simillar problems with my friends pavilion 6630. Seeral liveCD- distros brake-up on boot or booted only in rescue shell/or twm gui(dyne:bolic 1.4; Ubuntu; slix 1.0, 2.0.x.x., slax, knoppix 3.2; 3.4, ...)
It seem that this machine has some form of closed firmware protection & suspect that CD-ROM is not strictli ATAPI compliant.
I will probably make multiboot of:
w98 s.e./t.e.[oem] 4x 2GB partit hda1_5_6_7
Centos 4 when i get it
Mandrake 9.1 HP + windowmaker
ok /swap 500MB
[maybe redHat 6.2/7.0 ? -- but no room]
Amiga & linux rULeZ
linuxWorkshop "skillExchange"
http://tamtam.mi2.hr/razmjenavjestina/
