@ guess they're all flaky
Call me crazy but rather than blindly trying various distros in the hope that the problem would magically disapper I'd have done something like:
1) Google "grub error 18"
2) Click link for the top result - http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/GRUB
3) Read the table of contents
4) Click link for the section devoted to the cause and fix for this exact error
5) Follow the rather simple directions
Biting the hand that feeds IT
