Need help with screen freezing

**lemon_lime123** · October 7th, 2009

Installed 9.04 on my desktop, seemed to work fine. Restarted it and it froze at the login screen. Tried it a couple more times and now it freezes at the spinning cirsor. Its a Compaq with a pentium 4, it should work, 1.24GB RAM

Any Suggestions?

Tried this page which the person had the almost the same problem as i do, followed the instructions, no go.
Also sometimes I get up to the first drumbeat sound, sometimes just the spinning cursor, sometimes a black screen with a white password box.

EDIT: Tried updating to kernal 2.6.30.3, no go

**rreese6** · October 7th, 2009

Does this problem get worse the longer the Computer is turned on?

If so it might be that your computer needs to have the dust cleaned out of it. another issue might be that you had a bad installation CD . dod you run the "Check CD Media"?

**lemon_lime123** · October 7th, 2009

I cleaned out the dust not too long ago, maybe like a week or two, but I can do it again to make sure. I had originally tried using CD-Rom to install but the LiveCD would not work and the alternate CD failed the integrity test every time I burned it. So I re-downloaded the Alternate cd, ran an MD5 Sum, which it passed, and made a USB startup disk off another Ubuntu computer.

**lemon_lime123** · October 11th, 2009

Update: This morning my mom turned on the computer and left it there. It went into Ubuntu and took me into the login screen without freezing. Cautiously, I entered my username and password, and it logged in- for the first time. I tried to connect to my network, and it froze, like it did before. Tried restarting, back to my original problem.

**rreese6** · October 11th, 2009

Could be a memory issue. if not heat. (I am sure you made sure that all your fans are operational (running). Try to boot the system with the LiveCD and run the memory test. let it run as long as it can. and if the system freezes, I would suggest powering down, removing all cards and clean edges by rubbing gold contacts with the blank side of a business card or 3x5 cards..paper will work but use small pieces so you don,t build up static. then reinstall cards as try again.
if you have a memory error. eliminate all memory cards except one (unless you only have one) and try one card at a time to find the bad one. if you only have one card then replace it.
Also I have seen where the CPU had overheated once and only partially works afterwords. especially if the thermal compound had dried out between the cpu and heatsink.
his really doesn't seem like a software issue, but it might be. Try an older version of Ubuntu from LiveCD boot, if after checking all the hardware showed nothing

**lemon_lime123** · October 12th, 2009

mem test was fine, but at the advice of another person, I installed 9.10 manually, only to find that now the system doesn't freeze, but I'm stuck in a root shell prompt. Worse, XP doesn't show up in Grub anymore, and i didn't overwrite any existing partitions, I just used unallocated space. I really stuck in a pickle now.

**rreese6** · October 12th, 2009

It seems like you know have two Linux installations one that boot only in the shell (root prompt) usually used for making non-gui server installations. and then you have Windows and a GUI Linux. Basically 3 OS's installed.
Let's get a snapshot of what you have going on now.

You need to download the Boot Info Script and post the info from its output file (Readme.txt) here (Be sure to click the '#" symbol before pasting so that the output is in a scrollable window in your post (makes it easier to read.

1. Boot up with LiveCD. Once you are on the Desktop, go to this link and download:

Code:

Download Boot Information Script

This Script will gather your current configuration and make a report.
This gives us a better idea of what your problem is and how to fix it.

2. Open up terminal and type:

Code:

sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

This will make a file called "Readme.txt" on your desktop.

3. Post the contents of that file here.

**theozzlives** · October 12th, 2009

As far as the GRUB menu,

Code:

sudo update-grub

should fix that. It's been an issue in GRUB2 for awhile now.

**rreese6** · October 12th, 2009

Originally Posted by theozzlives

As far as the GRUB menu,

Code:

sudo update-grub

should fix that. It's been an issue in GRUB2 for awhile now.

His Original problem is not the "extra installation" so we relly don't want to update grub to include "the fix" he got from somewhere else.
I am in the opinion that he should remove the last install and repair the original dual boot. seems like a video card or Hardware issue.

**lemon_lime123** · October 13th, 2009

I tried booting from the LiveCD.
All I got was

Code:

Starting early crypto disks....                                                     [OK]
Starting remaining crypto disks...                                                  [OK]
_

The cursor is blinking but nothing happens after that.

I can try running the Boot Information Script off a USB, in the root shell, how does that sound?