Strange Boot Problem

[JScriffs]

I've got a weird boot problem on an older PC; can't seem to figure it out. When the computer boots, whether I'm trying to boot a XP CD, Ubuntu CD, or Utility CD, it always hangs at the splash/loading screen. For example, the XP logo will begin to fade in, then no response. I can still faintly see the logo on the screen, but even if I leave it for a few hours it'll still be frozen.

Same thing happens with a Ubuntu install disc. I can get to the installation menu, with choices for "Install, Run of CD, Check Memory, etc.", but once I select an item, the splash screen will begin to load and freeze up again.

I'm basically now just trying to get the computer to boot. I've disconnected the hard drives, reseated memory, reseated the video card, reseated the chip, reset cmos, yet nothing seemed to work. So now I only have bare minimum plugged in, to see if I can at least get it to get past the splash screens.

Any clues on what could be causing this? If it helps, I built this computer back in 2002-2003 (yes, I know it's ancient) with a Gigabyte AN35N Ultra, Athlon XP, with a gig of RAM. I would like to get it running again to use as maybe a server or something.

Thanks. Any insight is appreciated.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Have you tried a different CD-ROM? If you can't get any bootable disk to run then it may be the drive. Another possible issue could be your RAM. When your booting from a disk the information has to go into RAM first. If the RAM isn't holding the information or is corrupting it as its stored then that will couse problems. See if you can get a Memtest disk to run?