14.04 USB Install Grey Screen Hangup

[hansard]

I am desperately trying to install ubuntu 14.04 on a Dell Inspiron 1501. I have last used ubuntu 12.04 on a different but identical machine, and the install went fine minus a wireless network issue.

When I attempt the install, I get the usual try ubuntu/install/check disk/advanced options/etc menu. When I enter the "try" or "install" options my machine gets endlessly stuck at a grey screen with vertical lines. After trying 14.04 several times, I then tried my 12.04 usb stick and the same thing happened but with a grey screen with a blinking cursor in the upper corner appeared, followed nearly immediately by the frozen/vertical line grey screen.

I can not for the life of me figure out what the issue with this machine is... it is literally the exact same spec and model as the last 1501 inspiron i used ubuntu on. It even has the same version of windows xp and the same version bios.

I really need to get this machine up and running with ubuntu - please help.

[ubfan1]

Did you ever run the memory check? If you really have the same amount of memory in both machines, maybe you have some bad memory.

[hansard]

Memory check all okay.. i used the pendrive linux program to make my usb... tried two reformats. Could it be a pendrive problem - maybe switch to another program?

[hansard]

Also tried adding nouveau.modset=0 to /boot/grub/grub ... no effect

[ubfan1]

Some other options to try:
For UEFI machines (with a black screen grub (grub-efi) without any function key options, like the older grub-pc, edit the grub menu and add the below options on the "linux" line, then boot with F10 or ctrl-X.


Options for Video problems:

nomodeset
acpi=0
acpi_osi=linux
acpi_backlight=vendor
noalpic

Try the media check on the USB too. Usually that's for CDROMs, but USBs can have problems too.
Does the pendrive boot in another machine?