I'm having what sounds like the very same problem on my desktop. I posted in the boot forum. Haven't had any replies yet.
I can run the knoppix cd (V 5.1)on my hp laptop fine. It will boot and do everything I try. I downloaded and burned at the slowest Nero speed (4x) I could. MDA checksum is OK. When I try to run it on Sony VAIO desktop, it locks up. It boots up and I can open or start to open some of the programs. Then it locks. I can move the cursor but there is no response by the OS. The only thing I can do then is to turn power off to reboot. Can there be a problem with the CD-Rom drive or CD-RW drive? Is there any way to test the drives to rule out that possiblity?
I'm having what sounds like the very same problem on my desktop. I posted in the boot forum. Haven't had any replies yet.
If you have a gig or more of memory you could try the toram cheat code. That would load the entire CD into RAM at boot time, if it still locks up later that would indicate it is likely to not be a drive problem.Originally Posted by Oldlock15
---
Verifying of md5 checksum and burning a CD at slow speed are important.

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 2 Laptop 14” HD Ryzen 5 16GB RAM 512GB SSD Win 11 Pro
$334.99
Lenovo ThinkPad L15 Gen 3 15.6" 16GB, Thunder Black
$241.50
Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 3 Laptop 14” FHD AMD Ryzen 5 16GB RAM 512GB SSD Win 11
$374.99
Lenovo ThinkPad L15 Gen 3 15.6" 16GB, Thunder Black
$241.50
LENOVO THINKPAD T14 GEN 2i CORE I7-11165G7 2.8GHZ 16GB 256 SSD WCAM WI1 CORD
$250.00
Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming 15.1" WQXGA OLED 165Hz Core i9-14900HX 16GB 1TB RTX 5070
$1469.00
Lenovo Thinkpad T14 Gen 2i 14" 16GB 512GB, Black
$313.00
Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 14" AMD Ryzen 5 16GB 256GB SSD
$219.99
Lenovo Thinkpad T14 Gen 1 14.0" 16GB 512GB, BLACK
$285.99
Lenovo Thinkpad T14 Gen 3 14" 32GB 512GB, BLACK
$432.00