Hi y'all! never been here before but I've spend all day today working on this &*!^ computer for something that should have been a quick fix. I upgraded the MB, DDR2s and power supply and all went well. i got through a new install on XP and it runs the entire system check, recognizes all the drives, fully installs, and then the initial boot hangs forever. will only run in safe mode. Mind you, i have a XP CD from my previous Dell computer that i am installing onto a home build system. Could it be stuck looking for proprietary hardware? Before i go out and spend $300 on a full version OS i wanted to know if you guys have any idea why this may be happening. Need some help please! Michael .

You mean $90 ofcourse
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116511

i don't think the problem is Dell install CD.

Just what is this computer you've been working all day on? and what kind of hardware is on it? Since it boots in safe mode but not normally my guess is it's bad hardware device who has a driver (maybe wrong driver) being loaded during normal bootup.

Not the time to double check this approach myself now (but google it or check documentation easily yourself), you can enable boot logging before you start safe mode (from the same screen) or before starting normal boot and i believe you'll get a log of the drivers as they're loaded. Compare the lists.

btw.. have you disconnected ALL unnecessary hardware before booting?