Machine freezing :(

[membrane]

I've tried XP Home and XP Pro but both freeze when installing network with 32 minutes left.
I've cleaned the heat sink and checked for cooling paste and that's fine. I thought it might be the bios needing updated but i can't find any for the board.
Think it may be a broken hardware component, is there anyway to work which one with out the OS installed.

Any help will be very welcome.

 

[DelJo63]

power off and pull the NIC out of the slot in all systems.

install the OS and boot first time.

now power off and reinstall the NIC. when you power on, it should auto-discover
and install the right drivers.

 

[membrane]

Na no good. It doesn't have a nic or ethernet on the motherboard. There is a 56k modem and I've tried it without that and it still stopped.

Thanks any other suggestions welcome