linux n00b Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 (edited) I have a really old comp HP Pavilion 6630 win98 500mhz celeron 192mb ram 10gb cd-drive nvidia 420mx 64mb anyway all I can ever get to install is Win98, I cant upgrade to Win 2000, or any version of Linux and I've yet to figure out why, maybe its a BIOS issue? ive found other posts online where a person did get 2000 or linux to install so I konw its possible my cd drive works, as I can install 98 all over again, it seems like its going to work then quits halfway, ive tried several cds, several new burns from new downloads, HDD has no errors, i can use DELPART and FDISK to fix up the HDD however and wipe it clean but its no use this machine is worthless if all i can do is keep 98 on it crap i posted this in the wrong forum Edited June 8, 2007 by linux n00b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 You could try borrowing an newer CD-ROM drive and install from it- many old drives cannot read modern media dyes properly. Your specs are OK for an average Linux desktop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinynorman Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 crap i posted this in the wrong forum As you haven't specified any distro, it's probably in the right forum at the moment (Everything Linux). If you're trying to install Mandriva, Installing Mandriva or Hardware would be suitable. If you mainly trying other distros, then Other Linux Distributions. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lluamco Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 My advice is to try puppy linux. It is a small distribution that runs a live cd. If you like it, you can install it to your hard disk. Here are the links: Main page: http://www.puppylinux.org/ Download: ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/ The last version is : puppy-2.16-seamonkeyfulldrivers.iso (~90Mb) Hope it helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted June 8, 2007 Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 I would suggest checking your RAM for errors. Grab and burn memtest86+ and let it run on your RAM overnight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linux n00b Posted June 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2007 You could try borrowing an newer CD-ROM drive and install from it- many old drives cannot read modern media dyes properly. Your specs are OK for an average Linux desktop. thats probably it, i found a similar post http://www.linuxcompatible.org/Installatio...ion_t33426.html the drive is 36x max (no rewriteable ability) so it is probably old i tried the ubuntu alternate version (its not a live cd, just a text installer) and burned it at 32x and it was installing but it said a few files on the cd were corrupt, I may try to burn it at a slower rate and see what happens mandriva's cd seems to be a live cd also, i wish they had a cd with a text installer only i wanted to use mandriva, cuz i've always liked their stuff but at this point i just need a test box with linux on it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted June 9, 2007 Report Share Posted June 9, 2007 im sure there is a text install for mandriva still. i know its on the dvd version, but no idea about whether its on any of the CD versions. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg2 Posted June 9, 2007 Report Share Posted June 9, 2007 i tried the ubuntu alternate version (its not a live cd, just a text installer) and burned it at 32x and it was installing but it said a few files on the cd were corrupt, I may try to burn it at a slower rate and see what happens Try burning at 2x or 4x, and give Xubuntu a try... it works very well with 192MB of RAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest s0me0ne Posted August 18, 2007 Report Share Posted August 18, 2007 (edited) Well I gave up back then, but this week I figured I'd give it some more tries, I tried an even slower burn at 4x and I took out a DVD drive from another computer (something I didnt want to do before, cuz my computers are in cabinets) that didnt work, I tried to get 2000 on the machine and it didnt take it no matter if it was NTFS or FAT I got the latest bios drivers on HP's site (suprised they were there, its under the XP stuff for this computer) and followed the steps and it didnt work I then was looking around HP's site and saw a "chat with support" link, I figured what the heck I'll see if they let me talk about a computer i bought in early 2000, sure enough they did (although i dont like to admit talking to tech support :P ) i gave him the run down of everything I've tried to do to get Win 2000 installed, Win2000 was getting installed all the way except it would never get to the desktop, it would lock right before it got there (linux install just died somewhere in install) anyway i told him the BIOs had an option for onboard video but it was seperate from the other video option that only had AGP and PCI, the motherboard has no AGP slot, and that I wasnt going to pick AGP for fear of not being able to undo that option, he told me the AGP option was not the onboard video anyway I told him its been on PCI, and that i tried it with onboard on and off, but then said to unplug the video card and try it and sure enough it worked, i suppose the mobo knows to use onboard video if its unplugged i was suprised HP answered my questions to a computer so well out of date and warranty, figured I'd share this bit of info sicne when I was searching again for some stuff on google my own post came up :) Anyway Win2000 installed and it seems Linux is working good too B) Edited August 18, 2007 by s0me0ne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest s0me0ne Posted August 18, 2007 Report Share Posted August 18, 2007 forgot to mention the video card I was using is a geforce 4mx 420 pci 64mb i havent tried to put it in yet, still configuring stuff for now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.