Crashing w/ software installation off CD! Any ideas?

[Mursilis]

I'm building up a game server using some old parts. Specs are these:

P3-500
384MB RAM
PCChips 726MRT motherboard
AMI BIOS
Windows 98 SE
Western Digital 60GB HD (5400) (partitioned into 3 drives)
Voodoo3-2000

Windows 98 installed fine off the CD, but now whenever I try to install any software (Half life and Unreal Tournament both do this) off CD, it gets between 30-45% into the installation process and then reboots. Things I've tried:

Swapping out the CD drives.
Switching between IDE-1 and -2.
Using a Promise IDE controller card for the CD drive.
Trying different CD's (2 different Half life CD's and UT).

Problem remains the same. Any help GREATLY appreciated!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for looking.

 

[GiGoLo]

you might want to try removing all but one stick of ram to isolate the problem to possibly a bad ram stick or bad memory slot.

also, it might be a program (or windows function) running in the background causing a conflict. goto start -> run -> msconfig -> put the check on selective startup, and UNcheck "load startup items." strictly for testing purposes only. if it doesn't help, you can always put the check back.

also double check your device manager and make sure there are no bangs or conflicts. i've also seen several people have problems if they use the integrated windows ide driver instead of the ide driver that comes on the motherboard cd (or floppy if its older).

hope this helps

 

[Mursilis]

<< you might want to try removing all but one stick of ram to isolate the problem to possibly a bad ram stick or bad memory slot. >>



Yanked 2 of the 3 RAM sticks, and HL installed w/o a hitch! Thanks much! If you've got user ratings enabled, you're getting a 10!

 

[GiGoLo]

hehe.. always glad to help out a fellow half-lifer

 

[Fireman]

Hmm well it sounds like your problem is solved but the same thing happened to me building a comp for a friend. It turned out that Win 98 didn't install the driver for the CD ROM drive correctly. Never encountered that before but when we updated the driver everything loaded fine.