I have tried several times to perform what should be a straghtforward operation but every attempt ends with the same result and tbh ..I just dont understand why this is so difficult.

I purchased 2 of these laptops without hard drives ...so no OS
They are designed to run 98
..so I thought I'd start with 98se
and 40 gb hard drives.
The hard drives are partition using fdisk for 30gb (fat32) and 10gb(fat32)
so C: and D:
I'm using a genuine 98SE CD ..and key
The installation always hangs just after the Time/Date/Region setup ..requiring a reboot to continue.
This may be the hard drive going to sleep for all I know ..nonetheless I do get 98SE installed ..but on checking the hardware installed I always get the same errors .
Video and Audio I can sort out by replacing or installing missing drivers ..but there are other missing or conflicting items ..the worst of which is Intel82371AB/EB PCI Busmaster ..
???
This doesn't ever install correctly ..and complains of a conflict error (15).
This may also be the reason the installation hangs requiring a reboot to continue.
I can't be the only person ever to try a 98SE re-Installation on a 600X using a windows CD ...not an IBM setup restore CD.
So ..why is this happening ?
Can anyone help me here ?
I have read that this busmaster error is actually the hardware being misidentified ..and is actually connected to USB installation ...but again ..I have no idea really.
any thinkpad experts out there ???
rgds
VS