hi, A few days ago I sent this message, ---- I am installing Fedora on ten similar machines (dual Pentium III) and on three of them the installation stopped at "checking 'hlt' instruction" and I have to switch off the machine. Using the "no-hlt" instruction, both during install and added to grub I was able to install and run Linux, but I am worried, what does it mean? And is this a symptom of something nasty in one of the CPU? --- But nobody answered (sigh!) now I have something more to ask. The machines installed are now twelve and on four of them I had to use the no-hlt instruction. The problem is that two of the "no-hlt"ed ones after a couple of days stop and I cannot find what happened. It seems to be repeatable. So, again, what exactly is this "checking 'hlt' instruction" and what means when installation stops there, is it a symptom of something nasty in one of the CPU? Could be that what happens is not connected to the no-hlt (I suppose it could be even if the odds are quite low). Generally speaking is there anything to do about this? besides changing CPUs. Any help? Thanks, GianPiero