10.10 to 11.04 trashed my bios?

[evm78]

making my own thread since i can't access Grub menu or even run a livedisc.

after first 10.10 to 11.04 reboot, i got a text based login (there were some error messages i was not familiar with above login line), logged in in text mode, but no luck starting x.
after about a minute, i restarted the computer, and now everything goes black after 3 seconds at the (text) login screen.

now the bad news...

-live disc never loads anything.
-bios setup screen also disappears after 3 seconds.

i was able to quickly do a 'load optimized settings' in bios, but it does not stop the bios setup from crashing afterwards, or fix much else.

since the bios reload, i can now see the Grub message go by, and if i hold <esc> i can get to the menu, but the screen always goes black instantly after showing the Grub menu.

has anyone ever seen this? this new behavior seems to affect the board itself, it doesn't matter if there any HDs connected, bios setup loads, you can try to quickly do something, but it invariably just goes black.

so by definition, this has become a hardware issue....but it happened on the upgrade, and it has a some vague thing in common (it seems to me) with other people's graphics/upgrade problems.

MSI K9A2 790FX for AMD
AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 4400+ 2.3 GHz
ATI Radeon HD3850
(tried swapping in a Geforce 8400 GS to get away from HDMI, made no difference)

update:with hard drives fully disconnected, was able to start loading live disc: got to choose language, think about memory test, then it went black screen.....

[evm78]

bump.

[darkod]

A graphics problem after upgrade is usually if the card drivers are not supported immediately. You only need to boot once and install a driver.

But the BIOS being messed up, is more a hardware thing like you said yourself. It might be just a coincidence, I haven't heard any type of OS destroying a BIOS. Doesn't sound good anyway.

[evm78]

Well i don't know for a fact that the BIOS is messed up. I can still make it all the way to ubuntu text login...then the screen goes black. Just like i can get into bios or grub...but they go black within seconds. So the bios is definitely doing something.

I actually just realized that if i wait long enough for the system to go to sleep, by looking at the indicator lights on my (black) monitor, i can actually wake it up, the screen works dimly for a moment, and the system is still at the login! And three seconds later...it goes black. So ubuntu is still alive in there, even though the problem exists all the way back at the bios setup screen and grub.

[sammiev]

Can be a few things. I would look at the graphic driver first but a weak power supply will do the same.