a strange install problem

[Mark R. Myers]

My wife finally gave me the go-ahead to make her former computer Linux-only.
The problem is, I cannot get it to install.
The PC has had Linux on it before and it worked flawlessly.
I am trying to install SuSE 8.0 Personal. Every time it gets between 5-85%
complete on disk 1 and the whole PC locks up.
I tried swapping out the CD-RW drive for the DVD-ROM drive in my XP box.
Same result. But yet, I can boot from and install Win2K Pro on it just fine.
Tell me, do you think it had MS products installed on it for too long? Now
it is allergic to anything else?
:-)
I tried installing SuSE in VMWare Workstation 3.1 and it installs just fine.
So I've eliminated the media and the drive. What else could be causing to
lock-ups? If it happened across the board, it would be more consistant. But
like I said, Win2K installs and runs just fine.
Thanks for any input.
Mark