When you say 3/4 through, do you mean through formatting or installing? If
it is formatting, then you could have some bad sectors. If it is installing
then you might have a bad ISO or bad burn. We need more info.

the format finishes , it is the install that stops . processor is AMD sempron
3000+ 1.8Ghz with via chipset 2 gb ram .27 gb hard drive .

if it was earlier in the thread, but to be sure, you did pick the
32-bit Ubuntu 10.10 to install from. I made an error once on the CPU type...

yes I did pick the 32 bit version .

Go with a slower burn and if that does not work download a new ISO. Most
times a slower burn will fix it, but if the download was flawed then you
need to go deeper and start fresh. I prefer rewritables and usb sticks for
that reason.

If it hangs at the same point then first thing I'd suspect is a faulty
burn or ISO download so try re-downloading and re-burning the CD. Get
back to us if it stops at the same point again with more information
on exactly which point it hangs.

updated information
downloaded again and made new install copy to usb drive , do not have CD drive .
started install again and format is OK , copy files doen not finish , stops
about 3/4 of the way through .
screen reads
Install
who are you
filled in all spaces
name
computer name
user name
password
selected log in automatically
red progress line at bottom stops about 3/4 to end and will not go any farther .
computer is AMD semprom 3000+ 1.8ghz 2gb ram via chipset 27.6 gb hard drive .

Have you another USB drive to try this on ? Sounds like there's
something breaking the data copying. Also what are you using to create
the bootable USB install ?

When you say 'no CD drive' is this because this system doesn't have
one fitted or that the drive just doesn't work ?

I always suspect the medium. Was that disk ever used for an install on
another machine? Did you verify the checksum? (I never do but I've been
lucky so far!)

Both previous points are well made. If you re-burn do it at a lower speed.

it does not have a CD fitted . It came preloaded with XPpro and I have never
needed to have one . to make the boot USB install I used the universal usb
installer from the ubuntu site . I did a fresh download and created another usb
install on a different stick and ran install again . it failed at the exact same
place during the install . maybe should try an older release ? I do have several
CD drives but none of them are burners .

Try using an 'Alternate Install' version from the site below, it's not
as 'pretty' and installer but you still end up with the same Ubuntu as
the more graphical installer.

http://mirrors.xmission.com/ubuntu-cd/10.10/

Neat thing about this one is that you get the 'repair' option that's
missing from the standard installation CD

downloaded 10.04 and it works very well . my 3 year old computer was probably
not good enough for 10.10 .

It does not necessarily follow that a newer release requires newer hardware
and v.v.. The requirements of 10.10 are the same as 10.04. There are many
reasons why some releases work better with different hardware than others
and it has little to do with age of the hardware. My five year old HP runs
10.10 just fine. It has Compiz and it can do everything my newer one can,
albeit more slowly.

I don't think your 3 year old computer is the problem as I'm writing
this on a 6 year old machine I first built in 2000 and upgraded to an
AMD 2800 CPU in 2005. The RAM was upped to 2 MB several years ago and
I'm running 10.10 on it with no problems. I don't have any computer
newer than 2005 or with more than 2 GB of RAM and have never bought
"premium" components.

However... certain combinations of Mainboard, CPU, RAM and various
adapter cards will give problems with certain operating systems. I'm
being very vague because until the issues crop up nobody can predict
them. Frustrating? Yes, but that's life in the fast lane of the
computer world.

As they say when they don't have a clue, "it's all in the way you hold
your mouth"!

My 4 year old has had 10.10 installed and ran without
a hitch. I would hate to think I did something wrong.

My 6 year old AMD 2800+ machine with 2 GB of RAM works perfectly with
10.10. So does my 4 year old AMD Turion64 1.6 GHZ Gateway laptop with
1 GB of RAM.