HD Install :: have i ruined it! Boot screen frozen

i used the DSL boot CD and it gave a list of options on the first screen and i pressed F1 to go onto the next screen. I then wanted to go back to the first screen, in case i miss read anything...

Nothing let me get back to the first screen so i restarted.

It is completely ruined. it now just goes back to a crashed boot screen. I've restarted hundreds of times , but nothing.

what do i need to do? clear the ram/cmos? or is it ruined. doh!

Any help much appreciated.

I'm trying to install on a Toshiba Sat 4080xcdt.

Try to reboot by different ways. Like take battery/power cable off when "crash" screen is showed, and try to press all kinds of an keyboard buttons when on crash screen and senseless panic helps always with linux and toshiba.

took the RAM out and worked fine. Except it didn't work. How do you actually boot.

You type in the command to boot it. Then it boots and leaves you with a command prompt. What do you have to do there? tickle it?

why does it get stuck at the 'creating new authority file' line and then leave a prompt?

Is it supposed to do this?

When the first screen comes up, what do you type in?

Have you tried something like:

DSL nopcmcia vga=normal

and then hitting the ENTER key?

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