Thank you all for the replies and advice. Johnhc: the computer isn't crashing, just nLite. And there's no stop code. The error happens, nLite shuts down, and the system goes on like nothing has happened. Every time I run nLite to try to create the image, I direct it toward a newly made, just-for-this-purpose, completely empty folder in the root directory. I got no errors from nLite, nor any indication that anything was even slightly dodgy or wrong. I've taken your advice and installed ImgBurn, pointed it at the "slipstreamed" folder (which was fully loaded up by nLite before it crashed, I'm hoping), told it to make the CD bootable, pulled the boot image off the original XP install CD, and let it fly. It ran successfully, and the system loaded properly off it....but the damned RAID drivers apparently aren't there, because the installer didn't find any hard drives. So I'll have to investigate that. But the process worked, and the original problem is solved. The prime suspect has to be the .NET installation. Funny - I've never had an application fail because that .NET 2.0 was faulty, but there don't seem to be many more suspects, at least at the moment. Anyway, thanks once again to all for your help. Much appreciated. Steve