[Nottingham] Problem installing Linux on Acer Aspire E15

[Godfrey Nix]

Hi,

Daughter has bought an Acer Aspire but has become totally infuriated with 
Windows 8 (no surprise there).

She has turned to me to install Linux, but I have encountered a problem.
I have managed to get into the BIOS settings and changed boot sequence to 
Legacy with CD-ROM as the first item. After rebooting it read the disk and 
displayed the different distros that were there. I have tried three different 
ones but all with the same result. As soon as I select the 'run' option (to 
run from CD instead of installing), the screen goes blank and I am clueless as 
to what progress is being made even though the disk drive is being accessed.

Any Ideas, or do I assume the few hundred squids are now wasted on a useless 
machine?

Regards,
Godfrey