4.8 install hangs on Dell 4550

[Rick Crawford]

I just got a brand new, plain vanilla Dell 4550 desktop.  It runs its
diagnostics and WinXP fine.  But when I try to install FreeBSD 4.8,
it always hangs at the "probing hardware devices" screen.

I've tried **MANY** variants via UserConfig (both visual and cli mode),
based on what WinXP system info says about my devices.  But no go.

On my old Gateway (running 4.5), the 4.8 CD probes HW in < 1 second.
But the old 4.5 CD cannot get past "probing HW" on the new Dell.

One bizarre note:  I dug up an old FreeBSD 3.1 (!) CD, and it
probed the Dell HW with no problem, even when I went directly to
install without deleting any conflicting (albeit non-existent)
devices UserConfig showed.  (For devices that do exist,
the default IRQs and ports shown by 3.1 matched those shown by 4.8.
There were some diffs in the flags, but changing 4.8's to match
those of 3.1 still failed to get past the "probing HW" stage.)

Back to what WinXP says about devices ... regarding IRQs < 16,
the only devices WinXP shows that are unavailable in UserConfig are:

	IRQ  0	System timer
	IRQ  8	System CMOS/realtime clock
	IRQ  9	Microsoft ACPI-compliant system
	IRQ 11	Intel 82801DB/DBM SMBus Controller - 24C3

How do I get 4.8 installed?  I found nothing in the errata,
handbook, mailing list archives, etc.  Help!

-rick