Unable to boot

[sezhiana]

Hi,

I am having this problem for a few months now. I have Dell D630 laptop and I installed 10.04 I think and then slowly upgraded to 12.10. I started having problems like freezing. I had installed in my wife's Sony NR110E Ubuntu (currently 12.04) in dual boot with XP. I do not have any problems in this laptop.

I thought 12.10 was the issue in my Dell and installed 12.04 back. Things were OK for a while and again this problem started and I was unable to boot. No video nothing. I connected it to an external monitor. I disconnected it but nothing happened. Then I connected it back and I could do Fn+F8 to get the display on the external monitor.

Then I installed Zorin. It was ok for a few days and then the problem started again. So I cleaned everything and installed Zorin afresh. Same story. Right now I could not even boot with the Live CD (Both Zorin and 12.04).

I think the graphics card is NVidia.

I need some help here.

Thanks

Sezhian

[DuckHook]

You've given a good description of your progressively worsening problems. I suspect that it is hardware. If you were able to run LiveCD before but not now, and the problem seems to have worsened with time, then this usually indicates that either your motherboard is going, or your video card. The D630 should be able to run modern flavours of Ubuntu with no problem, so it is not a case of your HW being under-powered.

Do you still have the Dell HW diagnostics CDs? If so, you may wish to give those a try and run a complete set of HW diagnostics.

[sezhiana]

Thanks for your reply.

I do not have the CDs.

Three days back I installed Zorin and it working fine for two days and then it suddenly froze and after that I am unable to boot except for once. At times I get to what looks like a command line when I boot. I dont know what to do at that point.

Thanks again.

[DuckHook]

You can download them on the Dell site. Easy to Google. You will have to burn them from your Wife's laptop, but this can be done easily. Site is here.

[sezhiana]

i downloaded the .exe file as an ISO image and booted my system with the disc in my cd drive. Nothing happened. How do I run it? I tried with wine - it opens the folder.

The system works on and off - there is flick suddenly and the system freezes. One time I was hearing the audio for more than an hour but system froze. I had to do a hard reboot.

Thanks.

Sezhian A

[Ernesto M EF]

The new Ubuntus are jokes really.. i myself have had so many issues with my 12.04 LTS i did an update to it and when it was done i rebooted my system for it to take effect and random issues were just.. exploded everywere freezing, unexpected applications being opened "System Settings.. or the icon with the tools in Ubuntu" that was unable to close at all it didnt let me use any other application if i closed it it reopened, no audio, no right click and even complete instability with horrible i mean HORRIBLE multitasking that would freeze one application for god knows how long "That has not been fixed at all". So in the end of the day i gave up i mean really i was just being retarded trying to fix this nightmare that has no true stability and my PC has enough memory to support at least 5 windows opened in my Windows Multi tasking is no issue in Ubuntu its a hard reboot.

[sezhiana]

I don't agree with you. I have Ubuntu 12.04 installed on my other machine (Sony) and I don't have any problems with it. It is only this m/c (Dell) and that too only recently. I really like Ubuntu but new to it and don't have time to fully learn it. Thanks.

[grahammechanical]

Do you have another OS on this Dell laptop? Do these issues arise in that OS? Is there a page in the BIOS that monitors temperatures and stuff like that? If so let the machine run for a bit with the BIOS open and check temperature settings.

I have installed Psensor which sits as an icon in the top panel (app indicator) and one click on the icon and I can see various temperature readings as well as fan speeds and CPU speeds. Over-heating due to blocked air flows should not be discounted. Battery/power supply issues and failing memory chips.

Regards.

[DuckHook]

It's been ages since I've used Dell diagnostics, so this is all from foggy memory, but as I recall, you have to run the .exe file on a Windows machine for it to self-extract. This produces an iso file that can then be burned to a cd which, in turn, produces a bootable CD that can be used to diagnose.

When you first posted, I got the impression that your laptop simply would not boot at all. But from your latest postings, it it is now clear that it will sometimes boot, sometimes not. If this is its behaviour, then you almost certainly have a HW problem.

I am asking again (please provide info) does it boot from Ubuntu LiveDVD?

Do you hear the laptop fan come on?
Does computer run hot to the touch?

In addition to what grahammechanical recommends, the next time the computer manages to boot, do:

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors

Answer "yes" to all of its installation questions. Then do:

watch sensors

which will give you a running readout of your core temperatures. If you are using the open source video driver, it will also give you GPU info. Fan speeds may or may not appear depending on your system and BIOS. <CTRL>+<c> to quit.

If core is idling higher than 70* or GPU is higher than 90*, then you have a temperature problem. Either a bad fan or clogged intakes.

[sezhiana]

Thanks to both grahammechanical and duckHook.

I installed the lm-sensors and it only displays "temp1" which right now varies from 46.5`C to 51.5`C. I can hear the laptop fan come on. Some times the sound goes up and down. The m/c is not hot to touch.

Till two days back it was not booting even from live CD (Zorin / Ubuntu 12.04) at best it was going to a command line only on the external monitor. By accident I found that pressing F2 immediately after pressing the power button brings the Dell logo and the laptop boots normally. I have not tried otherwise as I was afraid that the m/c might go back to its old ways.

Even now suddenly there is a flicker on the screen and the m/c will freeze.

I made the bootable CD from my dual boot laptop (XP/12.04) but it does not seem to do anything because default booting is CD drive first and then internal HDD. The down load from Dell website was for an XP OS. I don't know if it makes any difference as my current OS is Zorin.

I am posting this from the Dell laptop (Zorin OS).

Thanks.