Upgrading Win98 to XP

So in trying to upgrade my 6-year-old Compaq that I’ve been neglecting for some time, I hoped to add XP, but after getting through the bios it just goes blank. The strange thing is that I can boot in safe mode and it runs beautifully. (can’t get to the internet, but otherwise) So why if I can get it going it safe mode is it getting stuck on a regular boot? Any help would be awesome!