My bad, the error msg is "No hard drives found". Yes, I did change the BIOS to boot from disk, and the disk does load up and start installing, but after the screen where it asks you "Install winXP", the next screen says "No hard drives found"
hello,

I replaced the HD and I bought a copy of winXP from gateway, but when I put the disk in the disk drive, it appears to be WORKING, the drive spins, I see the words "Press R to go into recovery mode or Q to install a fresh copy of windows". I chose Q the first time, nothing happened the cursor just went to the next line and stayed there.

After five minutes I restarted the computer with disk INSIDE. This time I chose R, and the next screen said "Copying recovery FILES from the CD", the progress bar slowly made its way across the screen, and when it reaches the right side, the screen went blank and stayed that way.

Why isnt it installing
the hd is working, i checked it by HOOKING it up to another laptop. I had the RAM replaced. Do you think they might have put in incompatible RAM? Could that be the cause of the computer hangup.
Hello,

Just updating everyone. Problem is solved. There was some dirt in the connector to the Hard drive and it wasnt amking connection with the motherboard. I blew that out, replaced the HD. Still didnt work. I then looked at the RAM (theres two modules). I reseated the modules. Still didnt work. Looked again in the connector SLOTS, and there were some particles of god know what. Blew those out. Still didnt work. Took out one of the Ram modules to see if it that made a difference. Still didnt work. Replaced that RAM module and took out the other one. Still didnt work. So I took out both RAM modules, and replaced just one into the slot wwhere the other module was. Still didnt work. Took out that RAM chip, replaced it with the one that I had left out. Success!!!
Put the other RAM module back. Again t he computer wouldnt work. So, I guess one of the RAM chips they put in didnt work.

Anyways, its DONE
Congratulations shashgo, glad you solved your problem.

Dirt/dust problems are always the start of my troubleshooting.