in my system
(when putting it on the original system it would crash
with all kinds of error messages, and it won't boot up
XP).

I checked the manufacturer for BIOS updates and there is
none that could fix this problem (eventhou it was
happening with the previous mobo too). The PSU is new,
what else could be causing this to happen. should i just
call it quits and return the mobo???

Thanks for the prompt replyies guys

 

[Guest]

Anybody??? Please help, desperate person here! lol

 

[Gerald]

Check the CPU bus speed setting. Initially, the jumper
(JP2) was set to 'Auto' from the manufacturer (L4VXA2 P4
motherboard; Celeron 2.66 GHz CPU, 400 MHz FSB) Changed it
to '533' (I'm running one stick of 512 MB DDR RAM. When I
first started XP and W2K installs, I first had to disable
L1/L2 cache which of course is really slow, and after
reboot re-enabled it - still crashed. Resetting the mobo's
bus speed corrected the problem.
(e-mail address removed)
http://realcareers.netfirms.com
http://realcareers.netfirms.com/mycomputer.html