Clocker or other expert

[Gripper]

My nephews comp went bad after a power cut fucked it up,I have installed a new m/board but when I try to install the o/s it starts going wrong at about 80%,I have tried various copies I have and they all do the same.
I reformatted the disc that didn't work.
Would you say the drive is fucked,before he lays out more money?
Its all I can think of
I also swopped his cd drive for one I know works,and tried swopping the graphics card to.

[clocker]

What kind of drive is it?
Have you run the manufacturer's diags on it?

Replace the PSU, too.

[Gripper]

Its a 40gb maxtor,i'm running a diagnostic on it now.
I replaced the psu,would that stop the o/s from loading at more or less the same place everytime?

[Virtualbody1234]

Can you provide system specs please?

Can you describe "starts going wrong at about 80%" in more detail? What really happens at about 80%?

Disconnect every component that isn't required for the installation and try installing it like that. (for example: sound cards, network cards, extra drives etc.)

[Gripper]

New asrock k7vt4a pro m/board
2*512mb memsticks
geoforce 5200graphics card
athlon 2000xp processor
second hand 300w psu

What happens at 805 is it starts saying can not load xxxxxx.dll press enter to retry,so I have to sit there keep pressing enter,most times it eventually bsod or refuses to read any thing else at 99%

[Snee]

Could you run memetest and see what that says?

http://www.memtest86.com/

[Virtualbody1234]

Try it with only 1 memstick and then the other.

[Gripper]

ok I'll try.i'm running a diagnostic at the mo,took an hour so far and its only half way through.

[100%]

which xxxxx.dll (s) can it not load?

[Virtualbody1234]

I also suspect your CD or CD drive. Try yet another drive or different media.

Edit: or even the IDE cable.