Compaq - Windows Installation Error - On to Linux

[thereds]

I have old Compaq (yes, I know) P133, 48MB Ram. Almost a year ago it started acting funny on me and I decided to reformat and reinstall Windows 98. During the installation of Windows 98, an error would pop up saying there is some critical error and the installation couldn't complete. I tried to reinstall again. Same thing. Then once, it completed the installation, but Windows couldn't load due to some error. I'm sorry I don't remember what the errors were since its been almost a year. What could this error be due to?

I have a new computer and the old Compaq just lies there. I would like to make it a linux box. Is this possible with the errors the computer was encountering during the Windows setup?

Do help.

Thanks.

 

[BOFH]

its possible, but the errors were probably hardware related. either memory or hdd. linux will probably run (i've seen it run on fried o/c'd cpus) but will probably crash too. it might make it easier to find the problem though

 

[MGMorden]

Linux seems to be a little more sensitive to unstable hardware though, so if something is fried it'll make linux crash more (since linux stresses the system more).

 

[BOFH]

It all depends on the system and exactly whats wrong. There are patches to let the kernel use bad sticks of ram. In the case I mentioned about the friends cpu it ran unlike windows, however when it crashed, it was rather hard.