Ubuntu Problem

Okay, so I want to go to Linux so I backed up all my stuff and put in the Ubuntu 6.10 CD that I downloaded and burnt. It erased my drive etc...I rebooted and got into the OS, it had 97 critical updates so it updated, told me to reboot so I did so, next thing, when it was loading, it just froze on the loading bar screen. I let it sit there for a while then I realized it was frozen, now I am getting errors when I re-install Ubuntu from the CD. I'll even get them when I am trying to get into the live CD like CD-ROM drive has a softlock. I reseated the CD and it worked. Or I'll get an error like CPU#0 has a softlock. I really don't know what to do and I'm pretty freaked because this is my college laptop. There are computers I can use downstairs for work so it's fine, but I don't want my laptop to be dead. Please help. Specs are below:

Power Notebooks HGL30
Intel Core Duo 2.00Ghz
2GB Kingston RAM
100GB 7200RPM HD
nVidia Go7600

 

Try disabling wireless during boot up, this fixed the problem for me.

 

I only have a switch, it's on off, I'll report back, thanks.

Edit---

It seems to be working, I did a clean format, made sure the switch was off and after installing, it rebooted fine. I'm installing all of the updates. I'll report back again later.

 

After I installed every update, I can now boot with the wireless switch on again.

 

Well, this is weird, I just booted with the wireless switch on and it booted. I'm scared to reboot my computer.

 

Why would the WiFi prevent booting into X / GNOME? I don't get it...but I am glad it fixed the problem. If the GUI is causing trouble, there isn't anything to worry since you can deal with it command line. Basically, I wouldn't worry about messing up your college notebook.

 

Well, I can't get into it. I'm not sure if it's fixed it, maybe just helped it along a bit.

 

It's the step where Ubuntu tries to configure the network settings, but perhaps because a needed module wasn't previously loaded, it hang? Anyways, I think the latest updates have fixed the issue.

 

Apparently, ubuntu 6.10 has some problem with the wifi switch. If you try turning the hardware switch off (turn wifi off, that is) and try rebooting, it should work.

 

If you have the same problem again: when grub loads, press the "e" key. Then, bump down to the line starting with "kernel" and remove the words "quiet" and "splash". Press enter, then "b" to boot. That should give you text output of your bootup, and tell you exactly what failed. That setting won't be saved over reboot, so you'll have your pretty splash back next time you boot ;-)