Once you have Peppermint 3 installed …
OK, the following instructions are for a single boot ONLY … so you’ll have to do this EVERY time you boot … but if it works, we can automate the procedure.
Turn ON your laptop, and as soon as your BIOS POST screen disappears, press the SHIFT key and hold it, until you are presented with the GRUB menu … SIMILAR to this:
(you won’t have long to hit the shift key, and the timing can be a little awkward, so it may even be easier to hit AND HOLD the Shift key DURING the BIOS POST … ie. immediately after turning on your PC)
http://linuxforums.org.uk/MGalleryItem.php?id=1361
Select the ‘default’ kernel (usually the top one), and rather than pressing enter, press E to edit.
You will be presented with a screen SIMILAR to this:
http://linuxforums.org.uk/MGalleryItem.php?id=1152
Press DOWN ARROW until you get to the line that starts with:
linux /boot
and press the END key to position the cursor at the end of the that line… it usually ends with “quiet splash”.
Now you can enter additional kernel boot options… so add nomodeset as in the above screenshot … so it now reads:
[b]quiet splash nomodeset[/b]
(doesn't matter if it moves down a line, as long as there is a space between splash and nomdeset)
Now hit Ctrl+X to boot.
If nomodeset doesn’t work … try replacing nomodeset with:-
radeon.modeset=0
or
radeon.modeset=0 blacklist=radeon
If this works, it will only work for a single boot and will need re-applying at the next boot … but if it solves the issue, we’ll make it permanent 
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