I have have freeze issue after install Unbuntu

[petereview]

Installing the live CD and installation will work properly for few seconds then whole GUI freezes. I have tried the same installation CD with another laptop and desktop (friend's) without any issues like this. That leads me to believe that is possibly a hardware incompatibility? My first guess is graphics chip which is part of the motherboard. My specs are below.
Currently I am forced to keep the XP on this machine since it is compatible. Other live installations tried: MintLinux - same issue as Unbuntu and Puppy linux was successful. thank you;):p

Video output -Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family
3.00 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4
MSI 945GCM5-F V2 (MS-7267) 4.0
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. V17.10 06/02/2009
SONY DVD RW AW-Q170A [Optical drive]
Maxtor 6L100M0 [Hard drive] (100.26 GB)
WDC WD740ADFD-00NLR5 [Hard drive] (74.36 GB)
1016 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
Slot 'DIMM0' has 1024 MB
Slot 'DIMM1' is Empty

[searchfgold6789]

They invented a special thing for people like you; it's called the Alternate Install CD (http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/alternative-download).

[sikander3786]

Welcome to the forums :-)

Just like you, I also feel that your graphics chip is responsable for those lock-ups. Which version of Ubuntu is this?

[petereview]

Thank you - searchfgold and sikander! I will try that alternative install. It is Unbuntu 10.10. Would you recommend I find a cheap graphics card just in case?

[petereview]

The reason I want Unbuntu 10 is for all the cool software and ease of installation.
I went ahead and tried live CDs and direct install:

Alternate install 10.4
ubuntu 10.10
edubuntu 10.10

The live CD would work for 1-5 minutes then freeze. Installation would fail at the end of installation. I wiped the c drive with each new installation with Gparted installation.

These other linux distributions did work:
Debian
ubuntu 8.04
Puppy 10.5

Puppy was good but could not get hard drive installation to work.
Debian and Ubuntu 8 do not have Unbuntu Software Center & Synaptic package Manager like Ubuntu 10 does. I am guessing that ubuntu 8 and debian does not work with the new softwares that 10 has?
Currently, I am running puppy from live cd. It is ok if you try small programs like Google Earth but large programs are not possible with this set up.
Can Debian or Ubuntu 8 use all that software is available in 10? How do you download and use it? thx