64-bit won't install

BIOSes are really simple. Most people just hit DEL as their system is doing all the RAM checks and stuff, and you get into the BIOS (sometimes called Setup).

You have to know how to hit the spacebar, and use the arrow keys, and know where the + and - keys are on your keyboard. Think you can handle that?

Most BIOSes are self explanatory, so I'm not going to go into great detail. However, if you're not sure what it does (most people aren't sure what Video Caching/Shadowing is, etc.), don't touch it. However, in your case, since you don't have an extra IDE HDD, playing in the BIOS might not help you. Read below for further instructions.

Originally posted by Darkelve
Why not just install the 64-bit version on the 64-bit PC? It's on the other side of the DVD.

While SuSE 9.1 was that way, 9.2 is NOT. 9.2 has it all on one DVD. When you boot it, you'll see in the right-hand corner the words "F7 64-bit", or "F7 32-bit". If you hit F7, it'll give you an option to switch back and forth. Use the arrow keys to choose.

When the system is booting (your 32-bit system that installed okay, as you mentioned above), press ESC. You should get a bunch of boot messages. We need to know if you're getting any error messages during boot. That should help narrow it down.

Right now, I'm thinking it's either a video card/monitor issue, or something to do with your chipset, since it's kinda new.

~~ Andrew D.

Thanks, Andrew. I've just done it again. It started 64-bit installation from the DVD, I hit ESC and it spitted out a whole bunch of information which doesn't fit into one screen. How can I move up and down?

You could try the arrow keys, but we shouldn't need all the information. Most likely, the info it spits out, error-message wise will be near the end.

And yes, very likely you'll have to write down anything that gives error messages by hand. Sorry.

~~ Andrew D.

Andrew,

I couldn't see any error messages, unless I missed them but up/down keys don't work. The last bit is it tries to load YAST and that's it, the screen goes black, it writes something before that but it's miliseconds and I can't quite catch what it is.

Sounds to me like a video card problem. Do you have a video card lying around that you could swap out with?

~~ Andrew D.

Not really. But I've noticed this. I tried non-graphic install. It loads YAST and detects my video card correctly but when I try to change/modify, it just stuffs up the whole screen with green garbage, just some green lines, dots in the top part of the screen, and then freezes.

Yup. I'd say with that information, I'd give it a 90% chance of it being your graphics card. You're going to have to replace it, or at least remove it temporarily until you can get SuSE installed. Once SuSE is installed, you can put the GPU back in, and SuSE should have no problem.

~~ Andrew D.

OK, thanks for this Andrew. I'll try to get my old computer back and stick the old MSI MX440 in there (which worked perfectly well in the old comp) and give it a try.

BTW, can I just take the video card out and use on-board video on the motherboard?

As long as your board has on-board video, sure.

~~ Andrew D.

How do I know if it does have on-board video? It's Asus A8N-SLI (standard).