Hooked up the USB DVD, a flash drive. Went to the bios as best I could
according to I think it is F2. The option on the screen said something
about F8 or F5 for boot options but went to the windows7 boot option no
other options presented. I checked the Live CD and flash drive on two
other machines without any problem booting from them.

In all honesty I had my friend return the computer. He bought it with
dual booting in mind and I saw no way to install Linux on that machine.
I am not new to installing Ubuntu. I have installed on more than 100
machines so far. I am using an older Acer notebook with Ubuntu 11.04
installed to write this e-mail. Could just be a faulty BIOs but 2hrs is
to long to install anything and I don't install Windows or repair it for
anyone any more. Acer notebooks are no longer on my recommended list
least someone suggests something that I have not tried.