Laptops :: Weird issue..

Hey guys. I just got this Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop in my possession. Something went horribly wrong with it and it took me a while to even get a live Linux CD to run on it and even then it was only DSL running in failsafe. I'm just wondering how you would proceed at this point. Every other method of booting from the bootmenu has given me a black screen. I'm trying to narrow this down to specific potential problems and I'm just scratching my head as to why the live CD will only boot in failsafe. For what its worth I don't even see an HDA under drives..is it because it isnt mounting a potentially dead hdd? The whole live CD thing is sort of new to me, I've only used a true linux install before tonight. I hear the spin but can't verify its good since I cant even format the damn thing at this point

3.06 GHZ P4, 64MB of V-RAM (shared), 512 total, 30GB HDD. Any hints or advice would be appreciated, thanks

Rick

Get DSL version 2.1b, NOT 2.2b

Boot with:

dsl vga=normal xsetup sata

And your hard drive will probably be located at "sda1".

have u used any other running operating sytems on that camputer lately? Because this might help determain if you have a dead hd. What version of dsl are u running. There have been hardware issues with the newest one 2.2b. I would suggest trying 2.1b.

original here.