I am new to Linux and need a little help. Everytime I try to boot, no matter what distro (slackware, redhat, mandrake, knoppix, college linux, yellowdog) it hangs on the command to set the system time from the hardware clock. I was given the advice to escape out of the command with "Ctrl-C", and I was able to boot Linux (I am currently running slackware 9.1, as it was the only distro to actually boot fully). When I give the command to reboot or halt the system, it also hangs on setting the hardware clock from the system time and never fully shuts down.

The box I am having troubles with is a Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop with the following:

- 256MB RAM
- Intel Pentium III 850MHz processor
- 8MB ATI 128 Mobility video card
- 10GB HD
- CD-RW drive
- ESS Maestro sound card
- some kind of network/modem card (also inoperable at this point)
- touchpad (works great!)
- 1024x768 XVGA LCD screen

When I bypass the time setting command on boot, everything else loads and seems to work fine except for when I attempt to set the time from within KDE (I'm new, so many other things could still be wrong that I just don't know about yet ).

Please help!