Hello,

New tower by Eight Virtues (1TB HD, 16GB RAM, AMD FX-8350 8-Core 4.0 GHz 125W, NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 1GB 64-bit GDDR3) pre-loaded with Linux Mint 17.2. It was operating fine (though a little slow) but I was not given an opportunity to delete UN and PW of company that set it up and so felt uncomfortable (worried that I wasn't in full control of my PC). Forum suggested wiping clean and reloading Linux myself.

So, I ordered a DVD with Linux Mint 17.3. I loaded the DVD, shut off the PC, booted, then shifted to the DVD to run the loading process which seemed to go fine. I set up a Security Key, User Name, Password, selected erase HD and went with the default Linux partitioning, and asked it to require password after boot, etc. Was instructed to remove DVD and close drive door.

As the door closed, the monitor went blank but the PC continued to run. When I selected Erase (or format?), I was told that the process might take a long time, so I left things as they were for about 20 hours...no monitor but PC running. The next day, no change. It didn't appear to have rebooted and seemed to be in the same state. So, I manually shut down and booted and received a screen with a password window but no mouse and no keyboard. Rebooted multiple times with same outcome so was unable to interact with the PC.

So, I started all over again and went through the same process with the same outcome.

So, I started again BUT this time I indicated that it should NOT require a password after booting hoping that it would sign-in automatically and maybe get past the dead mouse and keyboard and to a fully booted and open machine. Sadly, no. Same outcome...screen on and at password window, dead mouse and dead keyboard.

I should note, too, that each time I started the DVD to load Linux, the first test indicated that there was no current OS found on the machine, so that first attempt that ran for 20 hours wiped the machine clean but seems to have done nothing else.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Does the Linux Mint DVD boot up all the way and can you interact with the live DVD?

Is this a desktop a custom build? Is it UEFI?
You mentioned that you have a AMD processor. Do you also have a AMD/ATI GPU?

To be certain that there is not an os installed you can use the Live DVD and run as root fdisk -l. (small letter L)

Going with g-parted Live might be the better bet to delete the existing partitions of LM 17.2 before you perform a fresh installation of LM 17.3. Unless fdisk -l indicates that there aren't any existing partitions on your machine.
http://gparted.org/download.php

-::- The black screen issue might be a GPU issue but I'm not sure.-::-

I just ran a test to try and replicate this - AMD laptop with AMD GPU.
Had CentOS 7 on it so I chose to nuke it and encrypt as per the OP. Took about 20 minutes to stop hitting the 320G hard-disk, and then did the blank screen but powered on trick. Obviously a failing of the installer.

Recycled it and got the expected password screen. My keyboard (internal obviously being a laptop) worked fine, system came up. The installer created EFI and /boot partitions (unencrypted) and a LUKS container for the root and swap.

I wonder if the OP has a USB keyboard that isn't accommodated in the initramfs.
As for still going to the password screen I would reckon that means the UEFI default still points to the inital install. Which implies you didn't do a full replacement of the previous Mint (at the partitioning screen). Post the output of these from the liveDVD terminalNote: this was Mint 17 Quiana, not the latest 17.3

Thanks for the responses, to date. No need to respond further, here, as I haven't had a chance to try your suggestions but I wanted to try to answer your questions and to provide a better description of the PC. I will try to find time to try your suggestions after the holiday (lots happening right now).

Apologies for not having provided a better description of the PC in the initial post:

Eight Virtues Tower
Processor: AMD FX-8350 8-Core 4.0 GHz 125W
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 1GB 64-bit GDDR3
Hard Drive: 1 TB SATA 7200 RPM
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600 (2 x 8GB)
OS: Linux Mint 17.2 LTS 64-bit (Cinnamon)

Ztcoracat, I assume the above means it is UEFI, as I understand most recent machines to be (though I'm not certain). Does the above answer your question about AMD/ATI GPU?

I see that you have a AMD processor but you have a Nvidia GPU.
Your BIOS will tell you if your machine is UEFI. You'll have to refer to your mobo book as to how to get into your BIOS. The front page of your BIOS should tell you what BIOS you have and somewhere within the different sections of your BIOS it should indicate that the machine or a partition is efi or not.

If you still can't figure out if your machine is UEFI or not than there would be a section in your BIOS where you can "disable the secure boot" that's one indication that it's UEFI.

Have a good Holiday!-