Hardy Heron or Kubuntu 8.04 is the LTS version. You will have to wait for two
more years for another one. If it does not do what you want from the Live CD,
then it is a sign that configuring your hardware with the latest release could
take more work on your part. This could be because of a change in direction for
the Kubuntu developers since Dapper or it could be that your hardware drivers
are not included in the release due to having to put new ones in and still
having to fit it on a single CD. Out with the old and in with the new in some
cases.

This may seem as a step backwards for you, but there are others who see it as a
step forward. You can try to please everyone, but you usually fail. So we have
to settle for trying to do what most people are asking for and the Ubuntu/
Kubuntu team really go out of their way to do this with such projects as
Launchpad and Brainstorm.

All I can suggest is that you stick with what is working or that you bite the
bullet and get help with making the upgrade work through this forum and Ubuntu
Forums itself. Laptops are notoriously bad for configuring due to the amount of
proprietary parts. That being said there is likely a user out there running the
same equipment as you with Hardy Heron working. Perhaps you could do some
advance work in the forums to find such a person, before you upgrade and he or
she can mentor you.