Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400

[PhoenixR]

I tried installing the latest versions of Ubuntu, Kubuntu & Mint (downloaded from the official websites) on a couple of T400 from a scratch and surprisingly it was not successful as Ubuntu installation aborted, Kubuntu & Mint installed but worked with some errors or failed to start after the USB disk removal. However Debian & Manjaro installed flawlessly at the same time and on the same machines. So I was thinking what could be the problem and if anybody encountered a similar thing?

[TPFanatic]

Could be faulty hardware, how healthy is your storage drive and memory?

[PhoenixR]

The hardware looks fine - I tested and even swapped both the memory and the drives too. My first guess was a hardware fault as well but it's quite easy to recognize a faulty HDD by that unmistakenly scratching sound of course. Nothing of the like. Tried installing on 160 Gb Hitachi HDD, 320 Gb WD, 500 SSD. The drives look fine. The memory modules look fine too as I tried the installation on 3 different T400 in fact with some minimal config differences. Besides, if it was a hardware fault I doubt Debian & Manjaro could have been installed & run but they have. The ones that do not install are strangely Ubuntu-based distros mostly like Ubuntu, Kubuntu & Mint. Ah, and the Elementary does not install neither by the way. I could retest all the drives and the memory once again just in case but I'm pretty 99.9% sure that it wasn't about the drive or memory fault.

[TPFanatic]

I’m in agreement it’s unlikely a hardware fault. With t400 being old-tech I would guess it’s something lacking in t400’s chipset. Maybe an older or lts version of ubuntu will work? Mint xfce worked well on an x200 i have which is the same generation as t400.

[dr_st]

If there is some hardware incompatibility with one of the drivers in the distribution or a particular configuration, there may be some useful information in the system log.

[PhoenixR]

Right thanks guys for the suggestions I think I have found a clue; I am going to share after it confirms.

[Splank]

where you ever able to resolve this OP?