The Toshiba l305 I have has a non compatable LAN card. I should
clarify that 8.4 locked up before any splash screens appeared, and as
soon as I turned off the LAN card in the BIOs 8.4 would load fine.
After the load I once again tried turning on the LAN and the computer
would freeze up.

Added to the problem, the Atheros card was never reliable with 8.4 or
8.10. 8.10 will load and use the LAN so there is hope. I could not get
the Atheros card working however, at least not reliably so I bought a
USB WIFI card. I told the story of this experience and how I feel
about it on my blog simplyrv.imnugget.com I would advise not giving
up, I am now happy as can be with my Toshiba and run nothing but
Ubuntu 8.10 on it.