EXTensi0n

That's a good plan too. New socket7 boards, which I'm presuming you are using... are hard to come by though. I'd figure 30ish at www.compgeeks.com if they have any. I'm sure you can find someone who is local to you to sell you a working board for cheap though. Good luck!

Flakey or bad ram IS very likely. I've seen it many many times doing installs of XP and 2K. To quote Highlander: "I was running XP and had some problems so tried to load 2000 to get around this." Sounds like a typical hardware problem to me. like BAD RAM.

I'd have to agree with the bad ram. XP and 2K are very prone to install problems. I've seen it many many times myself. Of course it could be a bad cpu, vid card, or many other things. Isn't that the fun of PC's? Regardless, I'd go with the Ram issue. Or quit burning your pirated XP discs on cheap CDR's.

Well, it sounds as the AT port went on the mobo. Looks like it is USB keyboard time period. An PCI USB card maybe able to be found cheaper than an appropriate bracket. If you shop around, I bet you can get a pci card, and a keyboard for maybe 30-40 bucks.

http://www.compaq.com/athome/support/msgs/5600/