Just installed Debian 3.0 on a old laptop, since the CDROM was having problems in Windows and wanted a better OS.
Installation went fine, but my GF(It's her laptop) set something wrong and since I had no idea what nor how to correct it I was going to reinstall anyway(maybe with a different distro). However when I tried to boot from CDROM just a minute ago it simply went on to normal startup.
I attempted to mount the DVDROM to see if I could get into it, the following error was my only result:

hdc: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hdc: packet command error: error=0x50
ATAPI device hdc:
Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05)
Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00)
The failed "Start/Stop Unit" packet command was:
"1b 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 "
Error in command packet byte 4 bit 0
cdrom: open failed
mount: No medium found

Are you using a mouse in addition to the touchpad on the Compaq 1830 ?
Do you run Gnome or KDE ?
I can't get my mouse to work.
TIA
Bob