can you disable the sound and midi and usb and network card in the bios and load windows and install the motherboard drivers for the soundcard and see if it will finally load?

it could be a plu and play interrupt conflict.
can you tell me the model number of the motherboard or the model number of the computer and manufacturer?

we like a challange and i want to see it running good for you.

is the windows xp with sp1 slipstreamed?

egghead