Sorry about the delay in replying, all I did was run the cd I didn't try the hd install. I have managed to get into dos and use fdisk to check the partitions. All seems ok with just the normal win98 bits there. The correct bit is active but it still won't boot up in anything but safe mode or the failsafe option on the knoppix cd. If it try the normal boot from the cd it runs fine until the line about the apm module it completes the line and then stops dead. The cursor doesn't even blink. With 98 it fires up ok until it gets to the win98 splash screen then after around 10-20secs it also freezes. As everything seems to begin to load ok I was wondering if an component had coincedently failed just as I tried the knoppix run the first time. I have now also tried Mandrake 9.1 this also loaded ok until it said second stage install at which point it also froze.