i tried installing xp on my pc, and xp used to run on here awhile ago, but since then ive had vista on here and upgraded to a radeon hd 4870, and when i tried to install xp once again, after it finished copying files need for setup, and it rebooted that first time right before where the xp logo would appear it just stopped and there where 5 oddly colored letters randomly placed on the screen, and then i tried booting with the cd not in the drive and the same thing happens but no letters just a blinking cursor in the top left, what do i do??

I have Vista x64 running on my Home brew at home MSI K9A2 Plat. Phenom 9850BE 4gb OCZ 1066 ATI RAEDON HD3870 2x250 SATAII on raid0 When I originally set it up, Vista would crash on every boot that I installed factory drivers, drivers from ATI (yea I formatted a lot of times) Finally I was able to get it to work for a while if I installed SP1 proir to drivers. But would later crash. I had my BIOS setup to run 1066 even though my board had 800 as default. So I updated my firmware, set my BIOS to default, besides my raid and boot devices. Installed Vista x64, and loaded drivers on first boot properly. Installed all updates, and set my board back to 1066 with success. Link for BIOS update for your M/B here: http://support.asus.com/download/do... Select your Product Go to BIOS Get the latest and and update your BIOS Put a fresh load of vista on your PC Install ATI Drivers Thanks for any input.

ok, but im installing xp not vista, and it doesnt even boot, it copies the files need for setup at the dos look-alike setup screen, and then it reboots that first time, and i never even see the logo it just sits there blinking at me. i don't even get a chance to instal drivers

this is just a fresh install on a completely formatted seagate barracuda 1 TB, so idn why i have such a issue here.

Make sure that there are no external (USB, Firewire, etc) devices connected.

there arent any devices connected, its not that, it is the video card, i know that for sure, asus told me so, i just don't know how to fix it.

Whether it is XP or Vista Have you updated your M/B ? Have you set the default settings for your M/B after the firmware upgrade? Have you tried another video card? Thanks for any input.