Just an update. confirmed Kelly Price's discovery: Knoppix 7.6.1 with kernel 4.2.6 boots fine. Thanks Kelly.
I flash updated the BIOS to latest vendor supplied version 206 (2016/02/24).
Latest Ubuntu 16.04 with kernel 4.4 still has the same problem.
Just an update.
confirmed Kelly Price's discovery: Knoppix 7.6.1 with kernel 4.2.6 boots fine.
Thanks Kelly.
I flash updated the BIOS to latest vendor supplied version 206 (2016/02/24).
Latest Ubuntu 16.04 with kernel 4.4 still has the same problem.