Read error and very slow boot when attempting to install xubuntu 14.04

[edgewalker_0012]

My mother's computer is running an old version of ubuntu that is no longer supported (8.16 I think, 8 for sure) and since she has now run into some problems with sending mail (Hotmail is no longer fully compatible with her browser is my guess, and I can't just upgrade the browser since the version is not supported, and can't download any required libraries) I thought to install a small partition with Xubuntu so she can send mail from there and still keep her other stuff (I have no idea what her connection info is for her normal mail service and neither does she, so I can't just reformat the whole damn thing, as much as I want to).

Anyhow, when attempting to boot from my pen drive to install the new OS, the boot took almost half an hour, and after displaying the blue "Xubuntu" splashscreen with the rotating dot for maybe 5 of those, the program just went to a black screen with text, the first lines reading
"Read error
Read error
Read error"

For three addresses, I'm assuming, and then an error code comprised of a zero, an X, a string of more zeroes and then 100. After that it said something about kernel panic and a kill command, so I'm assuming it shut itself down.

I'm now trying the same pen drive on my laptop and installing from it there is no problem at all, even the boot time was insignificant.

Is my mom's old hunk of junk ready for the scrapheap, or can I do something about this?

[mikewhatever]

You could try another USB port, but other then that, you'd probably need to be a hardware junckie with much free time and patience.

[ajgreeny]

Is my mom's old hunk of junk ready for the scrapheap, or can I do something about this?

We might be able to give you a better answer if we know what this "hunk of junk" was.

Tell us about the hardware, particularly the cpu, graphic card, wireless adapter, and finally amount of ram.

[yancek]

The fact that you can successfully use the flash drive on your laptop indicates that it is not a problem, the flash drive. However, that doesn't help much unless your laptop and your mothers computer are exactly the same, as far as the manufacturer and were purchased at the same time and have exactly the same hardware. Have you checked to see if the computer is capable of booting from a flash drive? Does it have a CD/DVD drive? Posting info on the computer hardware asked above would be a good starting point toward getting a resolution.

[edgewalker_0012]

The fact that you can successfully use the flash drive on your laptop indicates that it is not a problem, the flash drive. However, that doesn't help much unless your laptop and your mothers computer are exactly the same, as far as the manufacturer and were purchased at the same time and have exactly the same hardware. Have you checked to see if the computer is capable of booting from a flash drive? Does it have a CD/DVD drive? Posting info on the computer hardware asked above would be a good starting point toward getting a resolution.


It is able to boot from a flash drive, that's how I installed the OS that it already has. And it does have a CD/RW drive. I don't have the rest of the specs at the moment, I have to check when I see her again tomorrow.