[interstate18]

OK, I have an old laptop (256Mb Ram, 1 Ghz Celeron) that had WinXP on it. Since I never use it anymore I thought I would wipe it clean and start from scratch with a small linux installation. I used Killdisk to "kill" the drive and originally tried to install openSUSE 10.2 before I found out I really didn't have enough of a system to really run it. I downloaded the DVD install and it booted up OK, it just had a problem with the amount of system memory. I then went on the hunt and thought I'd try Freespire. I downloaded it's install disk and it my laptop told me the CD wasn't bootable. I then tried the live CD Puppy Linux, again, the system said it wasn't a bootable CD. This same thing happened again with the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD), the Win98 boot Cd, and finally with the MS DOS 6.22 boot CD. So I tried to burn the UBCD on the disk slower thinking my DVD/CD drive on the laptop didn't like the speed the others were burnt at, it didn't matter, it still didn't work. I'm at a complete loss here and have no clue what to try next. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[RootbeaR]

Are they LiveCDs'? If so, try them in another system to make sure they were burnt properly.
You want an .iso image, not a bootdisc, for LiveCDs'.

[interstate18]

I've burnt the images (iso) of both liveCD boot disks and regular (not live) boot disks and neither work. I've tried every boot disk I've burnt in my desktop, all of them boot fine in that machine.

What's different about the openSUSE 10.2 DVD install disk over the others that would cause it to be able to boot but not the others?

[RootbeaR]

PCLinuxOS
http://www.pclinuxos.com/page.php?7
Requirements: 256 mb of memory, 5 gig of free hard drive space, modern cdrom drive, Pentium 3 700 mhz cpu or better.
If you don't want to install this, it will at least have the tools to properly format.

[interstate18]

It wouldn't let me install openSUSE, though I do have the requirements (minimum on the memory). Given that, I'd rather install a "lighter" linux OS. With regard to the tools on the install disk, it really only provided a memtest tool.

[vtel57]

Interstate,

How old and what brand is your laptop? I ask this because certain manufacturers (HP, DELL, etc.) set their systems up at the factory to be BIOS locked. What this means is that the BIOS searches for certain file on the operating system before it will pass control onto the OS. If that file is missing, the BIOS will never load the OS from the drive. The particular file that the BIOS is looking for is ONLY available on the manufacturer's version of the Windows. In other words, the system will only work with the Windows version on the disks that came with the machine.

Read about BIOS Lock HERE.

I'm not saying that this is your problem, just that it's something you should consider. If you've ever had another version of Windows on this system installed with a disk other than the one that came with it, then BIOS Lock is not your problem.

Luck!

~Eric

[interstate18]

Interesting, I didn't know about that. That's pretty crappy of them to do this. I guess I "own" it but don't really own it. At any rate, it's an HP. I've never had a different version of windows installed other than the one that came with it. How do I get around this? I've even tried the rescue disks that came with the laptop and they don't boot either!!

[vtel57]

I've run across a few older HPs that were like this. I'm talking '98-'01 models. I don't know how long after that HP carried on that protocol. If you can't even boot disks from your CD, are we absolutely sure that we're not dealing with a flaky CD player here?

I read somewhere that someone had beat the BIOS Lock situation on an older HP desktop by removing the CMOS battery for a while. The BIOS defaulted, supposedly, and he was able to load other OS versions than just the manufacturer copy. However, I find that hard to believe because the BIOS is burned onto a programmable Read Only Memory chip. I don't see where disconnecting the battery would do any good.

I'm not really sure that BIOS Lock is your problem, Interstate. I'm leaning more toward a dying CD player, actually. Can you boot those CDs you're attempting to boot in the laptop on any other systems? A desktop at home? A friend's system? etc. CD players do go bad. The lasers get weak and cause intermittent operation.

I guess I "own" it but don't really own it.

YUP! Ain't that wonderful. BIOS Lock hasn't been used by the manufacturers for a few years now. However, with Vista's new embedded authentication protocol, and the fact that it phones home with your system's hardware profile, allowing installation on only one machine per license, looks to me like folks still won't be really owning there systems. And friends wonder why I've gone to Linux 100%. HA!

Back to your troubles, though... I would definitely eliminate that CD player before attempting to troubleshoot your problem further.

Keep us posted on your progress.

~Eric