Linux LiveCD problems

[Calum]

I downloaded the Slax and Ubuntu LiveCDs yesterday and tried them both out today
I can boot from them fine, but then with Ubuntu I get some music and then a black screen.  Eventually the CD drive spins down, but nothing happens even if I leave it for half an hour.  No sound, no display, no response, whatever I press.  I had to shut it down by holding down the power button.
With Slax, it boots fine, but then whatever option I choose for the display mode it doesn't work.  I get a lot of errors about failing to load things and that "x may have crashed". They scrolled by quite fast, so I don't actually know the exact messages I got.
So in short, neither CD works. With one I get a black screen, and with the other I get a lot of error messages until I shut down.
Can anyone help me out here?  Could it be a problem with hardware incompatability?

[GX1_Man]

Tell us about your hardware.

Also when you boot Slax (let's focus on that) your login in root, the password is toor. On screen you will see the command to configure your video adapter> I don't remember what it is, but you will see that. Type it and press enter and it will set up the X Configuration for the best results for the video card it configures. You will be returned to the prompt where you type in startx and press enter. What happens then?

[SilentAssasin64]

The command, GX1, is "xconf" I believe (for future reference).

[GX1_Man]

That sounds correct. Thanks.

I use so many Linux flavors it is hard to keep them all straight.

[Calum]

It is xconf, that was the first thing I did after logging in as root with password toor
I then used startx, whuch is when all the errors came up
There was no GUI or anything, just the black screen with white letters reporting errors, problems and so on
Hardware - AMD Turion 64 MT-37 2GHz, ATi Mobility X1600 256Mb, 1Gb RAM, 15.4" widescreen 1280x800, 100Gb 7200rpm HDD, DVD-RW drive (Sony DW-Q520A)
Thanks for the replies

[Calum]

I downloaded Ubuntu and Slax again, plus the 64 bit version of Ubuntu
Same problems with all 3 distros - Slax gives me errors, and both of the Ubuntu versions just sit there with a black screen, looking at me dumbly
I'm at a complete loss now, I've no idea why these aren't working unless it's a hardware incompatibility

[Rob Pomeroy]

What happens if you press Ctrl+Alt+F1?

[Calum]

On which distro?
And when?

[Rob Pomeroy]

Any distro, at the black screen.

[Calum]

OK I'll try it when I get some time, thanks

[Calum]

I trid Ctrl + Alt + F1 at the black screen on Ubuntu.
I got a command prompt, but had no idea where to go from there.
I typed help and got a list of commands, but they scrolled past too fast to read.
I shut it down then because I had no idea what to do.
I also downloaded a Linspire LiveCD, but that hangs halfway through loading - the progress bar stays halfway along and the CD drive spins down, not doing anything.  It doesn't do anything if I leave it for half an hour either.

[GX1_Man]

Experience has shown me that a slow burn (4x or less) is desirable, assuming the download was not corrupted. You may want to burn another.

[Calum]

After Ubuntu and Slax didn't work the first time, I searched the forum for a while and found your advice about slow burns.
I burned all 4 of these at 4x speed, with nothing else running in the background.
It could be a corrupted download, but I doubt all 4 CDs would be corrupted.
Plus, I used the CD validation tool on Ubuntu, and it checked out OK.
The others don't have that option, but still . . . all of them corrupted?

[Rob Pomeroy]

Don't worry - I just wanted to establish that your distro had installed.  It has.  Ctrl+Alt+F7 will take you back to the black screen.  From there, Ctrl+Alt++ should cycle between different resolutions.  See what happens when you try that.

[Calum]

OK, I'll try that in a bit.
Thanks very much for all your suggestions, everyone.