Purple blank screen on Quitting Ubuntu Installation or Shutting Down

Question

I just bought an HP Pavilion m6- 1045dx laptop with Windows 7 pre-installed. I am unable to install Ubuntu alongside Windows, so I am considering replacing Windows completely.

But since I have not been given a wWindows installation CD, I am concerned that Ubuntu may give me the following trouble that it is giving when I select "Try Ubuntu" during installation: All versions of Ubuntu that I tried (10.10, 11.04, and 12.04) would either freeze to the purple Ubuntu background, or as in 12.04, to a blank screen.

I corrected the blank screen by selecting nomodeset in the beginning. But when I try to shutdown or quit an installation, it does not turn off my laptop completely, but freezes to the purple screen. I am forced to shutdown the laptop by keeping the power button pressed, once I hear that the CD has stopped spinning.

I do not want to install Ubuntu, replace windows, and then find that I can use neither.

I am not sure if this is relevant, but the installation usually gives a message like failed to enable MSI-X, but then proceeds with it.

Answer 1

I am having similar problems with my m6 1045dx. Apparently between Windows 7 and HP tools 4 primary partitions exist on the hard drive and Ubuntu is unable to install as dual boot along side Windows. I am looking into deleting either the windows recovery partition or the HP tools partition to enable Ubuntu to have a primary partition.

I also experienced a blank screen trying to install Ubuntu 12.04 and eventually discovered the brightness was turned all the way down. With all 4 primary partitions already taken and brightness getting turned down when Ubuntu boots, it almost seems like a deliberate attempt to make Ubuntu hard to install on the m6 1045dx