Interestingly enough, I ran into a similar situation recently while attempting to install WinXP on a newly configured system with an Iwill XP333 mainboard. Setup would "hang" in a loop, and refuse to install any farther.
A couple of attempts to install Win98 was halted right after the customization screen. However, Win2K installed without incident. But ... the system was obviously not stable, and any installation of the OS began to blue screen within several hours ... multiple blue screens attributed to the BIOS or ACPI.
Afterwards, I re-partitioned and formatted the drive, stripped the system to bare bones (video card, hard drive, floppy drive, CD-ROM, memory ... nothing else), and again tried to install WinXP. Same problem.
Seven formats and three operating systems later, I began to suspect the mainboard. I've rarely ever seen a problem with installing an OS like Win98.
It turned out to be an issue with the mainboard BIOS.
With several systems since then, updating the BIOS before installing WinXP has allowed the installation to proceed normally, and for the OS to be stable. But with the Iwill mainboard, no ACPI-compatible BIOS was available, and the BIOS flash did nothing put produce a checksum error as long as ACPI was enabled. I refused to run the older APM power management, and with the dearth of valid BIOS upgrades available on the Iwill website ... I sent the board back to the manufacturer.
In both of your situations, I would suggest flashing the BIOS to the latest version, and attempting to install the operating system with a minimum of devices connected to the mainboard. You can always install the other devices later on, with the newest drivers. You may also have better luck installing the OS with boot disks than running the text mode of the setup with the operating system CD. Another option is copying the installation files from the CD to a new folder on the hard drive, and running Setup from this folder.
Also ... re-checking all jumper settings is a good idea, especially the voltage for the memory. And setting the BIOS on the "safe" defaults may help, including lowering the FSB speed.
You should be aware, that if you should try to get around a possible BIOS problem by rigging the system as APM, instead of ACPI, that only the Pro and Corporate editions support APM ... Home edition does not. Home edition will only accept ACPI.
You may find these links to be helpful:
<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q310994" target="_new">Obtaining Windows XP Setup Boot Disks (Q310994)</A>
<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q296814&id=kb;en-us;Q296814" target="_new">Setup Stops Responding (Hangs) During File Copy (Q296814)</A>
<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q307848" target="_new">HOW TO: Start Setup from MS-DOS in Windows XP (Q307848)</A>
<A HREF="http://www.d-silence.com/articles/WinXP1.shtml" target="_new">A Practical Guide for Upgrading to Windows XP</A>
<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q310064&id=kb;en-us;Q310064" target="_new">HOW TO: Troubleshoot Windows XP Setup Problems When You Upgrade from Windows 98 or Windows Me (Q310064)</A>
<A HREF="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/howto/gettingstarted/guide/newinstallation.asp" target="_new">WinXP - New Installation</A>
<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q306824" target="_new">Release Notes for Windows XP Setup Contained in the Home.txt File (Q306824)</A>
<A HREF="http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/setup05.html" target="_new">Windows XP, Installing and Setup</A>
And ...
<A HREF="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q268891" target="_new">How to Troubleshoot Installation Issues During Setup in Windows Millennium Edition (Q268891)</A>
Toejam31
<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new"><font color=green>Toejam31's Tantalizing Tantric Toy</font color=green></A>
<font color=red>Second Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=15942" target="_new"><font color=green>Toey's Dynamite DDR Duron</font color=green></A>
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