I am really confused why you keep using a floppy disk. If you burnt the ISO as a bootable data disk, it should load right up first before any OS gets a chance to. In your bios, make sure you have it set to boot from the Cd-rom first and then A: -> C:

Stop using the floppy btw.

The ISO was burnt as a bootable cdrom - rebooted the box - the Mandrake flash screen comes up - the bootup starts - 15 lines into the bootup of the ISO data Cdrom, is when the Kernel Panic message is displayed

The reason I tried the floppy disk method was because it was an alternate way to bootup the cdrom.img file & be able to start into the full bootup - but, the same Kernel Panic message was displayed

YES - I set my bios for the cdrom to start first, then I set the floppy to start first - neither worked so I set my bios back to the hard drive

Yeah this is strange. It might be a hardware conflict (your not using an LG cdrom are you?)

that or, I have no clue at all.

nope people, I had a look at the default mdk kernel config, and the stock kernel from the CD Iso's has ReiserFS as a module. That's why you're getting that kernel panic. Now, I have a question for you users... how do you get your acpi working? I have an hp pavilion ze4400, and when I try to load the acpi module, nothing happens. I'm trying to recompile the kernel with the addition of acpi inside it instead of as a module, but it still doesn't work.

This is weird because when I first installed I used reiserfs, now i use XFS. Why not try a different FS man? Just do the obvious.

Try memtest86, maybe you have damaged ram. Also you can play with BIOS settings. Try to set all to default or disable something. Check your IDE cable connection, try to change HDD and CDROM cables. Hope it can help.