Eric,
I have a Fujisu (sp) laptop the back light is having issues but
still works.
Currently running XP-SP3 I would wipe its HD with DBAN, and could
do an initial install.
I currently have ISOs for Ubuntu 10.4, 10.10, Fedora 14, and 15
burned ( along with a few older distros).
I will do the wipe this weekend.
James C.