do you have any cd media in the cd drive, any other hard drive on the system. what is your internet connection, and are you networked? is your bios setup right to your processor, ram....ect.
have you checked for firmaware updates, chipset updates, do you happen to know what hard drive you have and being xp, have you installed all the aspi drivers and files, if you buy a new drive they come on the cd installer. what dma is the drive 33,66,100,133 what is the board rated for and is it set to it? actually if you could give a run down of what you know and have done this maybe easier.