thanks for the reply. i have tried testcd, expert and failsafe. i've also tried knoppix 2 to get test mode with no results.

hmmm, what hardware specs would be useful? it's a compaq 7470 with no harddrive, 128M of ram, k6 500mhz processor and 8m of video ram.

i don't know what md5sum is. how would i go about checking that? i do know that i've used the same cd on several other systems with no problem.

i'm guessing that even though i specify noswap, knoppix really wants a hard drive there. i wonder if other people have been successful booting knoppix with no hard drive?