>> I assume that you have confirmed that the machine doesn't have hardware
>> problems?  Does it run some earlier kernel OK?  
> The disks are both fine, they worked in other pcs without problems. The
> ide controller card also worked fine, and the motherboard is new -
> whatever you can expect with that. Maybe the combination is the problem.

So this is definitely a hardware problem? Which component is most likely
to be the bad one?

-- 
Regards/MfG,
Christian Weiske