I am attempting to install Windows XP on my HP DV5000 series laptop. The computer has no operating system on it but I'll get through about the first few minutes of the setup (when files are first being loaded at the bottom of the screen but mostly everything is solid blue), a sound occurs like the CD drive is speeding up and then the laptop shuts down (all in all, about a 3 to 5 minute process). It would also do this everytime I'd put in a CD of any kind when there WAS an OS on it, whether games or just music. I was told this could be either the drive or the motherboard; I'm hoping for the prior. Thanks for any and all help, guys!

Uninstall the CD\DVD drive in the device manager, and reboot the laptop. Let Windows reinstall the CD\DVD optical drive. See if this fixes the problem. If not, the optical drive may be bad

That would be a good starting point Tmagic, if the computer had an OS on it. Because it doesn't, I would just go straight to either replacing the optical drive or making a bootable USB drive to install from. Is the computer still under warranty?

You're right Xinthran,
I wasn't quite awake yet. Your advice is good. I don't know if using an external USB CDROM would also be an option here

Good thinking with the external. I've had to use an external, and it worked like magic.