can't boot fc9 live CD on Optiplex 755

[Dave Burns]

I'm trying to boot the old fc9 live CD on a Dell Optiplex 755. It gets
to the point where X is supposed to start and the screen goes wonky,
apparently crashes. I tried various boot options, e.g.
resolution=640x480 and nomodeset, no help. Can't do dmesg since it
never gets far enough. Ctl alt f1 doesn't give a console.

How can I troubleshoot this? What other boot options should I try?
Google doesn't show a lot of hits when I search for problems with the
755s and fedora, could I just be cursed or something?

fc8 and previous had problems with SATA drives on this model Dell,
could that be it?

Can I run the live cd in text mode?
thanks.,
Dave