Thank you very much for your prompt and helpful suggestions. Thus far I have still not progressed any further.
To try to provide useful data (that may also help others) I am trying to change one item at a time in an attempt to eliminate each possibility as the (sole) cause.
Each hardware change left in place for cumulative changes
With each change I am deleting, recreating then formatting the partition for installation. My BIOS is set to boot from DVD then the HDD. I initially select the boot from DVD than allow the boot from the HDD after the initial installation.
In order tried:
disable (both) LAN controllers in BIOS and recheck all other BIOS settings for no unnecessary peripherals. There are no additional cards at all beyond the Graphics card. BIOS confirmed boot priority to PEG. There is no built in graphics capability.
Repair installation again
Remove all but one (2GB) DDRIII module in Channel one.
Delete system partition and primary partition, create and format 150GB primary partition. I then used this for every further attempt, deleting, creating and formatting it every time.
Use F8 option to enable low resolution display
Swap to 32 bit installation DVD, deleting all partitions and then creating and formatting the 150GB partition each time.
Delete all again and revert to 64 bit DVD
Disable ALL USB contollers, disconnect 2nd S-ATA HDD and multi card reader (also S-ATA) Now I have HDD on S-ATA 0 Master and DVD on S-ATA 1 Master FDD not present also disabled
Perform installation with only PS2 k/b connected
Remove DVD quickly after software is copied and reboot to start with HDD instead of DVD
I'm unable to flash the BIOS even with the USB controllers enabled as the Flash program (Qflash) does not recognise the USB drive at this point only any connected HDDs. (I did select the USB connections controlled by the P55 chipset, not the additional peripherals)
Also tried another video card (6600GT) with identical result.
Any other comments/suggestions by anyone would be very welcome.
Thank you for your patience.