General linux installation problems!

[Parmenion]

Hello Everyone

I'm currently having problems installing a linux distro on my new computer, and I was wondering if anyone has any helpful hints:

I have a new intel machine, with an Epox 4G4A motherboard, with a 2.4b processor. The motherboard has an intel chipset as far as I know.
I have two Maxtor harddisks, one of which has Windows XP on the primary partition. One of the secondary partitions of the same drive has a linux ext2 and swap partition.

I have had redhat 7.3 and mandrake 9 running with this setup when the harddrives were in a via, AMD CPU based motherboard, but I am finding that with this new motherboard, upon installation with the Boot cd's the pc freezes.

Upon clicking on "enter" to continue the installation (very first step), the screen goes bank, and the computer seems to freeze. I have tried linux 7.3 as well, and seems to freeze at the same sort of "place", i.e. the installlation start.

As I prefer Linux to windows XP (and I was actually learning about stuff!) I would like to get fixed. The new motherboard/CPU combination is blazingly fast, and it would also be a shame to sell it!

I would appreciate any help.

Come on you guru's!

Note: I have a ADSL router, and the network card does some DHCP stuff before the cd is loaded. I don't know if this makes any difference . . .:confused:

[JohnT]

With the Maxtor drives you need to set-up your HD's with the "MaxBlast" set-up disk. You can find it at Maxtor's homepage.

[Parmenion]

Hey, Thanks for the reply. I'll try the utility you mentioned, although it's strange the drives worked on my VIA 266A chipset motherboard with out it . . . ?

I'll post a message if this fixes it:D

[JohnT]

It interacts with the bios. Also be certain you set them up as Master/Slave or Primary/Secondary with the associated jumper configs.

[Parmenion]

I was just about to download the Maxtor utility, when I decided to download the latest BIOS from Epox, as you do.

After fllashing, and resetting the BIOS, Mandrake 9 finally initialised and I am was able to install successfully.

The ADSL router config went really easily, I installed the drivers for my MSI Geforce 4 card . . . . . and Gnome is looking great!

I think the fix was either achieved by the BIOS reset, or the flash.

Now all I have to do is get the VIVO bit working on the card so I can watch TV . . . .

Has anybody every tried this before?

[JohnT]

Glad to see your problem solved to that point.........:D