The reboot cycle

[opopopo]

I just tried CD Creator last night. Up till then I used nLite and various slipstreaming methods to install nvraid. Been hacking away at this so long it's embarrassing.
My last few attempts with both nLite and CD Creator have all resulted in reboots. Exact same look, listing of boot choices w/o ever booting and no error message.
I know my hardware's OK because it installed once. I thought the nvraid problem was solved so I made a custom 350mb-xp install and raid didn't make it. Since I have the exact same result with both nLite and CD Creator, I'm hoping my problem will be more detectable.

ABIT AN8 Ultra
AMD 3700+
2 Seagate ST380817AS

I've used all drivers and combinations of 6.53 to Vista. I go with Legacy. I've burnt up at least 25 CD's + some DVD's. I'm 62 and thinking I might not live long enough.

Thanks