Installing XP; Why Can't I?

I have been wrestling with this beast for several weeks. Upgrading from ME to XP Home. First, I's the dreaded error 3e6H. I read MS's solution, the clean boot. Didn't help. The problem is inconsistant, though. I have run setup all the way through the analysing stage, but when it reboots,after an inordinately long time, the rboot fails, by which I mean that the system gets to the point where it says, "Checking DMI Pool" (or something much like), then hangs. At this point, I have to boot off a ME floppy, and sys the c drive. This allows me to boot, but setup never resumes.

My Specs...
MB=Abit BX-6; PII 450mz
512 mg ram
C: is 42 gbl D: is 12 Gb, both Maxtor
E: Teac CDRW; F: Ricoh DVD/CDRW
3D Prophet GeoForce 256 w/32 mg
Creative AWE 64
Avermedia TV Tuner
Ethernet Card (on Llinksys network router with cable connection. other peer is a Sony Vaio also running ME)

Stuff I've tried...Clean Boot using msconfig, with variations like loading or unloading the network servers to allow for dynamic update, Copying the !386 directory to c: and running WINNT. This almost works also, but same thing...won't boot, I have to sys the c: drive, then it boots into ME without continuing setup. Unloading Norton 2002 Systemworks and Antivirus, both through Norton itself and MS config. I even uninstalled it. Not the problem it seems. I have reinstalled ME, then tried the upgrade.I really want to run the upgrade instead of the full install to keep all my software and settings, but at this point, I am not sure even THAT would take.

Most frustrating....

 

You might check for bios updates from abit

Also you may need to pull all non essential hardware and try the install, then reinstall the hardware you removed.

 

I have the lastest update from abit flashed. I tried swapping the 3D Prophet for an older DiamondStealth 3200 I have laying around, but it is a PCI card and the Prophet is AGP. I couldn't get the system up at all using it. I also tried moving the memory card around from bank to bank. That didn't seem to make any difference.

Can I assume that non-essential means everything but the video card?

 

Latest Update...

I can get the installation to go to the first reboot by turning my printer off. This seems to solve the Error 3E6h error. However, the same thing continues to occur: Reboot happens exactly when it is supposed to, but stops after verifying DMI pool data. I have to boot to dos in some way (WInME disk works) and sys the c: drive. This gets me back to ME as if I never left, except for the XP setup files and directories ($WIN_NT$.~BT, et al) and file (Boot.ini, Ntdetect, etc). I have tried booting with the XP CD and using the recovery console in differect ways, Fixboot, Fixmbr, and so on. Seems as if it removes the ME system, but never gets to completely write the XP system.

This is really frustrating .....

 

Upgrades hardly ever work out well if the original OS isn't completely clean. Did you ever run the compatibility utility to see if all your hardware is up to snuff??