You say this is a  "New" machine, yet it's running Win98. Do you mean new to
you? Most new computers  come with Windows XP, and my first suggestion would
be to upgrade the OS.
Slow start has lots of potential causes-what programs are being loaded at
startup?
Auto run can be deliberately turned off.
You may have heat or memory or other hardware issues causing the re-start
issue.
The HD size problem os confusing. It's not likely to be a BIOS issue. I'm
wondering if this wasn't originally an XP computer "downgraded" to 98?
If the machine is still under warranty, take it back for service, and try to
get an explanation of why XP is not installed.
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I have just taken possession of a new computer.

AMD Athlon XP3000+ (333MHz FSB)
ASUS MB A7N8X-X Nforce2, DDR400 Audio/lan
Western Digital 80 Gig HDD 7200rpm 2M
512 DDR PC3200 Ram
350W case
Samsung 52x CDrom
AIP Floppy drive
PColour V Radeon 9200TVDVI 128 graphics card

running Win98SE

This outfit takes over 4 minutes to start up.

I have tried to install a few games to test out the graphics (Need for
Speed, Quiddich, Ghost Recon all original CDs) from the CD drive.

Auto run does not work.

The progs get part way through install routine, then the machine restarts.

I tried to install a smaller game from a CD (3 meg exe file) The machine
restarted part way through install routine.

I copied the 3 meg exe file to desktop, managed to install and start the
game to have the machine restart after less than a minute of play.

The HDD shows as 19 gig instead of 80 (or reduced amount to allow for
conversion to gig) when I look at MY Computer.

I went to the DOS window through Start/ Program and tried to do DIR command.
The machine restarted.

Can anyone suggest a solution?

I will be taking it back to the shop tomorrow, but if I can have some
suggestions before hand, I will look as if I know more..

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