System built and runs, but wont load os from cd

[thebored]

My friend is building a new computer, but after it boots(with the windows xp sp2 pro cd in the drive of course) it says "Press any key to boot from cd" and if you press any key, it says "error loading operating system" then promptly freezes.

Hardware:
Abit an9 nforce 590 AM2
AMD Athlon 64x2 4600+ windsor
Seagate 320gb Sata/3gbs
Hitachi 80gb sata/3gbs
Corsair xms2 2x1gb ddr2 800
EVGA 512-p2-n637-ar Geforce 7950gt 512mb

The first time we started her up, it loaded fine but during the install a mistake was made, so we had to restart the whole thing. After which it wouldn't load. I believe we had gotten to the partitioning of the drives but we didn't format them. We've tried disconnecting both hard drives, tried using different PATA/SATA plugins for the dvd-rom and hard drives, and nothing worked. We did start to get a new error "Disk boot failure, insert disk and press enter".
So I made sure the dvd drive was highest in the boot priority list. In the BIOS it only has cdrom and some weird device name(ls120/240). Both were set higher than the hard drive in the priority list, and we even tried removing the hard drive entirely but no change. I'm kind of stumped. We've used two separate XP discs. Next chance I get to go over to his house(he lives a fair distance away from me) I'm going to try knoppix, and whatever kind of random OS I find on my hard drive.

Any ideas?

 

[darkop16]

try going into the bios and setting the dvd drive as the 1st boot device. But im not sure how to reformat a HDD without windows, but i would assume it would reformat the previous install and try installing itself again when you insert the windows disk.

 

[thebored]

Like I said, I've already tried making the dvd drive the 1st boot device, and its a no go. And I'm not worried about the windows install not being able to format, rather I'm just throwing out ideas of things that have changed between a working computer, and a not working computer.
*sigh*
At least it's not mine

 

[darkop16]

ok...so the computer turns on and no beeps, right?

And when you get to that error, you have the os boot disk in the drive and press enter?

And take off everything on the boot list except the drive 1st and HDD second.

And what was the mistake that was made that threw the installation off?

 

[thebored]

well, it just randomly started working. I'm just going to assume the dvd drive is insane.

 

[darkop16]

lol...so it just quit in the middle....hmmm....is your bios on default settings except for the boot priority?

edit: nvm man i read that too fast...lol sry. Well good, but if it acts up again...i would say either faulty mobo or something in the bios is making it unstable which is why i asked if it is on defaults. Hope it keeps working though .

 

[thebored]

thanks darkop16. everything installed smoothly, and nothing has crapped out yet.