--edit ok so I managed find a way around this problem myself. Install Knoppix 6.4 and then use the option to install to the hard drive. Once the distro is fully installed I was able to reinstall Ubuntu edit--

Guys, I'm in real need of help....

So I have a 1 week old Acer Revo 3700 standard build so Atom D525, 2GB memory and 160GB connected up to my 32 LCD 1920x1080 tv. I removed Linpus and installed Ubuntu 10.10 initially but was having a few issues when trying to play any video file of either 720p or 1080p. Normal files would play fine using VLC but not the Hi-Res ones. I also had the choppy-ness when trying to watch Hi-Res videos through YouTube.

After looking at a number of websites and forums I made the decision to install XBMC as a different option to VLC however after installation XBMC would not start, giving an error message to say the graphics card was not compatible or something similar. So again I took to the internet and found some advice about installing Compiz Config which I did however this didnt fix the XBMC issue and to make matters a lot worse, after performing a reboot the screen res was completely altered to about 600x800 or something. Also during the initial installation of XBMC and Compiz I was also advised to update the nvidia drivers which I did (I cant remember exactly how).

I could not find any way to revert back to the previous settings of uninstall these items so I thought the best thing to do would be to simply cut my losses and reinstall Ubuntu. This seemed to not want to work so after reading a few more pages I decided to perform a format of the hard drive so start afresh. This proved difficult as of course the drive was active so I ran Ubuntu from a USB and formatted the hdd that way.

So I now have a clean hdd but when trying to install Ubuntu again the install simply hangs as the drive doesn't seem to be running.

Please see here < http://pastebin.com/9HVJRT0e > for details of lspci &lshw

If someone can please give some advice here I'd be really grateful as I'm now stumped!!!

Cheers

Partition the drive. I would also make whatever partitions you want. It's not strictly necessary, but it can make things easier.

Let's skip what you should have /might have /could have done. Write a note to self that the m$ trick (delete & reinstall) rarely works. Better configure what you have, often as not.

To get to you being unable to install ubuntu. How are you installing? cd? usb? Exactly how far do you get? What's the error messages? When it spits up an error in the gui, check Ctrl_Alt_F1 - F6 (six screens) to see if one is stdout, and check for errors there.