I doubt that your nx9040 is "too old" for microwatt.
The boot observations you make are concerning.   I don't have an instant solution, but there are things to check.

A list of checks for failed liveCD boot would include the downloaded iso (did you check the MD5 sum ?).
I think the boot has reached the stage of checking for graphics processing (but someone more tech-able might disagree). 
The i855GM chipset in the 9040 did give issues with Ubuntu 14.04 (the base for microwatt R9).  My quick look online suggests this was primarily for users with "heavy" desktops (eg Unity), not lightweight releases such as microwatt; however, there could be some issue there I didn't come across.
Your onboard graphics shares memory - that is, it uses some of the 256MB RAM.  Whether/how this affects boot is beyond my competence, but history suggests more RAM is better for older machines.  DDR 266 SODIMMs are inexpensive these days, and your nx9040 will take 2GB total.   
The nx9040 should have a switch and LED indicator for wireless - if that's on when booting, switch it off.  Use ethernet cable. 

Historically, some laptop users (and others) have needed to add the boot option   nomodeset   to get beyond a black screen.  When the screen is saying automatic boot, press [space] and look to edit the boot parameters ..... add nomodeset       then continue

Not an instant solution, but some checks to make.  Again, good luck.

Welcome to wattOS, clive.   

To address your question directly :
Can your laptop boot from USB ?   If so, you'll find plenty support for using that route.

Depending on how easy/difficult it is to remove the HDD, users here have installed wattOS to the HDD while in another machine then transferred the HDD back to the minimalist machine. 


On a different tack, 256MB RAM will probably not give the best of results with mainstream wattOS R9.   Especially if you browse anywhere near graphics-rich webpages. 
I'd suggest you d/l and install microwatt, which WILL fit on a CD, watch the video Biff made about using microwatt/i3wm, and go from there. 
Expanding/changing your software inventory from there can be done by command line or Synaptic, as the video shows.    You can install another browser if Midori proves problematic; I suspect you can add LXDE if you want (but I haven't tried that). 
And if the HP will accept more RAM, so much the better.

Good luck.

Welcome to the wattOS orbit !

Looks like you're using microwatt.  I have little experience with that, but from its introduction there were some tips :
- there is good documentation on the i3 wm website (refer here  http://wiki.planetwatt.com/index.php?title=WattOS-Microwatt-R9  )
- Biff made a video showing i3 being used "conventionally" :  see here   https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6bmHEI4AaoOkt_AS1I5OKT8sXtcDWzLe 

Sound ? Not sure there.   As a guess, you might need something like pavucontrol installed. 
User experience with Midori is mixed - some love it, others can't get it to work reliably.  Not limited to wattOS. 
IRC ?  I don't think so ... my recall is that when a channel was available it was low traffic, and was closed. 
Hope that gets you to some solutions.

After a small amount of research ....
- Slimjet website has made no comment about potential of their 32-bit source to dry up     http://www.slimjet.com/en/about-slimjet.htm 
- a quote from Google (who support the Chromium development) about 3 months ago was :
"To provide the best experience for the most-used Linux versions, we will end support for Google Chrome on 32-bit Linux, Ubuntu Precise (12.04), and Debian 7 (wheezy) in early March, 2016.  Chrome will continue to function on these platforms but will no longer receive updates and security fixes. We intend to continue supporting the 32-bit build configurations on Linux to support building Chromium. If you are using Precise, we’d recommend that you to upgrade to Trusty", says Dirk Pranke, Software Engineer, Google.
quoted from :  http://betanews.com/2015/11/30/google-killing-chrome-for-32-bit-linux/

If you ignore the PR weasel words at the start, the message seems pretty clear - 32-bit Chromium continues.   For now ... until Google decides to improve our "experience"  again. 

Welcome jt_glass to wattOS. 

The HP 2710p is well within required min spec, so that ought not to be the issue.
Black screens and Ubu 14.04 are hardly unknown, and sometimes unraveling the mystery can be difficult, even for the Ubu techs.

Let's take a guess that it's browser-caused and try for a solution :
Open Chrome.  Type   chrome://settings   in Chrome's address bar and hit enter.
Then go to the bottom of that page and click on Show Advanced Settings.
Then go to nearly the bottom of the new page and see if "Use hardware acceleration when available" is ticked. If it is, try the Web Store after you untick that setting and restart Chrome.

If that resolves the issue, then thanks go to the people at  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2247572 

I think the corresponding action in Firefox starts with   about:config  in the address bar.

Other assorted notes.
Midori is brilliant for some users and useless (eg crashes) for others.  I'm unaware of the reason.  It might be unrelated to this issue.
For 1GB of RAM, you'll often see the 32-bit version recommended (notwithstanding that you're within spec).
If the above doesn't work, other actions would include ensuring your install is uptodate, running some music (eg internet radio) in the background to see if that too is cut when you use the browser, and checking whether ctrl-alt-delete   or   c-a-F1   bring some response.   
Good luck.   Let's hear how it goes.

Welcome to wattOS, Johny.
The search of wattOS forums doesn't reveal any other NB30 post, so no joy there. 
As a troubleshooting step, I suggest you check the USB on (say) a desktop ..... can you get to a live system on a PC ?  If not, then check the integrity of the download.

The first line of your error message gives many hits in a google search - looks like this has been happening plenty, from 2010 forward.  This one is from Oct 2015 Ubuntu forums and is marked as solved - why not start there ?
  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2300910 

Welcome to the wattOS community.
I can well understand having W2K on a P3-800 - plenty good years there !
No reason to avoid Python or Geany on microwatt - Biff has said he does his daily development work using microwatt, so LXDE is obviously not a requirement.  (He does have more cpu power, though.)    Plus the i3 interface was designed by programmers for themselves, so you can expect it to work efficiently in that activity. 
Your question about installs will probably bring more answers, but my experience is that the instal works best with no encryption, no instant downloads (post-install updating works well), etc  In short, basic initial installs for lower-spec machines. 

If your PC's motherboard will accept more than 256MB, then I suggest you add more RAM.  512 is probably a practical minimum for LXDE and for browsing ... and maybe for larger programming tasks.   Should be inexpensive.     (I'm aware that many P3 mobos top out at 512, but I think 256 limit belongs to Celerons of the P2 class.)

Hope your first play with wattOS  went well.