For the Love of All that is Holy!

I need some help! I am putting together a system right now for a friend and I'm having trouble like you wouldn't believe. Here are the specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Barton
MoBo: Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
Optical Device: Sony DVD/CD-RW
HDD: Maxtor 80GB SATA 7,200 rpm w/ 8MB cache
Memory: GEIL Golden Dragon Dual Channel DDR 400 (set-up for single channel and with only one stick in)
Floppy: generic
Video Card: Asus 9600XT 128MB 8x AGP
HS: Zalman CNPS7000-Cu
Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 3
BIOS: 1008
Power Source: generic 550watt

The system boots fine and everything is OK until I try to do the fresh install of Win XP. It starts and I hit F6 to load the drivers for the SATA and do so when prompted. The install starts right back up after this is done but when the message; Starting windows install now; pops up, the system locks up hard! I tried a regular EIDE HDD and I got the same result! Is their something I am missing or is the mobo giving me S***? I have been working on this system for 2 monthes now mainly because the first 2 boards from Aopen were d.o.a and had to be R.M.A.'ed / returned for refund. I am at wits end right now and so is the guy I am building it for! Any help would be apprecated and THANK YOU in advance!!!

P.S.~ I have been to AMDMB and NForcesHQ both and nothing suggested has worked!

Might be a bad XP CD. I would reformat and try another OS such as Win2000 or ME. You can also try installing on another computer then use the REPAIR option when you stick the harddrive back on the asus board. I think its the CD though sense I have seen that happen where windows hangs on install and it was the CD all along. Check the rom drive as well, try another one. MY 2cents

are you sure you need to hit F6 to install separate drivers? i would think they're included for the mobo ports, and you only have to hit F6 if using an add-in card. hell, i'm using an add-in IDE card and i've never had to hit F6....

i think you only have to hit F6 if you're doing a fresh install on drive connected to an expansion card.

Thanks again for the ideas! I have tried my own copy of XP Pro and it hangs in the same spot whether I hit F6 and load the driver or not. I installed XP on my system about a month ago without issue from my disk so I know it is good. Any other ideas?