Hey, all. I have a rather....odd problem, and I'm hoping someone can help me. I have a Dell Vostro AIO desktop, specs as follows:

Intel Core i5 2.5 GHz quad-core processor
4 GB DDR3 1333 MHz RAM
500 GB 5400 RPM HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M with Optimus (Intel HD 3000)

I have tried to install Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04, with no luck. Same for Fedora 16 and 17 and Linux Mint 13. Also tried Sabayon and PCLinuxOS. I even tried PearOS. Nothing works, whether from CD/DVD or from USB. Every single time, I see the "ISOLINUX" copyright info, then my screen idles for a moment, then it shuts off. I can still hear the disk drive spinning (when using from a disk), but nothing happens no matter how long I let it sit. Any idea what might be happening?

Have you tried Windows?

It sounds like the system stops before even displaying the DVD (or CD) boot menu. If that's correct, I suggest looking in the system bios for settings that may disable booting from CD/DVD.
There could also be a physical failure with the DVD drive itself, have you tried a bootable USB drive?
Many distros have a bootable USB drive image, or instrcutions on how to make one.

Every one of those questions is answered in the OP, and if the OP is seeing "ISOLINUX" we're past the BIOS, and reading the bootloader from the CD/USB image.

One of the first things I would say to check would be the CD/DVD media. Since it wont boot far enough to enable you to test the media during install, I would suggest you use good quality media, burnt slow.
When using a USB stick, the method in which you write the image to the disk can have an effect. Some distro's provide a single iso designed for multiple media (arch and debian spring to mind, but i may be wrong). A lot of people use unetbootin to create bootable usb sticks, and I think a lot of distro's have windows programs that do the same thing

It is possible that the default display drivers aren't working well with your graphics card, some (most) distro's have an option in the boot menu to boot into low graphics mode, you would probably need to do this to install, and then once installed, download install and configure the proprietary (or working open source) drivers.. (if there isnt an obvious option in your distro's boot menu, you may need to google the necessary options to add to the existing boot menu.

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This could possibly be due to Nvidia Optimus, which has been problematic with Linux, since Nvidia does not support Optimus on Linux.
Perhaps you could try installing Ubuntu 12.04 from the alternate install CD. this is a text based installer that should bypass any graphics related problems.
See this about Nvidia Optimus on Linux:
http://geek.co.il/wp/2012/02/19/nvid...n-ubuntu-12-04

^+1 to fukawi1, sometimes there is no choice but the proprietary driver.
If the OP does not want to mess with boot configuration in the first place, another option might be to connect the pc to an external VGA monitor (right from start-up) , that should display what the laptop panel doesn't; I don't know exactly how, but that did the trick for me once.

First, I have tried USB installs using both Unetbootin and the LiLi Linux Live USB Creator. Neither works. Second, I never REACH the boot menu, so telling it to boot in low graphics mode is impossible. I'll try the alternate install CD, but I'm not holding my breath. Of note is that I also tried the Ubuntu Ubiquity installer to install from within Windows, and that ALSO failed. That is, it installed just fine, but when I attempted to boot it all I got was a black screen.