Hello all.

I am looking for a quick fix. My computer is a HP Pavillian 6640c. I can't seem to get Mandriva 10.2 LE to setup. It freezes up just before the install.
I had the same issue with Mandriva Discovery as well. Knoppix live loaded only once for me, ran well and now freezes just before the desktop. I've been told this HP Pavillian 6640c is not Linux friendly? I have a brand new harddrive MXR. 7200 250-GIG ATA, bios conf. proper. more then enough ram. I never loaded any other OS on this HD. Could it be the mother board is geared for MS Windows only? Anyone have any ideas.

Tnx. as always

It's been my experience that Newbies won't get help from this forum...except by other newbies...that would be me!!

So... a new system with no OS? Homebuilt I assume. Have you tried loading any other OS's?

Try this--Unplug the cables from your floppy, DVD, pull out your modem, sound card...pretty much everything exept what is needed to load the OS..(CDrom, Harddrive,Monitor) If this works then great..

More Assumptions---You got the software from ebay or a magazine. If this is the case I would recommend Persistemce...do not give up. Try getting another Linux OS...maybe the Fedora core, RedHat or SuSE. You can get any of them fairly cheap from ebay. The Fedora core comes with the Linux Bible and was very compatible with my hardware.

Knoppix may work also...it's a no load OS that runs off the cd. If you computer freezes then you probably have a hardware conflict.

Is your power supply plugged in??

Hi Frank

Thank you for the Idea. I removed each card, & removed A: Drive plugs, but sorry to say with each attempt to install with Mandriva or Knoppix I locked up. I will check 2 other linux progs I looked over & with luck one might install. I will not hold my breath though. I am begining to believe what I was told. That is that the motherboard for HP Pavillian 6640c was geared for windows & not for linux. It could also be the bus ports???

Whatever it is I have 2 other computers with Mandriva 10.2 on them so I am by no means stranded. This is an older computer from the closet that I dusted off put a new hard drive into and maxed out the ram. To be a backup for the better 1/2 or myself. I can always get another decent used computer cheap which I know will load linux and install the new hardware I put in the HP Pavillian 6640c.

I hope now that since the merger of Compaq & HP that Compaq quality doesn't bottom out doing stupid things like making motherboards that won't allow linux. I was hoping that another person with a HP Pavillian 6640c could respond if they had the same trouble with this computer or a newer HP pent 4 computer.

Tnx again Frank have a super day.

OK...we have a problem! The OS is just a platform for the system. Is there a video card? If there is on-board video try removing the video card and reenabling the on-board video.

Note: When I loaded SuSE for the first time it auto configured everything and chose a monitor other than what I had. The result was a blank/blue screen. It appeared as though my computer was frozen. Could this be the problem? If not then I would try loading a copy of windows just to see if you can although I doubt that Linux is the problem.

Also keep in mind when you get advice from the Pro's or creators of Mandrake etc, they have a tendency to over analyze and look for problems encountered through their vast experience. Think simple!! Is your hard drive on cable select or jumper settings incorrect? Is it plugged into the correct slot on your MOBO? Try removing the jumper completely. I hope you HD isn't damaged. New ones are cheap though. Try newegg or Tiger direct, even ebay.

I'm curious...why Linux?

I'm Running XP, Red Hat and SuSE, I need a Raid so I can get another HD connected to look at other versions. I had a dual boot but I love to experiment and along with learning by trial and error comes many errors....Hence....separate HD's. Let me know what happens..