I managed to get Linux running on a Philips 11NB5800, with BIOS version 1.01. It’s Mandriva 2010.0, and the only problem I had was blank screen at one point of the installation.
I managed to work around this by switching to another console when the error was about to happen (alt+ctrl+F1 or alt+ctrl+F2) and switching back (alt+ctrl+F7). The cause was something WiFi-card related, so you might just try turning wireless off while installing.

If anyone wants hints on installing Linux, I can try to help: my email address is rhn ( at sign ) o ( digit two ) ( dot ) pl