Quote Originally Posted by cozzy
when I tried vga=normal I got the above, plus:

Ready.
Uncompressing Linux....OK, booting the kernel

then everything froze (blue screen and above writing stayed on) no response to any keyboard input. Which is a step further than I have been before, but not far enough!!
This seems like a hardware (detection) problem (in the kernel). Try adding all the "no.." (noacpi, nousb) stuff that you can afford to run without, or don have at all.

What are the rest of the specs of you machine? Mobo, sound, etc.