it's now telling me that setup cannot copy file: daxctle.ocx

should i skip?

You can try. In general these errors are indicating a hardware problem. The specific files are most likely random.

I am looking for a Gateway hard drive diagnostic.

I found Gateway's diagnostic here:

http://support.gateway.com/support/d...&uid=142476265

You can create a floppy disk or CD to test your hard drive. The floppy is a lot easier. The CD requires burning the ISO file.

Anyway this would be my first step in troubleshooting your hardware.

thank you for all your help!!!

No problem.

Let us know if we can help further.

Although heat could be a definite issue overall your reinstall issues are pointing to some hardware.

At some point you might want to open and clean the laptop but I would check out that hard drive first.

I have another question for you. On my other desktop, Everything in the CPU seems to boot up, but nothing on the Screen. I've checked 2 different monitors on it. Also checked them on this CPU to make sure they worked. Is this just a video card problem?

Is there anything on the monitor? Such as "No Signal Input"?

Does the LED on the monitor turn on? Is it Green? Amber?

Do you know if the motherboard has an on-board VGA port?

Is this a new problem? Did you reinstall XP?

It could be drivers but you should at least see the opening BIOS POST.

Then it could be the card. Do you have another that you can try?

No Signal Input

I did work before. I haven't used in in about 6 months.