More bad news, the laptop sometimes boots, but most often does not, but stalls once I'm behind the Grub selection screen. And then it may work all of a sudden, and I have a stable session. Until I turn it off, and start new. Live sessions from stick or DVD - the same. I also tried an ISO of Ubuntu: it starts booting, and then breaks off.
I googled a lot, and only see that many users seem to have problems like these, with many different Linux distributions.
If Linux maybe has one shining bright weakness - I think I stumbled over it.
Think I put XP back on that laptop, the Vista stuff is gone, and that way I can at least use it as another backup drive.
The good news is that I have seen enough yesterday of what i needed to see and learn about Mint, how it works, and all its included applications. Funny it is that just weeks ago I had switched to Libre Office under Windows, too, I never liked OpenOffice. Seeing it under Mint was like meeting a newly found friend once again.
Ordering another hard drive and cable now, another new one already sits on my shelf. Next week is PC reinstallation frenzy.
Until then: Raceroom, and Assetto Corsa. Who knows if by the end of next week I still have a functional PC driving them.
