Mounting Failed Please help !

I have an ibook g3 using Safari & whenever I attempt to download perian on vlc it fails to mount the image with "Mounting Failed"

I have reloaded 10.3.9 Panther and the error is still there, it also wont show my external hard drive that a macbook pro & pc finds.

I have searched G00gle & the forum, I can find plenty of people with this issue but can't see a fix.

I have tried several versions so I can eliminate a corrupt image & as I say it's a new install.

Yet when I select the dmg on my desk top the reason it gives is a corrupt image but they cant all be corrupt...

I have ran "verify permissions" in Utility with "Permissions verification complete"
I have ran ""Repair permissions" in Utility with "Permissions repair complete"

I have ran out of ideas I was wondering if anyone could advise me on a cure please ?

Where are you downloading the application from?

I have tried
h*tp://perian.org/
h*tp://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/fx/
h*tp://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

So I am confident it's not the file that's at fault.

I am sure someone must have the solution to this please?