installed rh 6.2 from talking bootdisk, but it's kernel refuses to work properly when copied in from the bootdisk

[Tommy Moore]

Bad cds aren't your problem there.
Here's the reason for this.

When you install off the boot disk there's a specific set of modules that are used and when your machine reboots in to the default red hat kernel there's no speech because the kernel that gets dropped on to the system isn't one with speech.
So the way you fix this problem is to redo the kernel and install a custom one yourself.
The RH expert Bill knows a little more about this than I do.