Cornish Jack,
If you were going to install without the help of a third party program, then Win98 first and WinXP last would apply.
I have not personally used Partition Commander, but it sounds like it is a little more flexible than the M$ way of dual booting.
With your Packard Bell hardware, I would do a little research inside the case and get the details on all the hardware on the inside. Then go get the latest drivers for it. (Do NOT use PB's drivers.)
My guess is there is a problem with their drivers. Use the drivers from the Chipset Maker as in, if you have an ASUS GeForce Vid Card, go to nVidia for the drivers not ASUS, etc.
Take Care,
Richard