Trying to install Zorin 5.0 Core on old HP desktop

I am new to Zorin and Linux. I have an older HP desktop that was running Windows XP before it crashed (several months ago). At the time I tried to recover the OS but the recovery discs were corrupt. When I heard of Zorin I saw it as a chance to dust off the HP without shelling out bucks for an OS. I am trying to install Zorin as the only OS. I get through most of the installation until it gets to "Ready" than it just sits there. When I checked it did not appear to be connecting to my network. ( It is wired in.) So I tried disconnecting from my router and connecting directly to the modem with the same result. How do I get the system to connect to the network or internet when it is not yet installed??

It is a HP Pavilion a859n AMD Athlon 64processor 512Mb Memory and 160Gb HD

Any help would be appreciated.
Joe

Will try booting live. Wiped all partitions when I installed Zorin. Was 4 partitions now are 2, created during Zorin install. Will post tomorrow on results running live.

Well I ran live and and it worked but was very slow. I than realized that there was an network connection. I had the icon showing 2 monitors. I clicked it for info and it showed a connection to a MAC address that I do not know. I had it cannected to my router so it was accessing the Internet through the router. Based on this I tried an install.....but got the same result . Got to Ready and just sat there. Thinking I might have a corrupted file I ran it live on my laptop with no problems. So I than figured I would try installing on my laptop as alternate OS. It zipped right by the Ready point and did a complete install. Running on laptop I get several differen error messages. "GnuMenu.py closed unexpectedly"...rebooted got "IndicatorAppletComplete quit unexpectedly." I rebooted and tried running Live and got "Sorry the program nautilus closed unexpectedly". In all cases I tried to report the problems and got "The problem canno tbe reported. This is not a genuine Ubunu pacakge."

I have given up on the Desktop. It is on its way to Goodwill. My problem now is how do I get Ziron off my laptop and remove it partitions...i.e. Get my laptop back to pre-install state?

Thanks
Joe

Hi Joe,

sorry to hear you are having problems, did you update the system after you finished the install??. A lot of those messages will disappear once you do that.

If you want to restore your PC to a factory state, you will need the recovery disks that came with your PC, boot the PC with the first disk inserted and follow the instructions, it should be automatic assuming the PC is fairly new!!. All you need to do is point the installer to where the system should be installed, basically point it to the partitions you want to use!!.

If you did not completely wipe the hard drive of all partitions, there should be a recovery partition and you can normally access this by pressing F7 as soon as the PC boots. (The function key may change from PC to PC, it might be F12 for example!!)

Regards Wolfman