no rom? install quits at 11-12%?

[nsomnia_redline]

this is my first flash. and this is what i know. i know i have bl 1.20 and which was successfully installed.... then i tried to install a rom. alltel as it was required to flash the phone to cricket. that didn't work so well. about 11-12% my comp made a thinking noise like it was starting to load something then my 6800 flashed red and went back to the red green blue screen... so ive been at it all day and found lots of useful info on the internet learning lots about this phone and flashing procedures. found a place online where it instructed me to "force feed the rom" mind you this wasn't something that would fix my problem just a different way to install the rom. so i used a blank RUU and that for the moment looked like it would work. it to had a communication error but it got to 59% the error code was 260. it asked me to unplug everything and plug everything. i have been at this a while i have tried many configurations and different computers and different usb ports. i don't even have a full drasp on this yet. some one tell me how to fix this or what i did wrong. im interested in somthing i read about that i cant find now about loading the rom by resting the phone and the rom installing from the sd card???? can i do this if my usb is acting up?