The mouse and keyboard freezes on my brand-new XPS 8940 when I try to install CentOS 7 from a USB3 thumb drive.

I've created an apparently valid thumb drive from the standard CentOS 7 DVD ISO (from centos.org). I created it using "Rufus". (v3.14) I've changed the boot order so that the XPS 8940 attempts to boot from the thumb drive.

It loads up the CentOS install program as expected. As soon as I attempt to move the mouse, everything freezes. It appears that the USB mouse and/or USB keyboard are interfering with the USB thumb drive.

Since the entire purpose of buying this machine was to run CentOS 7, I'm at an impasse. Any suggestions?