During installation of Ubuntu my PC locked up with the repetive message: "INIT: ld "X" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes." I imagine the same message was repeated over a hundered times. I had to quit.

Welcome to the forums!

A few suggestions:

1. When you first boot the Ubuntu CD you should see a "Check this CD for errors" option. Try that.
2. You should also see a "Try Ubuntu with no change to your computer" option. Try that next.
3. Try an alternate install method (for example USB instead of CD).
4. Try installing from the Ubuntu Alternate CD: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubunt...ative-download
5. Try a different release (such as 10.04 LTS or even 12.04 Beta if you're feeling brave).
6. If your computer is old or low-spec, try Lubuntu or Xubuntu.
7. Try a different distro (Fedora, PCLinuxOS, Puppy, etc.)

Finally

8. Tell us about your hardware so we can give you meaningful suggestions instead of guessing what the problem may be. The error message suggests a graphics problem, but since we don't don't what your graphics card is...

There are several question that might help us solving the problem.

1. What brand of laptop, and what is the model? Also, tell us the year.
2. How did you get the CD? (downloaded from internet, bought from Linux retailer, etc)
3. If you have any other details that you know, tell us. It might be a clue.