thank you for even taking the time to reply. I made some changes in the bios settings and got xp to install. the problem now is i have no sound. i pulled up device manager and it has 3 things that are unknown and they are Mass Storage Controller, Modem Device on High Definition Audio Bus and Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus this probably doesnt give enough info either but hope this is enough to help me in the right direction as to what driver i need for the sound. Everything else is golden as far as i can tell, boots runs and is stable. Just need sound.

thanks for the reply i know it says to serch forums for any issues but im lazy.  Heres the deal ive made it much further than i ever have so that is a good sign now i just have endless reboots.  I did as the instructions said or at least i thiink.  I left all drivers in the driverpacks without selecting just the ones i needed.  obviously it must be seeing my hard drive now or it wouldnt have installed is this correct? Why am i getting this error. The sad thing is i know you need more information but i dont know what thanks in advance.   JUST LOST

I know this has been covered time after time.  I have just purchased a Dell Vostro and downgraded it to XP and thought I was pretty slick and told my buddy I could do his Gateway.  Big mistake.  Everything I have tried has resulted with corrupt of missing files with slipstreaming or trying to go with the floppy install, bottom line is my favorites cant stand any more forums to be added to it.  The laptop is a Gateway MX8711, can someone tell me exactly what I need to do.  I have Vista completely removed and formatted the hdd to NTFS.  My eyes are really tired of reading a bunch of computer programming lingo so a simple English how to would be nice.  Thanks in advance.