Kali 2016.1 - no GUI / gdm3 won't load

Hello,

I have an issue where I cannot get gdm3 to load and after trying tons of different suggestions I've found on the web and reinstalling several times I've decided it was time to give the official forums a chance to resolve my issue. Gdm3 never loads on a brand new install - I even tried removing gdm3 and using Lightdm which kicks out several error messages. Gdm3 doesn't give any error messages. This is on a brand new install with app-get update and upgrade completed. Removing and reinstalling GDM3 also yields no results and I have reconfigured afterwards. I have ran into many different issues with Kali in the past regarding getting wireless to work with certain tools etc but have been able to resolve or workaround all of them. I am trying to run Kali 2016.1 on an Alienware M17x laptop with an ATI graphics card if that matters for suggestion purposes. All previous versions of both Backtrack and Kali have never had GUI issues in my system and I obtained the image directly from the website in ISO format. The install is on a separate partition directly to the hdd, booting from grub and not trying to use a live boot or virtual machine.

Thanks,
Brian