thanks for the idea but I have also tried that.neither stick of ram original or the 512 stick will work for it.

the knoppix cd runs with my curent setup- meaning I dont have to revert back to the original setup, its just that when i boot-up a live cd i lose my cd-rw drive and I cant save any work.

This is the exact problem that happened with me. I never did figure it out. For some reason, most (and for a while I believed all) linux distros would crash after the first boot screen. I too am using a compaq computer. I spent many weeks trying to figure it out, to no avail. See if you can boot the knoppix live cd with the option 'failsafe' at boot. That worked for me. In the end, I found 3 distros that worked with my computer, RH9 (I'm concerned it didn't work with yours), SuSe9.3 (with APCI disabled), and slackware (never actually installed it, but got past the boot screen). You might want to go ahead and just burn the first SuSe CD or Slack CD and see if you get any further that the boot screen on either of those two distros.

JoeUser11:

No Linux-distros crash after the first boot screen. Those who do, disappear from the distro-scene.
Compaq again? Hmmmm...

Vinbob:
Agree. Ram. But let's exhaust all other options first. BIOS upgrade would be one such option.

PCs doing random hard reboots usually mean hw-failure. But where? I once owned a brand-name tv-card (Pinnacle. There. Now i've said it...), which caused my ASUS A7V-266E mobo to reboot randomly - even during POST. Tried any and all approaches to getting the thing to run. No luck. And yes, i did RTFM. To no avail. Finally passed the card on to a friend - who's still a friend, because it works all right in his PC. The mobo is still in daily use - although only as secondary machine (CounterStrike 2. player) and never causes me any grief. Works.

So hw-failure happens everywhere. tb28025 would benefit from doing a complete exchange with brand new RAM - if for nothing else, then at least to ascertain if it's the ram or not.
Only, it's hard to do if you haven't got any ram to swap with, right?

The same goes for graphics cards, lan cards and just about every other gizmo inside the cabinet. Easy to diagnose if you've got a known good replacement handy. Hard to do if you don't.

BIOS upgrades on the other hand are free of charge. So start there. Start by resetting everything to 'factory default'.

If tweaking with the software won't help, do a systematic. Disable. Remove. Exchange with known good. All that stuff. But if 'replacing with known good' means buying this and that, doing a 'one-step-upgrade' by replacing the mobo+cabinet might prove cheaper in the end.

It all depends on tb28025's stock of replacement parts.

No stock. Problem.
Organized stock of 'known good'. Nice.
Pile of junk, unknown condition. Problem.

Disregarding the fact that almost any problem can be painlessly solved by applying enough money, it's (IMHO) better to work your way out of it.

i noticed that compaq has somwhat locked the bios. it has their own custom boot screen and everything. So i believe ill take out tyhe battery on the mother board overnight to reset the bios completely. maybe just maybe compaq has put a lock on the bios because i noticed that i cant install windows 2k ME either. Im thinking that compaq has only let their "modified" kernel of XP on my computer for warranty reasons. I can only boot the Compaq recovery CD's that came with this computer, no other recovery CD's will boot even those from other compaqs.

can I get a 2nd opinion on taking out the battery overnight?

Yup. You can get a second opinion on that issue...

First of all: We now learn that you cannot install any other OS'es than the one bundled with the machine on a 'recovery cd' - Not 2K, not W98, not DOS (??)

And not Linux...

Okay then. I'll now retract my earlier suggestions - all of them! I no longer believe there's a problem with the RAM. Nor is the PSU perhaps overloaded. And the graphics adapter is not at fault either.

If you cannot install a standard out-of-the-box W98, something else is wrong.

First of all, you need to get access to the bios setup facility. Compaq - like several other brand-name manufacturers - most likely have proprietary routines you need to execute to get 'into the bios'. Pressing 'Del' or 'F2' during POST/boot will not neccesarily do the trick, as with all the standard motherboards from eg. ASUS.

You may have to get a floppydisk or the install-CD and boot from that one in a special way to enter the bios. If the manual doesn't say, try Compaq's support - web or hotline. But i'm 99% sure it isn't 'locked'.

But hey... You tell me. You know; i'm merely guessing here

But i think you need to dig into this subject - thoroughly. I can't help you there, as i have no knowledge on the specific area.

Start out by figuring out how to do a BIOS upgrade. Compaq provide 'softpaq's, 'Carepaq's, 'Infopaq's and similar 'XZYpaq's for various maintenance purposes. There's also a bios maintenance paq and an instruction on how to apply it available.

Find it.

Do it.

Now gain access to your bios. Look around. Tinker with the various settings and make other installation CD's work properly. You should at least be able to /start/ a W98 or W2K installation.

No. There's no 'modified' XP kernel. Most likely the bundled recovery CD has a bootsector-thing which does some sort of check agains the hardware it's running on. You know; to prevent people from 'accidentally' installing a copy of the 'OS' (harharhar...) on a machine onto which it's not licensed to be installed. After all this is OEM-ware, right?

Your W2K disc is a standard CD from Microsoft? Not one that came with another Compaq/HP/IBM/Dell/<brand-name> PC? Recovery CD's from other compaq's are highly likely to NOT work!!!

To investigate this issue, get hold of a STANDARD (NOT recovery) installation CD with eg. W2K or W98.

I repeat: STANDARD. Not Recovery-anything of any sorts...

Then try installing it. But not before you've poked around in the bios settings.

Removing the battery overnight? Why not use the jumper labeled 'Clear CMOS' as stated in the manual?