Well, don't forget to tell him about FreeBSD! Yahoo's Messenger is now native, heh, heh...gotta love the Beastie.
Actually, what's the original problem? You've not mentioned which version of MS Windows, which exact service pack (we're all probably assuming, and quite possibly correctly, that you're installing Windows XP SP1a; why you've waited until now, we dunno...)
Is your box worm/spyware/virus free? Do you even have SCSI hardware in there? What exactly is the error message ("and etc." doesn't turn up much at Technet)
Maybe you have a scanner that uses an ASPI driver? You might disconnect it / shut down its TSR monitor, etc.
[edit]Ooh, and NWN is in ports ...[/edit]😉