Can't install Xp on new system

[luckystars45]

Put together a new system, transfered a few parts over from the old system until I upgrade those(video card and memory). Went into the bios and set it to boot from the cd rom and whenever it does boot to the xp cd it will get as far as setup windows and it will load maybe 4 or 5 files and freeze, and it will freeze at different points of doing this each time. Thats when it actually boots from the cd, a lot of times I'll just get the system starting and constantly rebooting since its not finding anything to boot from evidently. The cd is fine and I've got a brand new samsung dvd-writer in there. Any clues on what my problem is here?

Here is the system

DFI LAN PARTY UT NF4 EXPERT SLI
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4400+
Kingston 512mb(Temporary memory until my 2gig comes in)
Geforce 7600 GS 512mb
WD 500gb SATA

[kavadon]

Welcome to the forums...

Quick question... Your "Kingston 512mb" of memory... is that one stick of 512 or 2 sticks of 256? I ask because if you have two sticks, you might want to pull one out and just use one stick until you can finish the installation on the machine. Then you can put your second stick back in and "dial it in" for best performance. If you have one stick of 512, then you might try to move it to another slot (from slot 1 to slot 3 or slot 2 to 4)...consult the manual.

I have that same motherboard and love it.... but DFI Lan Party's are notorious for being picky on memory. They're better than they were, but they can be very difficult at times. Some brands of memory seem to offer better luck than others.... OCZ seems to be a popular choice for DFI boards, but your mileage may vary.

Just out of curiousity, what brand of memory is your new 2GB kit that's coming?

[CMB]

Drive(s) are jumpered correctly ?
Try a plain old cdrom drive or older optical drive if you have one around.

What power supply are you using on that rig ?

[Mjölnir]

I'd recommend the usual hardware tests if jumpering and cabling is all OK.

Test PSU
Memtest RAM
Test HDD

[luckystars45]

Well I've tried two different cd drives, reads from both but I can't figure out why it randomly decides to boot from the cd sometimes then I can sit there and watch it reboot over and over and not be able or not try to access the cd-rom. If it is the fact that the board just doesnt like that memory what memory works well with this motherboard? I read a lot about the memory issues with the board before i even got it but I've seen lots people using corsair, ocz, some saying they had problems and some saying they had none.

[CMB]

Follow Mjölnir's advice.
Check the memory first, see if it'll run a few passes of memtest without errors.

[Mjölnir]

Follow Mjölnir's advice.
Check the memory first, see if it'll run a few passes of memtest without errors.

Sorry CMB - I'd recommend checking the PSU first. A dodgy PSU can affect Memtest results.

[luckystars45]

Well the PSU I have is the ULTRA 500 watt which came with my case, no clue how to test if it has problems or not.

[luckystars45]

okay attempted to do a memory test, within a minute said it had completed 33% but then after that nothing, i let it sit for over an hour with no change or anything. Rebooted and had it set to go back into memtest86 and it wont, just like with trying to boot into the xp cd its just rebooting over and over after the intial screens.

[Mjölnir]

Well the PSU I have is the ULTRA 500 watt which came with my case, no clue how to test if it has problems or not.

There's a link to a comprehensive (and illustrated) guide in my first post