Clean XP Pro SP2 Install Looping

Hey folks, this is an odd problem I'm having trouble resolving. Have searched the web via Google, etc. and the boards on this site but couldn't find anything that would help with this issue.

Components: Clean install of XP Pro Sp2 on a brand new custom built computer. Hardware is lean and comprised of IDE Cdrom Drive, SATA 300GB Drive, Pentium D 3.2Ghz, Abit Mobo (board supports 8x AGP), 1GB DIMM and a 512MB AGP Nvidia Card.

Symptom: Installation on XP Pro Sp2 boots fine off CDROM and completes installation but on reboot of the machine the XP install "restarts ". You might think, ok this guy is rebooting back onto the bootable CD and the install is rerunning. Nope, boot order was changed in BIOS to look for HDD first and XP CD was removed. In doing so, the machine boots off the HDD and then it simply says "Restarting XP Installation" and goes to the first setup screen where it asks me to insert the CD to continue. Doing so completes the installation and then this process repeats itself over and over again.

Any ideas here folks? I'm a decent hardware/software technician and can't figure this one out. The only variant here for me is that this is the first time I have installed Windows XP with Service Pack 2 bundled. Previously I installed Windows XP w/ SP1 and ran SP2 manually post install. Only obvious thing I haven't tried is removing the AGP card to see if the install is having issues.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hello Graphiknut and welcome to the Board

A collection of MS articles dealing with XP setup issues http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windowsxp/setup05.html See if any of the article are of help.

Regards - Charles