NUB qustion

Hey guys,

This seems like a very nice place.
Windows 7 spent 9 hours trying to recover start up files and failed and now I'm having trouble instaling any Linux system. Unbunto (?) would freeze about half way throught the install, Mint would go on but would freeze any time I would connect to the internet. I can run Suse from an KDE disk but it freeses very early into the install. It did pass the memory test, took 53 miunets and if you want all the numbers I can get them for you.

Lap top is a Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5202 with AMD Vision. I'll try any ideas you have.

Not that I'm an expert, but it sounds like you may have a hard drive error.
Also have to ask if when you burned (I'm assuming you down loaded the ISO and burned to disc) at the slowest possible speed. I know that with the opensuse ISOs to fast of a burn will cause errors when you do a install from the disc. As far as windows 7 goes I'm not surprised to here that you had issues with the install. It's been my experience that with Toshiba laptops that if it didn't come with win7 installed, prepare for a fight. Not saying it can't be done it's just a pain.
Not sure If I've been of any help here, hopefully others will chime in also
DOH! by the way welcome to our forum

Welcome to the forum, Bering_sea_is_home!

I'm even less of an expert than welan, but from the fact that you can't get *anything* to install sounds like a hardware problem, and since you *can* run SUSE from a live disk, that kind of leaves the hard drive. I'll have to agree with the rest of welan's post, too.

A real expert should be arriving anytime now (although despite his modesty, welan is pretty sharp. Even if he is a penguin. And wants to take over the world.).

Welcome aboard Bering_Sea.

Are you trying to install the latest production version of suse 11.4? 32 or 64 bit edition? Just trying to find some more information.

I'm wondering if its just a new enough model that there is something in the chipset that's not fully supported yet, like the sata controller. Unfortunately my googlefu hasn't turned up much detailed information yet.

Thanks guys. It came with windows 7 but it didn't last long and stupid me didn't pay extra for a warranty. I did burn at the slowest speed and it was painfully slow, the desk top still has windows 95. IIt is the newest version and 32 bit. If you really think it is a hardware issue I do have a SATA hard disk from an previous lap top that it was cheaper to replace than repair sitting around. If all the connections are pretty much standardized I could swap them and try.

All SATA drives should have the same connections.

G0NZ0 just gave me a good point of clarification in the IRC room too. Was Windows 7 giving errors, did you shrink the drive to dual boot, or did you just format the whole drive? If Win 7 was having trouble, maybe it was actually hardware failing. Must say I've come to like Win 7, and really haven't had issues with it.

I formatted the whole drive. It didn't give me the option of a dual drive. 7 did give me one error and said it had to restart explorer then couldn't recover start up files, not even with the disk that came with the computer. I did swap the hard drives around and got the same resualt. I also just spent some time on the phone with Toshiba and they tell me this system will not support Linux. Again, thanks guys.

I'm calling BS on it won't support linux, they just don't support linux.

considering that "Linux" supports almost all hardware these days I find Toshiba’s response to be amusing.
As BDQuick said there response is BS. Opensuse can be installed on their products, even the newest models.
The fact that you can not get win7 or any other OS to install leaves me to believe that there IS a hardware issue.
Your not the first one to get a broken product from the factory. Still I do have to ask if you've ever dropped the laptop or has it been exposed to any other potentially damaging circumstances.