[SWLUG] Linux blues - in a jam installing Mandriva

[brent]

Hi,

I have a problem reinstalling Mandrake V10.2. The SATA hardrive failed a few 
weeks ago. With the failed SATA drive away at the supplier I thought I would 
try installing linux with a new 40G IDE hardrive. The standard install fails 
within seconds.  If I try the 'F1' option 'boot: text', a page of linux boot 
messages are displayed to the point where it reports,  'Initializing 
Cryptographic API', then it hangs up once more.

Does anyone know if it is possible to set a command to bypass the installation 
for Cryptographic API?



Other twists in the tail,
1
XP runs fine (with the IDE drive fitted)  - networks okay, internet access 
okay.  In spite of XP running so well I still suspect the motherboard is 
faulty, but I cannot prove it.
2
Today, the supplier has just returned a replacement SATA drive and it behaves 
the same way as the IDE drive if I try a Linux install. Curiously, this 
reminds me of the way V10.1 behaved when I first tried installing Linux on 
this system. V10.2 having built in SATA support fixed the problem.


Can anyone help?

regards,
Brent  



P.S. This is the system,

ASUS A7V880 motherboard, fitted with 512k Ram and AMD Sempron 25G (socket A) 
processor.
Maxtor 120G SATA H/Drive (originally)
Sumsung DVD rom drive
Inno3D GForce FX 5500 (8x)