Have this posted at the mint forum and others since yesterday, but no replies, so thought I might try here.

Used this same cd to install mint on my wife's pc yesterday. Went just fine and up running now. Want to install it on my machine, but it's not cooperating. It get to the first screen (Will boot in 7 seconds) and then goes to a grey screen with cursor flashing. Just like it did yesterday. But then the screen goes black, with the no signal box floating around. I let it sit for a few minutes like that. Watched the dvd drive activity light blink for a bit, and then it stops. Still let it sit for about 5 minutes like that, but nothing changed. Used this same machine to burn the dvd from an .iso, so it should work.

Tried it in compatibility mode (think that's what it was called) and it flashed a bunch of stuff. Then it started showing the same thing over and over

/init: line 7: can't open /dev/sda: No medium found. It changes from sda to sdb, c and d. Then back to sda and keeps repeating those lines.

Any other option from the first boot menu gets the black screen/no signal thing.

Got it to run in compatibility mode using a usb flash drive, but when it got to the page where you can run install, it wanted to install on the flash drive.

Just so you understand, yesterday was my first trip into the other world that is not windows, so any help should be explained like you are talking to a 1st grader or less. Help would be most appreciated.

BTW... I'm running Win8 on this machine and do have secure boot disabled in bios. Also, for some reason I can't access the bios using the wireless keyboard. I have to plug in a usb keyboard to make it work.

System specks are...

Gigabyte GA 970A-UD3
AMD FX-4100
2x 2gb G Skill pc3-12800
Corsair 600w PSU
PNY 650Ti


Thanks

Did you verify the MD5 checksum before you installed?

Umm... The what? Downloaded the .iso from James Madison University via http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=132. Ran this same dvd the other day to install on my wife's pc, and it worked fine. My pc that I want to install it in is running Win8. I want it wiped out and mint installed.

Would it work if I ran Killdisk to wipe the drive and then installed?

Your system board has "Patented DualBIOS with Hybrid EFI technology for 3TB HDD support".

What mode have you got the BIOS EFI system in? Legacy mode? EFI mode?

EFI. Tried in non-efi but wouldn't boot.

UEFI installs are different than an older system with legacy BIOS. The disk will be GPT partitioned. W8 won't install without it.

I don't know if Mint will install on this type of system, or not. I would suggest you do some research on Mints site, and look for info on how to install to a EFI system, what boot loader to set up, etc. I wished I knew more, to help more. I have been following development in Slackware, which now will install on a EFI system, without secure boot.

Every distro is developing their own way of installing. There may be some information on the install DVD. Try looking there for README's or help files for UEFI installs.

Would it work if I used Killdisk to wipe my drive clean? How could I then format it?

I have no experience with this program. I looked at their web site, could not see if it will wipe a GPT partitioned disk, or not.

I'm guessing you might want to return to a traditional MBR type of formatting. If that is the case, have a look at this link :

-->http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/ and at this link:

-->http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/wipegpt.html The second link describes what you can do with linux to re-partition a GPT disk to MBR.

Hope this helps.

Ran diskpart and shows that I do not have a GPT partition. Talked to Gigabyte and they said they can't help me with anything but windows. And that is what I want to getaway from.

No surprise there.

How big is the disk? If it is over 2 Tera bytes, you need GPT, or you loose some of the disk space. If it is smaller, you can delete GPT, be sure to follow the advice I sent you a link above.

It's a 1tb drive. Diskpart shows that I DO NOT have a GPT. Not sure if it's right, but that is what it shows. From what I read in your link, seems that is all done from within Linux, but I don't have it installed. Going to try an install of Ubantu. Maybe with that installed, Mint might load.

This is going to sound stupid but try zeroing out your drive..LM can't "see" your HDD which may mean you have some bad sectors. Boot to gparted and zero it out..

I believe that is what Killdisk did. I ran it last night, but had the same problem.

Ok, tried the Ubantu disk and the same thing happened. Get the lead in screen, then the no signal. What is wrong with this d*^n thing? Is this a windows only board? %*#^#$

Don't do anything rash, yet.
First read the following on EFI.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

These instructions are for Ubuntu, but the same steps would apply to Mint.
The critical one is getting a Mint that installs using EFI.
It sounds like your Mint is trying to use the BIOS interface.

Linux bypasses BIOS for many drive accesses, but still needs a few basic BIOS operations to boot. If the machine is in EFI mode, then it is using a new different boot interface.
Your Mint could be totally confused, especially if it bypasses BIOS for some drive accesses,
and tries a BIOS valid method which is not EFI compatible. The possibilities for screw-up are endless. The Mint needs to be in EFI mode too.

Linux source code has hundreds of options that are selected before compiling. Using a pre-compiled kernel like Mint means you are limited to which of those options were selected.
With Slackware, you install a HUGE kernel and use that, or can compile a Linux kernel customized for your hardware by you selecting options. There is a whole section of kernel options on what filesystems are in the kernel, and what disk partition schemes the kernel understands. Most machines in the world used the PC disk partition, with work-arounds because it really was designed for drives less than a few GB in size, and it is possible some distributions have assumed that case too much, and may not even have provided the kernel options to read other type partition tables.

That machine has EFI and BIOS, but if the drive is partitioned using GPT and requires using EFI to read the partition table, then Mint using BIOS will never find valid partition tables on the drives.

There is also the possibility of it using an EFI partition. Right now, I don't know if that is another name for GPT, or another partitioning format. Ubuntu can handle it, and
the Mint you are trying seems to not recognize it (whatever it is).

1. Can go back to using BIOS.
Will have to switch the machine back to BIOS mode (not EFI).
Then will have to repartition the drives using a partitioning tool.
A 1T byte is large enough that you will have to look closely what the limitations are for partitioning. There are alternatives for partitioning that use more capable partition formats than the PC does, but they might not be supported by Mint either.
One of those is GPT, which is what your drive is probably using for the partition table.

2. Find a Mint for EFI, or switch to the Ubuntu EFI installer.
Then can keep the drive partitioned as it is.

3. There should be a way to use GPT partition tables using BIOS and a Mint that installs using BIOS, but that is past the point I feel comfortable making recommendations.
It would require a Mint that understands GPT, and is in GPT partition table mode.
If it installed using BIOS, then would have to switch the machine to BIOS mode (not EFI).
The boot would then be by BIOS, using GPT partition tables.
After the boot, Linux would bypass BIOS for most accesses, and if it has been compiled into the kernel, it can understand GPT partition tables (among many others). The question here would be, is the Mint distribution compiled with kernel handling for GPT partition tables.

4. The HUGE kernels in a distribution like Slackware, have just about everything possible compiled into that kernel. They also provide pre-compiled kernels that are not so huge. Ubuntu may also have kernels like that.
Mint may be easy and simple to install, but sometimes you get past the capability of the easy and simple distribution and need to use one of the full-featured ones.

5. Get GPARTED and investigate what partition type is on that drive.
Follow GPARTED instructions for this. Do not change anything, just find out what it is.
What is on the drive is probably best for using that drive, but the Mint (or Ubuntu) must
know and be capable of reading that partition format. This will tell you what drive partition type to compare to the Mint install limitations.