Kubuntu not installing properly

Question

As the title says I'm having a problem installing Kubuntu. I'm trying to run Kubuntu 18.04.1 LTS on my Alienware laptop. Before putting it on that I installed it on my old Asus and encountered no problems. The issue I am having is after it installs and prompts a restart once I click the button to restart the text box disappears but the laptop never restarts. I can manually turn the laptop off and back on but from there it will not load properly unless I launch it in recovery mode. When I try and launch it normally everything works fine until I input my password and the computer freezes up. I did not have this issue when running it on my old Asus laptop despite using the exact same image and USB stick. I thought perhaps it would be a graphics issue but the Alienware uses a slightly newer NVIDIA chip than the old one and both load the same driver at install, so I'm at a loss for what to do.

EDIT My laptop doesn't have a Software & updates thing, it just has a driver manager. When I try and click on the recommended (middle) option instead of allowing the driver to change like it used to it just refreshes and doesn't apply the change. Driver Manager as it's loading

Driver Manager once it's loaded

Answer 1

Set nomodeset option and run updates

Follow this answer and set the nomodeset so you can boot.

Once you are booted add the nvidia driver ppa and run updates:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Now reboot and see that everything works. If so, you can go to Software & Updates -> Aditional Drivers and install the recommended nvidia driver.

Now reboot and remove the nomodeset option and see if it will boot. If not, just add it back.