New System Freezes When Installing Direct-X 8.....

Hey guys I'm not sure whats up here so maybe you can help. I just put together my new system ( 1Ghz Duron, Soltek DRV5, 256 mb pc2700, SB Live5.1, Radeon 7500 All-In-Wonder, Windows 98 SE. My problems is that I cannot install directX 8+ because the system freezes up before finishing the install. I cannot install my updated video drivers untill DX8 is on there and I am getting a little frustrated. I did not install the latest Via 4-in-1 drivers because the site recommended not doing that unless necessary. Could this be an issue?? Or what else could be causing the conflict? This is my first solo effort on building a system and everything has been good so far except this little problem. Thanks in advance for any help. Oh by the way, incase it matters, I have a 100gb western digital 7200 rpm hard drive on IDE #1 and a liteon DVD drive on IDE #2. Also when I tried to install Netscape 6 the system froze up when it got to installing java. OK I'll stop rambling and sit back and listen.. Thanks