Laptop can run Linux but ot XP

basically i have a nice packard bell easynote H5 3.2GHz laptop, i recently baught a faulty one off ebay and took my previously fauklty, threw them together and it actually worked.
Anyway, the person i baught it from stated it kept freezing on windows. I figured guys just a noob and a reinstall would do it. Alas, no, on 35minutes remaining when installing XP the whole laptop freezes, all fans stop running, everything. I figured well hey, must be a typical motherboard fault being that the RAM,CPU and HDD were my own and this guy was also having probs, but heres where it gets weird, i booted to and installed ubuntu linux no problem and then ran it for 24hours no problem. I tried to download TinyXP Beast to see if it was maybe just having trouble with a specific file (and beast being so small prob doesnt have it) but it was a dissapointment, booted fine but kept asking to insert A:/ , then one time got passed but then was missing an .ini.
Before i redownload another release does anyone have ay idea why a laptop could do this? Iv’e been fixing/repairing computers for along time but this one is above me.
Thanks,
Danny
Answer #1
update: inserted an old vista disc i had lying around, gave an error saying that theres a problem with a piece of hardware but couldnt give me a list of what it was so i replaced the modem, the dvdrw drive and the hard drive with new ones and problems persisted. Nothing elsereally attaches to the motherboard so i cant think what it could be referrig to. It worked with ubuntu 6.4 or something but that was ~love~ at detecting hardware, im throwing 7.04 on there now, if it doesn’t work then theres a hardware fault somewhere =[
Answer #2
Should always be carfull buying off ebay, what made you buy it when he even told you the laptop was faulty in the 1st place?
Answer #3
I already had most of the bits, i just needed a motherboard and the easynote h5 comes up so rarely its unreal, i had a 300quid+ laptop just sitting around never to work again, for 30quid i couldnt resist getting it running again.
Like i say, it runs linux so even if i cant get it to work woth windows ive still got myself a Linux box. Nvidia to which is supported by linux so ill be able to emulate windows with wine anyway.
Just a pain inthe ass.
Answer #4
Windows 2000 seems to have taken so really its just XP and Vista. Tried 4different versions of XP, both slim and lite and official. All freeze and the laptop becomes unresposive.