No Distro Installing At All

[kilmargames]

Hello. Whenever I try to install (or run a live CD) of any distro at all I get an error: "init: rc-default main process (xxxx) terminated with status xxx" the reason I use Xs in that is because it did different numbers each time.. This happens for all the distros, and I am really sick of Windows messing stuff up all the time, yesterday it crashed my external harddrive, today my itunes library. So I am only going to use it for the things i really need it for. But... No matter what distro I try I get that error.

I have an HP Pavillion a1102n, with all the original parts (except for the new nVidia graphics card, and a replaced hard drive).

I am pretty good with computers but this is beyond what I know, so thanks for the help.

edit: I guess this is in Other Distros, because I would like to install Mint...

[MikeTbob]

I'd try booting it up without the Nvidia card, just to see if anything changes....remove the hard drive...you don't need it to boot a LiveCD. Try using some of the boot codes on the kernel line.
How much RAM does this machine have? Make sure you are burning the CD/DVD at the slowest speed possible, you'd be surprised at how mucked up a bad burn can be. Do any of the LiveCD's boot on any other machine?

[kilmargames]

It happened before the nVidia card. It has 3GBs. I have used 4 of the disks on another really older computer, an old Win95 laptop and a more recent (3-4) years ago laptop. I have tried things like safe and no help. This computer has trouble with a program called Game Maker (7 and 8) and lags MoH: Pacific Assault real bad after I restarted it (and was lagless before that). I'm guessing the two problems i mentioned above are Windows fault but I really don't know. Its so frustrating.

[devils casper]

Are you creating partitions manually or selecting Guided option?
Boot up from LiveCD of any distro and open Terminal/Konsole. Execute this

sudo fdisk -l
sudo lspci | grep -i vga

Post output here.

[MikeTbob]

Hello. Whenever I try to install (or run a live CD) of any distro at all I get an error:

He can't boot any LiveCD's.
Have you disabled the built in video card?Does it have a built in video card? Try messing with the BIOS to disable it, if you have one.

[kilmargames]

Okay. I'll look at my BIOS. What are some keywords to look for?

[MikeTbob]

Well, did you add a PCI card or AGP video card? Look in the BIOS for a line like: Init Display AGP> PCI.
You might be able to boot with a boot "Cheat code". I'd try adding acpi=off to the end of the kernel line. See this link, start at "Changing Boot Parameters Temporarily"
grumpymole: Ubuntu - How To Edit Grub Boot Parameters

[kilmargames]

Sorry it took so long, yes I did disable the card. And it was a PCI card.
Okay. I think thats part of failsafe mode though right? I have tried that. I think.

[looseSCREWorTWO]

G'day,
Like MikeTbob says, pull out the Nvidia card and the Hard Drive to see what happens. Even minor changes to your setup can muck-up how BIOS goes about it's business. I could tell you some stories about that . . .

Just to humour an old hacker, try downloading the following ISOs, run md5sum on them to make sure the downloads are OK, then burn to CD and see how you go:

THIS WEBSITE HAS PREVENTED ME FROM POSTING THE DESIRED LINKS, SO I WILL ATTEMPT TO SEND A PRIVATE MESSAGE TO YOU.

[gnuuser]

is your hard drive a sata drive?
some newer computers have a mode setting in the bios for the sata drives
and needs to be set to Ide. mode I have found this annoying detail in a lot of laptops.