This computer is risking an appointment with a large axe I try to post something here, the whole page turns blue and the CPU runs at 100% until I terminate Firefox - and have to start all over again.

No time no for the whole thing - but Scykk, I believe you may have a compatibility problem between Mint and your hardware.

It looks as if the Mint desktop has overflowed the screen, which suggests that it lacks drivers appropriate to the computer. Two possibilities come to mind: 1) install and be ready to spend days trying to find and configure drivers 2)try firing up the live flash drive again, this time tapping F4 (I THINK when the Mint screen appears - a while since I last had to do it) and see whether it offers any alternative modes - safe graphic, failsafe, specific resolutions(which might necessitate looking up vga codes), or using vesa.

It might be simpler to try out various distros until one just works out of the box. I find Mandriva (especially the 2009 version) and Mepis provide the best driver support. Ubuntu netbook edition might just include suitable drivers, too.

This might offer a few ideas re Mint:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/install_linuxmint.html

I need to scuttle off. Can anyone else suggest distros likely to prove Advent-friendly?

(And this is my last attempt at sending this!)