Brand new DVD stuck at loading initrd.img.
 

So I just received my first ever Slackware DVD today and for testing purposes, I throw it in the DVD reader of my already setup LFS/Slackware desktop.

After a while I get message EDD Error 8000 reading sector when the system tries to load initrd.img.:scratch:

Did you try verifying the checksum? .. the correct value should be listed on-line - probably md5sum but could be sha1sum

I had a eerily similar situation with my new system purchased just [23] weeks ago.

I got 32 bit 14-current installed just fine, but after a couple of boots I'd get 'stalled' during the boot process and I thought it was initrd.img related... but not sure.

I got inspired to "go 64 bit" since this new puppy is all about 64 bit everything.

Installed Slackware14_64, ran the NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-304.51.run driver and boom!

Never saw the "initrd.img-related" issue again.

"Stalled endpoint" is what grabs my attention when I reboot.

OTOH:
Maybe your DVD hardware is past its prime?

There is a CHECKSUMS.md5 file that state at the top to run
tail +13 CHECKSUMS.md5 | md5sum -c --quiet - | less

So I ran this and there is no output. Not sure if this is what is expected. I guess this is normal and that is what the -c switch does.