grub-install failure

[Randall A. Jones]

When installing FC3 using "linux xfs" at the CDROM isolinux prompt,
install goes fine and I am given options for xfs format of filesystems. 
Great.
At the very end of the install, "installing boot loader" (paraphrase 
from memory)
hangs during the grub installation.  This has happened before on more 
mundane
hardware too.
This is not a problem, I usually jump out to a VT (Ctrl-Alt-F2),
kill the grub install process, chroot to /mnt/sysimage and run
grub-install --recheck /dev/sdb   #(or what ever the root device is for 
the install)

Now I have a new system with a PCI-express graphics board and a Serial ATA
root disk.  On this install, going to a VT left me with a blank screen with
a single blinking cursor at the top.  No prompt.  Alt-F7 took me back to
the anaconda screen hanging on the grub install.

Fine, so I move on and boot the FC3 Rescue CD and chroot into
/mnt/sysimage.
Now I am getting a failure while running grub-install --recheck from the
chrooted environment.
First time, grub-install gave the error message:
"The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly"

I rebooted and ran it again, this time it said:
"The file /boot/grub/stage2 not read correctly"

I'm not sure what to make of this, I haven't seen this before.
Opinions?
Thanks.

-- 
..:.::::
Randall Jones     GST      NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
HPC Visualization Support       http://hpcvis.gsfc.nasa.gov
Scientific Visualization Studio    http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
rajones at svs.gsfc.nasa.gov      Code 610.3      301-286-2239