"load error!" - suse 10.1 won't boot from hard drive
 

I'm new to linux.
I've installed SuSE 10.1 on an older Gateway computer with a 400 Mhz Celeron processor.

Everything seemed to go fine with the installation, but if I ever need to reboot it for some reason, I get a message that says "load error! Press any key to reboot." It won't boot from the hard drive. I have to put in the installation DVD, choose installation, and then choose to boot from an already installed kernel under "Other options."

Doing it this way worked fine for several weeks, but for the last couple of weeks, when I boot up this way, it seems like a lot of things aren't getting loaded -- it won't connect to the internet, won't recognize USB flash drives, etc.

I recently tried (with the help of a book about the linux kernel) downloading a new kernel source code and configuring it. But when I rebooted, the same thing happened, and I can't figure out how I can boot to the new kernel.

As soon as I power on the computer, it shows a screen that says "Gateway" and then I get the error message -- this makes me think that the problem is not with linux, but with some kind of software on the computer that the linux installation DVD is not overwriting.

I don't have any idea what the problem is, but I'm sick of reinstalling linux, and I feel like throwing it against the wall.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

I'm not too sure that it isn't anything you have done wrong.
I believe that 10.1 was a really crappy release. Do you have access to a later 10.3 or an older 9 series.
If I am wrong here I hope somebody will correct me.
Suse installs are normally good but I gave up with 10.1.
Good luck

I used the same DVD to install an XP/suse 10.1 dual boot system on my laptop, and I've had no problems with it -- It's just the Gateway desktop that's giving me problems.