Advise needed for installing Linux with ASRock P4S61

[alxwind]

Advise needed for installing Linux with ASRock P4S61

Dear sirs,

My current computer configuration is:

motherboard - ASRock P4S61,
processor - Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz HT Ext,
memory - 512 Mb DDR333,
video - Ati Radeon 9200 128 Mb,
hard-drive - 120 Gb Maxtor 6Y120L0,
CD-Rom - HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8526B (LG)

The problem is that i can't install and/or boot any linux distro on my computer.

1) Red-Hat 7.2-9 or Fedora Core 3 usually complete their installation process without any problems but couldn't be loaded then from hard-drive - work only in safe mode.
When try to boot them in usual non-safe mode, it says

"hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt" at the very beginning of detection hardware

2) Mandrake Linux 9-10.1 Community doesn't start installation at all -

"hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt" at the very beginning of detection hardware

3) Suse Linux Personal 9.1 started installation after 6th attempt in fail-safe mode (during first 5 tries it freezes during copying files appr. at 10-15%), doesn't boot then from hard-drive (even at fail-safe mode - freezes at the very beginning hardware detection). When in normal mode

hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt
hda: lost interrupt...

4) Knoppix Live CD 3.7 - well works perfectly as Live CD, but when i try to install it with /usr/sbin/knoppix-installer, it freezes at appr. 25-30%

After spending several weeks in Google search i realized that the problem is within the motherboard (Hard-Drive Controller i believe), and other hard-ware is working perfectly (at least under Windows XP SP2)

So, do i need to purchase another mother-board? If yes, what manufactor and what model for P4? Or if you have any other suggestions please share them with me.


Thank you very much beforehand,

Sincerely,
-Alex

[Nerderello]

sounds more like a problem either with your hard disk or the bios on your motherboard. Try, before buying another, going to asrocks' website and seeing if they have a later bios for your board. Then download it, if yes, and carefully follow the instructions on how to create a bios upgrade diskette and how to upgrade your bios (make sure that you read thier instructions at least three times before doing it).

have fun

Nerderello

ps. I used to have an Asrock mobo which happily accepted all sorts of Linuxes, but I broke it with to much plugging and unplugging of bits and pieces.

[alxwind]

sounds more like a problem either with your hard disk or the bios on your motherboard. Try, before buying another, going to asrocks' website and seeing if they have a later bios for your board. Then download it, if yes, and carefully follow the instructions on how to create a bios upgrade diskette and how to upgrade your bios (make sure that you read thier instructions at least three times before doing it).

have fun

Nerderello

ps. I used to have an Asrock mobo which happily accepted all sorts of Linuxes, but I broke it with to much plugging and unplugging of bits and pieces.

Ah, thank you Nerderello. I tried what you adviced me to do, I updated my BIOS from 2.10 to 2.50 but mainly nothing changed, so i just sold that ASRock mainboard and purchased Linux complatible ASUS P4S800.

Here is the Suse web-site where everyone can check for linux-compatible hardware: http://cdb.suse.de/index.php?LANG=en_UK