[snowsislander]

'Bye for about a week (God-willing), unless the computer starts working again, or can get access to another one.

You might be able to use Puppy Linux to at least get on-line. I downloaded the latest version yesterday, and I thought it was very impressive.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Appreciated. Turns out that have gotten access to another computer in less than a week. Hopefully with the advice given on this thread the old computer can be made to work again, especially as that one has a bunch of files and other personalized stuff.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Going to try snowlislander’s suggestion as it seems by far the easiest for a computer super-novice. It should be downloading onto CD right now. Seems as though programs will have to be reinstalled and files are gone—at least temporarily though.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Puppy linux was downloaded onto a CD. It seemed to have finished (it stated that it had) and an icon was produced on the CD window. The CD was taken out, and put into the CD drive of the broken computer. Then the that computer was turned off and then turned on again. Pressed F12 when appropriate to go to the boot menu, and then selected CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive. The screen went black except for a blinking underline at the top. The drive made noise as though it was spinning fast.

But then the black Starting Windows screen came up, and went to the Windows 2000 Professional screen with the starting up blue bar.... and then the blue screen came up again.

It continues to do so on repeated attempts.

Is that how Linux is supposed to be put onto the computer? Or was there an accident in the burning of the CD? Also, Puppy Linux wasn't registered--should it be?