i put the disc1 into my laptop disc drive only to find that my laptop sort of seizes up and the screen becomes slightly white, although i can see what's beneath. i cant move my mouse, but im pretty sure i have the specs to make it work
You've got two options, to begin with: either try to change your CD/DVD reader and try installing it again or go to a friend and try to install it there and see if it works. It might be a case of bad disc or bad disc reader.
As suggested,
Try putting in another disk. Try disk 2 of that game.
This way, we can rule out whether it's a problem with either your game disks or a problem with your CD/DVD drive.