Missing windows files and system hand on xp install, hardware problem?

[Orion_AurA]

Ok, so about a week ago I recieved a dreaded image on my screen, that of bios telling me it could not start windows due to a file which is missing or corrupt (skrnl or something along those lines). In any case, I did what any self-respecting techy would do and I tried to solve it on my own with the help of countless articles. When I tried to reinstall windows it still gave me missing or corrupt errors during the installation (different files all the time). In the end, I determined that the harddrive was at fault. I bought a new hardrive, installed it, and I still could not install windows (it hangs at the "setup is now starting windows" part). I am now led to believe that this is a much deeper issue involving the mobo. As I can't even get into windows, I don't have access to too much more information. However, heres my system specs:

Athlon 64 3500+
2 GB DDR333 Patriot
320GB Segate Barracuda
eVGA SLI mobo
eVGA 7800GT
Audigy 2 ZS Gamer
ATI TV tuner

Any help is appreciated as before I take out my mobo and attempt to rma it I would like to be sure that this is the issue.

 

[bmxfreakrider]

ive gotten that error a few times myself. if possible, can you try a different xp disk? is the xp disk scratched? and are your hard drive cables damaged?

 

[Orion_AurA]

cables are new sata cables and the fact that I got the error on both the old and new hard drives (both have dif cables) rules the harddrive out as an option. There is a chance that it is a scratched disk (its not in the greatest of conditions) but it did start up successfully on another machine. I don't have another xp disk to experiment with unfortunently.