computer partially dies during WinXP installation;previously had Pro on it;the hell?

My mom, whose current computer is absolute crap (Win98, 400Mhz,
96MB RAM, etc...), was given this computer from a friend. The thing is though is that friend worked in a hospital and this computer was used for whatever they used it for. It had Windows XP Pro on it (says so right on the sticker on the case as does that site and that site's been right on the money about everything else) and required a password. Then they apparently stopped using it, put it in the back of a storage room for awhile and when it was dug out, nobody knew the password, so it was given to the friend and the friend gave it to my mom.

And now....she wants me to make it work.

Well, to start things off, when my aunt bought a new computer from Wal-Mart (......) she thought she had to buy the operating system. And when she did, she bought the Windows XP SP2 upgrade. When she found out she didn't need the installation disc she bought, she gave it to me to sell on Ebay, which I never did. So I now have a legitimate unused copy of WinXP SP2 home edition upgrade. (Note: On the box it says that it's for users of Win98, Win98SE, etc...)

In addition my stepdad wanted to put a bigger hard drive in the computer, so he bought a 320 GB hard drive which we replaced the old hard drive with. When we installed it, everything set up just fine.

Since I had the WinXP upgrade, I figured the thing to do is to download an image of Win98SE, burn it and install it with the serial that came in the torrent. And then install WinXP.

Everything went fine when I installed Win98. I even clicked on the Start menu and played a game of Solitare.

So, I started to install WinXP, and that's when I ran (and am till running) into trouble. During my first attempt, everything seemed to be going OK, and then all of a sudden during one point, the light in the optical mouse goes out, the LED for "Num Lock" on the keyboard goes out and the monitor isn't getting anymore video output. But the fan is still running and the power light is still on. The power button doesn't work to turn it off. I have to unplug it to start over.

When I plug it back in, the keyboard, mouse and monitor come back to life. The first thing it says is "Press any key to boot from CD...," so I do and it goes though the process of loading some files at the bottom of a blue screen, then says "Setup is starting Windows,"

Then it asks if I want to setup Windows XP, repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console or quit setup without installing. Obviously, I don't want to quit. If I try to repair, it goes into DOS mode and asks for an administrative password. (What the fuck? How can I have an administrative password if this is a fresh OS on a fresh hard drive? Unless I can set the password in BIOS or something. If so, I am unaware of it.) Obviously, I choose the first option.

Then I agree to the license, and then it asks me if want to repair any of the following Windows XP installations (there's only one) or install a fresh copy.

If I choose to repair, then it examines the discs and takes awhile to copy files then wants to restart.

If I choose to install a fresh copy, it asks me what partition I want to install Windows on (there's only one) and then gives me a warning about installing multiple operating systems on one partition with an option to back out. After that it asks me if I want to format using NTSF (I already did) or leave the current file system intact. So I leave it intact and then it gives me a warning about overwriting some /WINDOWS folder with the option of overwriting it or using a different folder. I choose to overwrite it. It deletes the previous Windows installation, copies files and then restarts.

After it restarts, it says the same thing. "Press any key to boot from CD..."

Now, if I do it again, it goes through the same thing.

If I don't, then the Windows XP logo comes up with the loading bar. After a bit, the loading bar slows down and the Windows XP setup screen comes back. But it's on the fourth step "Installing Windows" instead of being at the beginning. And then...sometimes it crashes right away. Sometimes it will crash in the middle of the fourth step. Sometimes it will go through the entire thing, but will crash nearly all the way through the final step "Finalizing Installation."

Last night, I left it on all night, thinking that it must be taking a long time and that it's a fluke that the mouse, keyboard and monitor go out. Nope. It still wasn't installed when I got up.

So, what the hell is going on? I've tried to exploit every possible path there is, but I still run into a brick wall every time during installation. And if the computer had Windows XP Pro on it, why is Windows XP Home having such a hard time installing?

I appreciate any help or insight anybody can give me. Thanks in advance!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Why not just download a copy of Windows XP and see if that works? No upgrades or anything, just the real thing.

There's nowhere I can't reach.