Funny thing about the new, old laptop, it seems to corrupt all Linux distros, each in a distinctive, original way.

Meanwhile. Windows XP Pro seems to boot and run just fine, thank you.

As a last resort, I have loaded Fedora Core 5, which I think was the previous owner's choice. It boots fine so far, but it is an odd puppy and not what I wanted. First off, it uses Gnome, which can be altered. After that, it not only fails to recognise the integrated wireless, but most other wireless cards as well.

Things had better shape up soon, because as annoying as XP is, it does seem to work.