Booting and XP issues

[Rumrunner]

First timer here and I could sure use some help. I have been upgrading my HP. Moved everything into a new case and finally got my gear together. Certainly not top of the line stuff but hopefully halfway decent.

MSI PM8M-V Via Socket 478 MicroATX Motherboard and an Intel Celeron 350 3.20GHz OEM Processor

Ultra / V-Series / 500-Watt / ATX / 120mm Fan / 20/24-Pin / SATA Ready / Power Supply

CD drive, HD, floppy drive all original from HP

1 stick of RAM in the MOBO

Purchased a new version of Windows XP to replace the HP 'only' version which came with the PC.

Ok so I have everything installed properly as far as I can tell. I am having some issues booting up. The boot up gets hung up in various places - often at loading DMI pool. I managed to get by this by clearing CMOS.

Problem is, each time I want to boot up the only way I can is by clearing CMOS again. Did I miss something here, I'm not very savvy with BIOS and not sure if I need to save something in there after clearing CMOS?

Also for some reason I can't seem to boot directly from the XP disc as I believe I need to. I tried putting the CD drive as first in line for the boot sequence but the changes don't save because I keep having to clear CMOS just to boot up again.

If I clear CMOS I can get the original HP version of XP to begin but of course with the new gear it wants me to activate XP again. I want to repair install my new XP cd if I'm not mistaken correct?

I'm just going in circles right now and have myself quite confused at this point. I hope you fine folks can set me on the right path.