I have a sony vaio PCG-FX802 laptop with 512mb ram that i want to run EMC2.

The live CD (Ubuntu with EMC2) would not install for me at all it kept hanging no matter what i tried.

I did the Ubuntu alternate CD without EMC and it loaded - then loaded EMC2 from the website and restarted.
It now loads up to the login screen then hangs and a drum samples loops until i pull the plug.

I have since learned that the ac97 onboard sound is causing the problem.

Anyone know how i can disable the sound chip?

press F2 during boot.. this will put you into the bios screen. search around for the sound settings under advanced setting and disable it there. Warning!!!! dont do this unless you are comfortable in this enviroment.

Bob

The sony`s BIOS does not have the option to turn off sound. Need to find some other way, but thanks for the reply.

Have you tried the suggestions on the wiki?
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?Hardware_Requirements
read down to the boot screen suggestions such as "nosound"

Laptops aren't recommended, but maybe one of those tricks will get you a bit further.

Go here to configure your laptop with the sound card and linux. He has had the same problem and fixed it. Hope this helps.
http://www.kevinboone.com/vaio.html

Bob