Install Trouble

[Tim Hawes]

I am a newbie in the FreeBSD world, but an old hat for Solaris and 
Linux. I have an Intel box with Windows 2000 and Linux already on it. I 
shrunk my Windows partition to allocate about 16 GB for a new FreeBSD 
install. I have installed FreeBSD on VMware several times in the past, 
so this is my first non-virtual install.

In trying FreeBSD 5.1:
The install completely halts shortly after it shows the "Probing 
hardware (this may take a while...)" message. I look at vt1 to see what 
debugging messages are there. I notice that it stops right after finding
the /dev/cua devices.
The console is not locked, I can switch back and forth from vt0 and vt1 
without trouble. It is just stopped.

In trying FreeBSD 4.8:
The console is completely locked shortly after the "Probing hardware"
screen appears. There is no vt switching at all.

Booting in verbose mode did not seem to be telling. Just that it stops
after setting up the /dev/cua devices.

I have tried to disable loading drivers for different hardware,
including the serial devices, the nic card, etc (no SCSI).

This is a Walmart Os-less PC I bought just over a year ago. I am no 
hardware guru, and I am not sure what info is pertinent, so tell me what
I need to tell you to help me.

Best regards,

Tim Hawes