System is a Dell Dimension XPS R400. It's been driving me crazy for 5 days & I really feel like hurting it, hurting it real bad. Anyway, I cannot get Windoze to complete an installation. I get to the very last reboot (well past the serial key entry) when the installer reboots the system. Now during what should be the first boot to the desktop, I get a vmm32.vxd error. Performing a hard reboot I can boot into safe mode no problem, but letting it boot normally just returns a "windows protection error. you need to restart your computer" error screen. This is what I've tried to remedy (each "try" meaning a completely new fdisk/format):
 
tried only 1 stick of ram
tried different ram altogher (pc100 & pc133 single sided & double sided)
removed all adapters except video card
tried being nice to my co-workers
tried 2 other hard drives (a known good 12gb unit & a brand new 40gb)
tried MS Win98se disc instead of Dell branded Win98 disc
tried WinMe
closely inspected m/board (looks good)
 
Have yet to try:
 
diff cdrom drive
diff ide cable(s)
diff psu
 
Somebody pleeeease throw me a bone here.......