Won't run from USB

PC 1.46gHz 1.24 GB RAM Intel Celeron CPU.
Following XP nightmares I decided to try Zorin. I have a DV1000 running XP on a partitioned disk NTFS also Fat32 with win98. Downloaded Zorin 9.0 Lite . Multiple attempts to DVD. Closest success got me to screen asking for Username and Password. All suggestions in this forum failed. (How do you search the forum for Login and Password issues when search doesn't allow them?) those downloads and burns were done on a Mac.
I installed XP and again downloaded and checksum verified Zorin 9 lite. Created a bootable USB using unetbootin.
Booted from USB which gave me the option to run from USB. I started this option which gave me a Zorin screen which then went black with various errors including panic message and returning to system which never happened. There is no elegant way to escape back to reboot other than to shutdown the system.
So here I am wondering if this is leading me down a road full of frustration. I don't want to install if the test from USB fails.

Any suggestions?
Ray

Do you get at least a GRUB screen with options before it goes Black? Press 'E' to edit the bootloader parameters and try adding these commands:

Code:

acpi=off noapic nolapic xforcevesa

The last command will force the graphical interface.

Thanks for the reply. I'm a pretty good but frustrated dos and Windows user, an ok Mac program or app user, but haven't used Unix for about 15 years. No offense, but a GRUB to me is an insect birds eat. I an hoping to have an easy test of a Linux op, but so far I'm running into issues that I hoped would be looked after program designers. I don't mind tackling issues and just recently solved the XP problems that HP didn't want to address.
When I try to run from USB I get the Zorin logo on a blue screen and then it goes to terminal. I suppose I could look for common UNIX commands to try to get back to the program, but my inexperience and willingness to experiment could get me in trouble.
If you think some simple steps can get me to a running program to see what it's like, I'd be willing to try

OK, I think there could be an issue with your USB client/iso manager not being compatible with Zorin Lite or rather the opposite? The best USB manager for me has always been MultiSystem - the downside of that for you is that it needs to be installed on an existng GNU/Linux rig - that said, you could download the MultiSystem to USB, run that live then pull the iso from the other stick with Zorin LIte on?:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/multisystem/