Problems with Debian installer

[imported_sphinx]

I am trying to install Debian on a very old computer. The PC has a 200mhz chip. It boots up from the cd-rom, I see the debian logo to press f1 or enter to boot. Then, BAM, I get a error message saying "Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address fffedfdf". Then I get a bunch of jibber jabber and then "<0>Kernel panic: Attempted to kill the idle task!
In idle task - not syncing". Is it a hardware or software problem. I will be monitoring this topic for the next hour. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[cleverhandle]

Sounds like you may need some unusual boot parameters to deal with the older hardware. What kind of chip and motherboard do you have exactly?

 

[imported_sphinx]

The chip is a pentium, chipset is i430vx and the mb is a unknown brand. I wish I knew. It is a really old PC. I think the mb is of AT variety. the power switch is hard wired to the power supply. And, the keyboard connector is a fat connector not the ps/2 styled little connector.

 

[cleverhandle]

Hmm... that sounds reasonably OK. Nothing too weird like an old Cyrix chip or something. Have you checked the memory against memtest86? Can the system boot up a plain DOS boot disk?

It could be something trickier, but I'd try to rule out simple hardware problems first.

 

[imported_sphinx]

I don't know about the dos boot disk. I have no floppy drive. i would not know how to run memtest86, there is no os on the hd.

 

[imported_sphinx]

I figured it out. Thanks cleverhandle for taking the time to help. It was a hardware problem. Two different types of RAM was installed. I should have noticed it before but, I didn't. It is installing now. Again, thank you.