Laptops :: Stops after "ok, booting the kernel" with failsafe

Well, I want to use DSL on my laptop (Medion, 2.4 Ghz, 256 mb ram) as windows is quite slow on this thing...
My computer boots the cd but all I get is a black screen after "Loding linux[blahblah]......". If I use the cheatcode "failsafe" I get to "Unompressing... ok, booting the kernel" then just a blinking err, the type thing, you know what I mean   . Some other cheatcodes gets me to where "failsafe" gets me, but none that I have tried gets further.
I have searched the forum and found similar problems, but none of the solutions seems to work for me...
Knoppix boots just fine, but it warns me of a bios bug of some kind. If you think it will help I can check what it says.