I have a Vitros RP Zero W basic kit that I had in mind to try for some new projects. While far from a programmer, I have some ancient experience in BASIC and FORTRAN and more recently have played with C++ in an Arduino environment, adding some features to a BitX radio. I cannot seem to get even started with the RPi zero!

I have the kit-supplied power supply along with a USB hub to connect a USB keyboard and a mouse, and an HDMI video cable to attach to a monitor. I flashed a 32GB card several times using different programs, most recently  Etcher, and flashing the full 2021-01-11-raspios-buster-armhf-full image. It verified OK. I have also tried a few smaller files, but the results are the same in that I cannot completely get going. Sometimes the pi just freezes...no green light, and nothing on the screen but an immovable mouse arrow. Sometimes it gets all the way to the desktop, where I enter a new password, location info, and sometimes rarely even as far as connecting to my WiFi. But, it always freezes, usually the mouse failing to respond at some point, or everything just locking up. I can power off...wait a bit, and power on and it may start or even seem to be getting somewhere, but it never actually is stable and gets to the point of being able to be used. I changed flashing from using the SD slot on my Win10 computer because it seemed a little flaky...sometimes saying the card was write protected (it isn't)...to a USB-connected removable drive, but the same thing happens at some point in the attempt to get started. What is wrong here?

=Vic=