new Etch install fails to boot

[Steve Kleene <skdeb@syrano.acb.uc.edu>]

I just made a fresh Etch Netinst CD and successfully completed an install on
a PC that I bought six years ago.  When I try to boot, this is as far as it
gets:

  Verifying DMI Pool Data ..........
  GRUB Loading stage1.5.
  Read

It may or may not be relevant to mention an issue I had in the past with this
box.  I used to run Red Hat on it but with a Windows partition at the start
of the disk.  During the Red Hat installation, I had to select "Force LBA32"
or it wouldn't find the Linux boot partition.

Now, though, I have given the whole disk to Etch, so I'd be surprised if this
is the issue.  There are just two partitions:

  IDE5 master (hde) - 41.2 GB IC35L040AVER07-0
        #1 primary   39.9 GB B f ext3       /
        #5 logical    1.5 GB   f swap       swap

The BIOS (AWARD 1998 / PCI/PNP 686 / 276079428) shows:
  IDE Primary Master Auto (other choices are None, Manual)
  Access Mode Auto (other choices are Normal, LBA, Large)

I've tried various combinations, including LBA, to no avail.  The hard drives
are IBM Deskstar 40-GB IDE hard drives, model IC35L040AVER07-0.

Any ideas how to fix this?  Thanks.