Well,

I received a Compaq 1626 from my step-dad, complete with Windows 98. However, I'm a big Linux/OpenSource fan and decided to delve into the world of Tux.

I wiped the Hard Drive using Knoppix, a bootable Linux OS, and set up the partition table. Then I proceeded to install Red Hat 9 (an OS which is not supported any more but came with a book on Unix Using Linux that I have so it made sense to install the OS they gave me and besides the newer versions would be too much for the somewhat underpowered hardware).

Life was great; I was playing CD's and navigating my way through all the new software and commands. Life soon became bitter, however. I went to boot up the laptop to listen to some tunes, but instead was greeted with no display and a series of 8 beeps in a beep (pause) beepbeepbeep (pause) beep (pause) beepbeepbeep rhythm. Now my penguin laptop will not so much as display an error screen to provide some help, and although I can find information on beep codes, i don't know what course to take from reading the somewhat cryptic information about what it means.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm just a budding computer nerd and am mourning the loss of my sweet, slightly aging, companion