I recently had an issue with a Gateway NX100X (aka E100M) where the system would not display video after the splash screen unless in failsafe graphics mode. Side note: This should also apply to systems with Intel 945GM but I have no way of testing.
Turns out, the solution is a simple one.
Step 1:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
Step 2:
Find the line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
Step 3:
Change it to:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash vga=864"
Step 4: Save and exit gedit.
Step 5: sudo update-grub
That’s it!