I have a Dell Inspiron 700m laptop, and I have installed Mandrake Linux 10.1 official on it.
System config:
Intel Pentium-M 1.8 Ghz, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB HDD, 1280x800 flat panel.

I have found that Mandrake just hangs during bootup. It's already happened once, when I installed 10.1. It boots fine the first 3-4 times. Then after that, it hangs up after "Loading IEEE1394 module.... [OK]".

I tried doing an "Interactive boot" by pressing I, but it reaches this dead-end before asking me any questions on what to load and what not to.

I have tried the "failsafe" bootloader option in Lilo, but I get the same problem.

Its kind of funny that it happens after I boot Mandrake 3-4 times (succesfully) from a new installation. If it was some driver or module that it was loading that is making it non-responsive, it should never have booted.

I havent changed anything since the first install. Also, this hang seems to be pretty hard, it does not accept <C A D> or even doesnt allow me to go to any other virtual window. Even the cursor stops blinking.

The information I have given may not be sufficient, but has anyone ever faced this problem/ has a solution to this on the specific system?

TIA