Acer 4001LCi won't load windows

I have my sister's TravelMate 4001LCi, I have tested the memory, the hard drive, re-set the bios, low level formatted the hd but nothing will let me load ANY version of Windows. I have re-loaded the recovery disk 8 times. It boots to a XP startup screen and stays there with the green 'loading' icon frozen. I have tried booting in Safe Mode, to a Command prompt - nada. I can't do a clean install using either XP Home or XP Pro from a 'real' Windows disk. I can install 98 but it blue screens all the time. Can't load 2000. I've erased the mbr, zeroed the hd out several times. Tried fat 32, fat 16 & ntfs. No joy. BTW, I've been repairing computers professionally for 13 years, this is the first one to stump me. Oh, I've tried different ram and a different hd. I've re-set the bios too.

Here's where it gets real strange, I put in an Ubuntu cd and it boots fine from the CD, runs like a dream. I can install Ubuntu to the hard drive, no problem (other than getting the wireless to configure properly), no freezes, no errors.

HELP!!!

Michael

 

considering the only thing that isn't working in ubuntu is the wireless card your problems could be related to this. A list of the stop errors you are getting would be helpful so that we can narrow down the problem you are having.

 

Just after posting this I got the wireless to work... Still no Windows. As for error codes, I can't get far enough into Windows to get any error codes, it won't boot past the initial post.