Installations locks up

[sjbusak at aim.com]

   I've been trying for several days now to install the Ubuntu desktop 
version 9.04 using the alternate CD.   It never finishes and locks up 
at random locations during installation.  The farthest it's made it so 
far is to the "Select and Install Software."   I also have a live CD 
for 8.04 and that seems to work fine if it runs off the CD.  But I 
can't install that either.  Here's my system information:

  Generic P.C. brand (not major brand like Dell, H.P., etc.)
  Athlon XP 1700+
  512 MB RAM
  40 GB HDD
  1024x768 @76

  When installation starts, the following message flashes on the screen:

  [2.006844] IO APIC Resources could no be allocated
  create_floppy_devices [536]: specified group 'floppy' unknown
  Starting system log daemon: syslogd, klogd

  Any suggestions or help you can offer will be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

Steve