Refusal to Install Software

[Gao]

Hello. I'm in a big spot of trouble, and I could certainly use help.

I just finished my second build, and it went together wonderfully (stats will follow at the end for reference). When I got to installing XP, it installed fine. So, I go to install the drivers that came with the motherboard, and halfway through it errors. Black screen, hard-locked. Every time I tried to boot the computer, it hit up on BIOS okay, then when it tried to roll over into XP, nothing. Black screen again. I managed to Repair XP's install, and it ran again. Booted up, went to the hills and clouds.

Okay, so I try to install the drivers for the motherboard again. It pops up an error that says "This program has failed to initialize". It won't work via the disk, apparently, so I figure I'll try to install the software for my router, get it online, and download the drivers from the site. Pop in the disk for the router, it gets 14% through install, bam, error, has to close. Okay, that sucks. I try again. And again. And again. Every time, 14%, same thing.

One reformat and reinstall of XP later, I decide to try the motherboard's drivers via the disk again. It goes through okay. Fine. I try the router. That goes through now as well. Okay, that's good. So I start to install a game. It gets a little ways in, and then it says that the file is corrupted, and it couldn't be installed. Bah. I have another copy of the game elsewhere, so I boot that up, same thing, same place. Maybe it was the DVD-ROM for some odd reason. I try a music CD, and it reads and plays just fine. Then I tried an older computer game I had, to see if it would install anything via CD. Got a bit into it, then died. It rebooted itself, thent stated that this file was missing: Windows\system32\config\System , and so then I try to run another Repair on XP to see if I can fix it. It gets near the end, last ten minutes, and hard-locks.

I have no idea what to do. My other computer had some trouble with SATA, but this is beyond me. It really just seems like the computer is being a jerk about installing anything from the DVD drive, and I don't know why. I read the thing on the G965 series having issues with IDE, but my wife (it's her computer) insists on IDE, so it's got IDE. I'm hoping I don't have to buy a whole new set of SATA stuff just to get this to work.

So, anyone got any idea on what to do beyond buying a bunch of replacement bits? I'm at my wit's end.

(Specs are as follows)

Intel Pentium 4 640 Prescott 3.2GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
Intel BOXDG965RYCK LGA 775 Intel G965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
A-DATA 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel (2 Gigs total)
Western Digital Caviar WD1200BB 120GB 7200 RPM 2MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive

Sorry all of this is so lengthy. I just really have no clue what the issue is, and wanted to put down as much information I could. I can't figure this out for the life of me, though it seems like it's likely something outrageously simple.

EDIT: Tried installing another game, got this error - CRC error: The file (random file string for game) doesn't match the file in the setup's .cab file. The medium from which you are running the setup may be corrupted; contact you software vendor.

I know that game's disk works. I installed it on the computer I'm using to write this. Maybe it's the DVD-ROM? It was on an older computer, but it worked fine there. I guess I'll have to buy a new one and see. I still have no clue...

[kissfan]

Have you tried changing the IDE cable?
Any heat issues?
Are the HDD and DVD on the same channel?
Try running Memtest86 on your RAM, to rule that out.

Question.
Why is your wife so against SATA?

Deuce