help i am new and need help NO VALID SESSION FOUND

[whit3boy21]

I am new to the linux world. Recently I decided to upgrade my gateway netbook from ubuntu 10 to 11.01 or something like that. When it was finished upgrading there was an error and it said it couldnt install somethings. i rebooted and when it finishes booting it will say no valid session found. i have tried gnu grub every recovery mode and every single thing i boot into will say no valid session found and i cant use the netbook at all. I have tried reinstalling the netbook but when i put a usb drive it freezez no matter what port i use. the netbook used to have windows xp which was a failure and a friend installed ubuntu on it for me. I want to know if there is anything i can do to fix the problem. I wanted to install joli cloud but the usb freezes the computer on instance

[grahammechanical]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Can you explain in more detail about when you see this "no valid session message?" Do you see the purple Ubuntu splash screen with the four or five dots? I am not clear in my mind about what you mean when you say "when it finishes booting." Do you get to a log in screen?

Please tell us what you see on the screen from the moment you switch the machine on to the moment you get that error.

I ask this because if the Ubuntu operating system is damaged then you should still be able to re-install using a USB drive. But you cannot do that, you say.

So, I am wondering if something has changed in the computer BIOS setup program. Do you have a motherboard manual? Does it give you any information about BIOS error messages. Could you find out by going on to the Gateway web site?

Regards.