Boot up freezes system

[Bruce Wilkinson]

I installed RH9 on a Intel P3 800MHz system with 2 IDE drives, 2 CD-RW
drives, a built in Intel NIC and built in Intel video. The installation went
off without a hitch, but the boot sequence freezes. The last message
displayed is:

apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x0b (Driver Version 1.16)

The system completely locks up, the keyboard is unresponsive. The only was
out is to power cycle the system. I've tried with APM enabled and disabled
in BIOS. It doesn't make a difference. The system still locks up.

Does anyone have an idea what the problem is and what I can do? I'm not new
to Linux, but am definitely not a veteran.

Bruce