strangeness with safe mode install/boot

[Glen Robinson]

I have been running feisty for some time on a Dell laptop w/o problems.  
A friend asked me about installing it on his Averatec AV250HX laptop.  
Running from the CD with normal boot left eth0 (a VIA chipset Rhine II 
100 implementation) inoperative.  Additionally, the boot occasionally 
hung.  Booting in safe mode always worked and always enabled eth0.  I 
also tried xubuntu feisty.  Xubuntu always came up with everything 
except eth0 running on a normal boot from CD.  Xubuntu always came up 
with everything working when booting in safe mode.  Does 'safe mode' do 
anything besides forcing vesa mode in graphics?  If it isn't supposed to 
be affecting anything else, is there a possibility that there is a bug 
in the VIA chipset driver?  Finally, should I go ahead and install one 
of the releases to hard disk with safe mode?