Problems loading W2K

You might want to look at what video card you are using. Windows 2000 is very hardware intensive when loading and has trouble work with 128 bit agp video cards.

check the hcl (MS hardware compatibility list) at www.microsoft.com/hcl this wont give you a comprehensive answer as it isnt updated enough, but it may give you an idea.

Is the system stable on other operating systems? its possible that the system isnt running properly anyway.

Are there any IRQ conflicts? this can be checked after POST(power on self test)and ram test, there will be a screen with system info... then a list of hardware devices that are sharing.

Try taking out all of the cards (leave video card only) during install, then if successful put them back in 1 by 1. If a card causes the system to freeze or anything then take it out and try a different PCI slot. (hint dont use PCI 1 and AGP together, this will usually causeprobs)

The first thing to do is try to eliminate any hardware conflicts. Windows 2000 does a suprisingly good job with hardware, but there are still a lot of products that are not compatible. One issue that I have seen is that when you are running dual processors they should be identical and sometimes just by not being in the same batch can cause installation problems. I would start by removing one processor and see how the install goes along with removing any other hardware that is not absolutely necessary. If you still have problems, you will have fewer components to troubleshoot.

Also, here is an article from Microsoft.

SYMPTOMS
When you install Windows 2000, the computer may stop responding (hang) while the computer displays the "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration" screen.

CAUSE
This behavior can occur if a disk controller is configured to support removable media as fixed disks.

RESOLUTION
Turn off the features that treat removable disks (such as Iomega Zip or Jaz disks) as fixed disks in the disk controller's BIOS.

On some controllers, changing settings in the disk controller's BIOS requires that you press a certain key combination during the computer's power-on self test (POST). Watch for this information on the screen during startup, or consult the controller's documentation.

Some controllers have options such as "Boot device only" and "All removable media." Setting the option to "Boot device only" often resolves the issue and still allows the computer to boot from a CD-ROM or other removable media.

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