The magic combo that worked for me on a fresh install of Ubuntu Xenial 16.04.3 LTS (on a new Dell Precision workstation - not a laptop) was:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1920x1200
Of course the GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX should match your monitor's native resolution.
The magic combo that worked for me on a fresh install of Ubuntu Xenial 16.04.3 LTS (on a new Dell Precision workstation - not a laptop) was:
GRUB_CMDLINE_ LINUX_DEFAULT= "nomodeset" LINUX=" " _LINUX= 1920x1200
GRUB_CMDLINE_
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD
Of course the GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD _LINUX should match your monitor's native resolution.