have you tried the cheatcodes? they are listed if you press F3 when you see boot: at bottom of screen. read more here.
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/CheatCodes
hope it helps you some. i have tried Knoppix on several diferent systems, ranging from 486'es to P4 3.2Ghz and AMD XP3200 systems, memmory from 32Mb to 2Gb so it should work.