Linux - tried to boot from USB on a W10 machine - but...

[#1]

I changed the boot order on a pathetic W10 laptop (a HP255) & booted a ISO (Mint) image from USB.

It didn't appear to give any sensible access to the UEFI BIOS, which is irritating.

It appeared to work very quickly, but failed to start X (because it claimed it couldn't find a display).

So it failed to bring up a GUI.

It still gave a perfectly usable command entry screen though.

I'm not too bothered if I can't do this as I've other machines I could use.

[#2]

Strange that an HP didn't find the display, they are usually Linux friendly.
Wonder if it is something in the bios stopping it accessing it.
Which version of Mint were you using, a recent one? (17.n?)

[#3]

This is the first time that I've encountered a problem with Linux on a PC.

Tried Mint 17.3

Failed.

This is also the first PC for which pressing things like DLT didn't take you into a proper BIOS setup screen.

Starting Windows 10 takes several minutes, so I'm not keen on too much experimenting.

It was a fairly cheap laptop - probably HP have totally locked the user out of the PC?