I tried installing Zorin OS on my PC, but it isn't working. My PC is running Windows 11 and this is a first time install, my PC has never run on anything else other than Windows. I disabled autoplay, fastboot and secure boot. I have also tried using different USB sticks and different USB ports and even different softwares to burn the ISO into the USB, but nothing seems to work. My GPU drivers are up to date and Windows Defender is also turned off.
Basically, I can select the USB when I boot my PC and I get the display to choose to try and install Zorin, safe graphics or NVidia graphics. However, no matter whichever of the three instalation options I choose, I always get a black screen and nothing happens (other than a random fan in my Desktop going full steam for some reason). No video input goes into my monitors.
I haven't really been able to find anything useful online.
Here are my specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Motherboard: MSI B550-A PRO
RAM: Corsair 32GB Vengeance LPX
GPU: MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
OS SSD: M.2 2280 Samsung 980 1TB MLC V-NAND
OS: Windows 11
I did everything on that list, except the bitlocker thing. My control panel doesn't have the option to manage bitlocker. I checked the bitlocker status using CMD and all drives are decrypted. No sure if that affects anything either way.
I used MBR as it was the default option, should I have used GPT instead?
Noting the fan speed comment, could this be an acpi issue? I only know enough about acpi to get myself in trouble but when I was installing Zorin @Aravisian helped me with some acpi commands to add to the grub file.
Formats must match. If the EFI or BIOS settings are set to MBR (Legacy) and the USB stick to EFI GPT, that is a mismatch.
MBR only allows up to four bootable partitions. However, it would result in an installation error - it would not result in a black screen.
This must mean that your computer has no integrated GPU and relies only on the Dedicated Nvidia card.
Can you access the Grub Menu at boot by tapping esc or tab furiously at the motherboard splash screen?
If you are dual booting Windows... then you must have a Grub menu in order to select whether to boot Zorin OS or Windows. It is set to appear automatically if dual booting.
How are you selecting Zorin OS (where you reach a black screen)?
In addition to Fast Boot in the BIOS you have to change Advanced Power settings that are hidden. These are the ones that prevent the hard drive from fully shutting down, keeping the hard drive in 'sleep mode' for faster boot times.
Additionally you need to shrink your Windows partition (C:) in order to make room for Zorin. It is also useful to run defragment and chkdsk before shrinking the Windows partition if installing to the same drive as Windows.
I'm a bit new to all this, but what I am trying to do is a completely replace windows. Isn't a dual boot when you create a virtual machine to have both OS installed? If so, that isn't my intention.
Regardless, does what you have mentioned here still apply in this case?
But to answer your question. I insert the Thumb drive with the Zorin ISO into my desktop, I turn on my PC, then spam F11 whilst it boots. Then, a screen appears in which I can choose to boot using my SSD (Windows) or the thumb drive. When select the thumb drive I get the menu with the three installation options (Regular, safe graphics and nvidia), UEFI settings and shut down. Then, no matter whichever of the three installations I choose, I get the black screen and nothing else happens. I then have to shutdown my PC and if I don't repeat the process, it just loads up windows as usual.
I have no other OS installed on my PC other than Windows 11.
Ok! Progress. I did what you said nomodeset didn't Work, but ACPI=off did. I tried using the NVIDIA options but got these erro screen after loading the drivers
So I rebooted and wrote ACPI=off on the regular installation option.
I then managed to install Zorin OS and replaced Windows. The install appears to be successful. However, at the end of the process I had to reboot my PC, and so I did. When reeboting there was a screen telling me to remove the installation medium and press ENTER. I did just that and got the black screen, no video output, fan blarring again...
Now every time I boot my PC I get that black. However, when I press ESC when booting I get this GRUB screen
Tap ctl+o to overwrite, then tap enter to save current configuration.
What this does is make that grub parameter permanent. When you ran it in the install editor - that is a One Time command.
Tap ctl+x to exit the Nano editor - now you must run:
Just something to be aware of for the future: when I used acpi=off command a few weeks later it caused other problems and I had to change it to acpi=noirq
No, you select the second option shown in your screenshot (recovery)
This leads to the Recovery menu, at the bottom of which you will see the Root Prompt option.
