Knoppix fails, mid-boot, from CD on one computer. Any ideas?

[drkwc]

I've downloaded Knoppix 5.1.1 from two different sources and burned CDs. Both begin to boot and then fail in the same way on one particular computer. (Both work fine on another computer.)

However, what brought me to Knoppix was the hope that it could let me get into this troublesome computer that quit booting Windows Saturday night and salvage data and maybe even find the problem and fix it. But so far, no joy because Knoppix won't boot, either.

I'm on a 2.8 ghz notebook PC on which Windows XP Home is currently installed but somehow screwed up (won't boot).

I get a long screen explaining the progress of the Knoppix boot and its failure.

Here's how it starts:

Oops: 0002 [#1]
PREEMP SNP

....

And the final thing it says is:

<0> Kernel panic - not syncing:
Attempted to kill init!


-----------------

Any idea what I need to do?

Grateful for the help.

ken

[drkwc]

This is solved.

Problem was that the one of the RAM chips on the computer had failed. It would run through a good 512 chip and then when it got to the next 1 mb chip, whatever program was loading would fail and the computer would reboot. Have replaced the RAM and all is well.

kwc