Install / Boot issues

[keith dewitt]

ran Ubuntu 8.10 live cd a few times. Decided to install. During
partition install, turned off computer. Needed more info on
partitioning. Got a book, got more info, decided to run live cd again.
It stalled on boot up. Formatted HD, put clean install of WinXP, ran
through alternate cd, got through the installation. Computer reboot
that was required after installation and I am back to same problem.

I get to the splash screen when the orange bar goes left to right,
next splash screen where bar moves only from left to right,sometimes
the bar will stop less than 1/4th the way, other times it will finish
all the way but then I get a blank screen and no blinking light
showing any HD activity. Let it set for almost 2 hours once to see if
boot would continue.

I have spent many hours trying to get around this, so now looking for
help. I figure since I was once able to get to the desktop on live cd,
surf the web, it shouldn't be a hardware/driver problem but....
Checked the .iso, hash, the cd, memory, did a new dl of .iso,made a
new disk, double checked the disk, etc.

After I started to have problems this message came up:
Bios age (1999) fails cut off...acpi=force is required....

I added acpi=force under the f6 option.

As of now, the latest cd I used is Kubuntu, so that is what's
installed on the HD.

Computer specs:
Pentium III 497.8 mhz
Chip set: Intel I440bx
RAM: 512mg
Video: Matrox Millenium g200 agp (open source driver)

Thanks,
Keith