Which distro are you using? From experience, I can tell you the easiest distro to use coming from a Windoze background is PCLinuxOS. Go here:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/get-pclinuxos/
Get the KDE version if your box can handle it. Otherwise go with the LXDE version if your old box is really old.
Try it and post again if you have problems.
Your freezing on the splash screen might have to do with the distro needing a PAE enabled box. If your box has PAE, enable it in the bios. Otherwise, try PCLinuxOS. I don’t recall ever have PAE issues with that distro.
Good luck. Switched to Linux almost four years ago. Use nothing but now, except for at work....
Thanks, kevao
I’m pretty sure what I was trying is Ubuntu. I couldn’t use the latest distro (14 something) because it wouldn’t fit on one dvd- I believe I was trying a version of 12
The machine is a 2005 HP Pavilion a1630n box with a 64 bit AMD processor. I had downloaded a distro that would take advantage of the 64 bit ability.
It’s been a somewhat convoluted process. My new machine doesn’t have a DVD burner so I download the software on a flash drive and then move it to the HP and burn an image on a DVD. That part seems to be working as far as I can tell.
I’ll have to try the distro that you recommend and see if I have better luck.