Trying to fresh install and getting nothing but hangs or crashes

[Big-J]

This is my first attempt to make a pfsense box and it is giving me a hell of a time.

Trying to install through a USB to an old HP compaq with 4GB of RAM, a Core Duo, and an 80GB HDD. I'm using the .img file and if I use the VGA version it starts booting with the line of text:

/boot/kernel/kernel text=0x16f49e0 data=0xb66758+0x4cf968

from there it either glitches and reboots the computer or freezes outright.

I tried the serial release (wasn't sure what the difference was) and it goes all the way through detection of devices before throwing:

random: unblocking device

And stopping.

Rather new to the PFSense program so any help would be greatly appreciated.