K8N Neo2-54G advice needed

Question

This is my first attempt at building a pc so please excuse any incorrect terminology.
AMD FX-55
MSI K8N NEO2-54G
ATI X800 XT PLATINUM EDITION
2 X 512 CRUCIAL BALLISTIX DDR 4000
2 X 160GB SAMSUNG SPINPOINT SATA HDD (plugged into SATA ports 3 & 4)
ENERMAX NOISETAKER 600W
PIONEER DVR-108 DVD-RW (IDE)
SONY FDD
LOGITECH ULTRA-X PS/2 keyboard
On initial boot the keyboard lights flash briefly and the keys won't respond (ie pressing delete to enter setup has no effect).  The diagnostic lights are all green except for the top-right which is red ('Initializing Floppy Drive Controller').  All fans are running correctly.
After about 5 minutes the CMOS setup page appears although the diagnostic lights remain the same ('Initializing Floppy Drive Controller').  At this point the keyboard keys function correctly and I can alter the CMOS settings (including enabling SATA ports 3 & 4 and disabling ports 1 & 2).  The primary boot device is set to CD-ROM and the secondary to Hard disk.  The CMOS recognises the CPU and RAM.
On saving and exiting the setup (with the Windows XP Pro CD in the DVD drive) the system reboots but once again the keys don't respond and the system seems to stop at the 'Detecting array ...' message.  At this stage the diagnostic lights are now all green except for the top left which is red ('Boot attempt').  Sometimes it remains frozen and on other occasions the CMOS set up page reappears after several minutes.
If I attempt to boot from 'power off' with the XP Pro CD in, I get a 'Detecting array ...' screen for about 5 minutes and then a 'No disk reserved for RAID use, RAID disabled' message.  At this point I am given the option to press Alt-F10 to enter  the 'Realtek Gigabit Boot Agent' but again the keyboard won't respond and so the system decides to reboot itself and freezes at the next 'Detecting array' message.
I realise that I'm probably making an incredibly basic error but would greatly appreciate any advice as to where I'm going wrong.
Many thanks

Answer 1

I disconnected the DVD drive, hard drives and FDD as suggested, cleared the CMOS and booted.  I had no problem accessing the CMOS setup (using the key) although the 'Initializing Floppy Drive Controller' diagnostic lights remained.  The CPU and memory were detected correctly.
I then loaded the optimised defaults and rebooted, again with no problem.  I then connected the DVD drive and rebooted.  This was detected correctly and so I also added the FDD.  I manually selected the 1.44 3.5 FDD option and then saved and exited.  Throughout this process the diagnostic lights remained the same.
As soon as I tried to connect a hard drive via the SATA cable the system froze and wouldn't enter the CMOS setup.  The keyboard wouldn't work either.  I tried both drives together, one at a time, tried all four SATA ports in pairs and individually, swapped the SATA cables and had the drives both in and out of the case.  Still no joy.
I disconnected the SATA cables and rebooted and reached the CMOS setup with no problems, reconnected the cables & rebooted and it locked up immediately.
Throughout the entire process the diagnostic lights remained the same.
Any more advice would be most welcome.