Fresh instals of 10.04, 10.10, and 11.10 not booting/logging in?

[nslegacy163]

Hi all,

So I'm refreshing my mother-in-laws laptop. It was practically unusable running XP. It's probably 5+ years old. I figured, why not install Ubuntu?! I works well on all my machines! But, something isn't working out.

First, I downloaded and installed 10.04 from my USB stick. I could log in, mess around, but the browsers (Firefox and Chrome) were not loading pages, save Google.com. Anything passed that, it hangs. So I tried upgrading to 10.10 from 10.04 using the update manager. That would give me an authentication error and revert. I looked into that and used some command lines to attempt to fix it but it didn't work out and it was just as simple to download 10.10 and reinstall...
So, I did just that and it started hanging after I would type in my login credentials. Just the mouse and the background. It will sit there eternally. I attempted reboots, reinstalls of the OS, etc with about the same results. If I could log in passed that, I couldn't do much in the OS. Super sluggish. So then I figured, might as well try 11.xx!
Same story as 10.10.
:confused:
I apologize for the long winded explanation but the more information, typically the better solution results!

Thanks for not tl;dr-ing!

[cortman]

It was practically unusable running XP.

browsers (Firefox and Chrome) were not loading pages, save Google.com. Anything passed that, it hangs.

So, I did just that and it started hanging after I would type in my login credentials.

Just the mouse and the background.

It will sit there eternally. I attempted reboots, reinstalls of the OS, etc with about the same results.

If I could log in passed that, I couldn't do much in the OS. Super sluggish.

This many problems makes me think failing HD... Boot off of a live CD and check it out. Info on HD health check here. (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FaultyHardware)

[nslegacy163]

This many problems makes me think failing HD... Boot off of a live CD and check it out. Info on HD health check here.

Unfortunately that didn't workout as it just hangs at the ubuntu load screen with the orange dots much like it would if it wouldn't get to the log in screen on 10.04 installs.

One fact I forgot to add in my original post:

I'm using unetbootin for the loading of the USB stick. Think that could be an issue?

[cortman]

Unfortunately that didn't workout as it just hangs at the ubuntu load screen with the orange dots much like it would if it wouldn't get to the log in screen on 10.04 installs.

One fact I forgot to add in my original post:

I'm using unetbootin for the loading of the USB stick. Think that could be an issue?

I've heard of some bugs with unetbootin, have you tried a CD? It could be part of the problem, since the machine is rather old.

[nslegacy163]

I've heard of some bugs with unetbootin, have you tried a CD? It could be part of the problem, since the machine is rather old.

I haven't. I'll use one of my other 'buntu machines to make the bootable USB tonight and see how that goes. If that doesn't work, I'll try using a CD...if I can find a CD-R anywhere. haha but seriously.

[nslegacy163]

I tried different variants again on different media, all with the same results. I think my next option is another flavor of OS? Can I lobby for some suggestions on that? As mentioned prior, it will be for my in-laws. They only surf the web on this laptop. I'm assuming a 'buntu flavor (like kubuntu and xbuntu) would yield the same results, so I don't know what my options are aside from what is listed under the distros on unetbootin's drop down.

Thanks again