I am trying to start Knoppix on an already problematic machine. The computer gets to the penguin in the top left hand corner of the screen with the blinking cursor under it, but after that it goes to a blank black screen. The computer appears to stop thinking at all. There is no CD-ROM activity or sound other then the fan from the computer.

Recent computer history:
We have been attempting to reinstall the OS. The first attempt was with the compaq quickrestore disk. This stopped partway into the install.

The next attempt was to use the XP update disk to reinstall. That also fails every time partway through the download.

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I just ran the startup with the expert option and found that it stalled at:
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 Filesystem).