Asus P5NT WS; SATA DVD-RAM drive; IDE DVD-RAM drive;

Neither works in Windows XP Pro installation. BIOS recognizes both the drives; Installation gets to the point of "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration." After that, the optical-drive LED stops blinking, and the monitor shows a blank black screen indefinitely until I press a button, which then displays parameters on the screen I've never seen before. It displays:

"TRAP 00000006 ======== EXCEPTION ===============
tr=0028 cr0 = 80000011 cr2=E9000574 cr3=00039000
gdt limit=03FF base=0003F000 idt limit=07FF base=0003F400

...."


I tried running Linux Linspire live CD, but at some point during load it states CD ROM fails.

This occurs whether I use the SATA or IDE optical drive.

I was able to boot Memtest86 off the cd, however; good thing, since I don't have access to another floppy drive to make a floppy memtest; so far, there are no memory errors.

Cros had this problem (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/archive/index.php/t-54051.html) in the past and resolved it (or didn't resolve it); it just so happens that my dvd-ram is also outside the case, but it has been working this way the entire time. there is not that much vibration (as he describes there is).

QUESTION: IS THERE ONE CONTROLLER FOR BOTH MY IDE AND SATA PORTS? PERHAPS IT IS DAMAGED?

Great, I remade an ISO of windows XP, tried booting with the new CD, but now I don't even get the message screen after hitting a key; it just goes straight to black screen and then restarts upon pressing key.

when trying the Ubuntu CD, do you get to a menu at all? If so, you can check and make sure the CD is a good CD.

Actually i do get the menu, and the ubuntu cd checks out; earlier, i was describing linspire live cd; also, vista x64 seems to boot fine, but since i have the upgrade version, i still need to install xp. Actually i was able to install the entire ubuntu server 6.10 cd onto hdd, but i don't know how to use it, so i deleted already.

OMG.... xp, why, why, why? what is going on? is this a hardware problem???? i've installed xp pro probably around 35 times since i set this computer up. is there a max # of times you can install xp?

there is no max to how many times you can install an operating system. Why did you download the server edition for Ubuntu? personal use should be more then enough. Is the XP install disk the one that came with your computer? If not, it might be for the wrong thing. (it could be 32 instead of 64) It does not seem like it is hardware since you can install other operating systems, though I could be wrong about that.

Ubuntu server is neat in that it installs very quickly and it's great if you want to automatically setup a webserver and suchlike and it doesn't unduly eat up resources on any fairly modern machine. If you want a GUI you need to install it from the command line after logging in with your user name and password.

To install a Gnome Desktop GUI enter:-
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
re-entering your user password when prompted (ubuntu doesn't use a separate root password by default)

Reboot by entering
sudo reboot
when the install completes.

The desktop install may take a while. If any packages are missed just run sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop again. You shouldnt need to retype it if you just hit the up arrow.

this is so strange.... memtest has finished 9 passes with 0 errors now. this is not a memory problem. what could it be? (by the way, my penultimate question was sarcastic.)