14.10 upgrade has bricked my laptop

[lee-barber86]

I've been running ubuntu 14.04 happily on a Dell E6220 (not a great laptop, but I like the convenience of a dock). I enthusiastically upgraded to 14.10 yesterday via terminal. It installed just find but upon restart it hung at the Dell splash screen -I can't even use f12 to access the boot menu!

If I can get to the boot menu I can install a fresh copy of 14.04 and wait for the next LTS distro, but I need assistance to figure out how to force my way to the boot menu.

[Bucky Ball]

Welcome. Why not try getting to the BIOS and setting the first boot device there. The key varies, but try F2, delete, or escape keys after the manufacturer splash screen (if you are very quick the splash generally tells you which key it uses to enter 'setup'). If none of those, do some research, starting with the machine's manual, to find out what key gets you to the BIOS.

I only use LTS releases because I need my machine to 'just work' and be stable. I have a couple of spare partitions to doodle about with the interim releases and occasionally other distros, but nothing serious there. Why? The latest is not always the greatest and when an OS has been released for a day (is 14.10 even released yet?) expect bugs and glitches. They might be fixed by the time support runs out in nine months ...

Just wondering why you decided to upgrade to 14.10 when 14.04 LTS, with five years support, was running fine ... :-k

[lee-barber86]

f2 doesn't access either, just hangs. I'm starting to think a new motherboard might be on the cards! I upgraded because I'm my own impulsive worst enemy.... Should've installed on vb first to test.

[Bucky Ball]

... or a spare partition. What makes you think the motherboard is at fault? It sounds like things were fine before the upgrade ... :-k

So you're saying the machine just boots to the Dell splash and stays there regardless of what key you hit, F12, F2, Del, Esc. Have you looked in the manual to check which key actually does get you to the BIOS?

If it gets beyond the Dell splash, where does it get to?

[lee-barber86]

Yes it just hangs on the dell splash, sometimes the splash is only a partial -as if it tried to go further but got stuck- I've tried all the possible keys you've listed (and others, e.g. f8). before the upgrade I only had a clean ubuntu install (from UEFI' x64 version) -simplest of setups.

[Bucky Ball]

before the upgrade I only had a clean ubuntu install (from UEFI' x64 version) -simplest of setups.

But it worked fine? Hmm. :-k

We'd have to be presuming this is hardware or something about 14.10 that is not agreeing with the hardware right from boot. The fact it is hanging on the Dell splash sort of rules out the OSs, though. Grub would come next (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Could be that.

Can you boot from a LiveDVD/USB for a closer look? You will be able to read the logs then.

If you have any spare RAM you might try swapping the RAM over and ruling out that possiblility. You may be able to boot from the Live media and do a memory check also which will check the installed RAM. May take awhile.

[lee-barber86]

I've tried the live disk option before I opened the thread, doesn't get the chance to boot. I know that 14.10 uses a new kernel [as the main change], would that have this effect if my hardware was incompatible? I have no spare ram lying around these days (just gave the last 4gb to a friend -typical!).

UPDATE: I pulled the hdd to see if I could access the bios setup or boot screens (f2/f12) just on memory alone -no dice, still hung on splash screen. So whilst it probably is a software related problem, I think it's affected the mobo in some way.

[Bucky Ball]

When you used the Live media, was it a 14.10 or 14.04 LTS release? You might try with 14.04 or even 12.04 and see if that makes any diff.

[lee-barber86]

live media was a 14.04 LTS usb. I'll try a 12.04 and see what happens, but I'm not holding out much hope... a live usb of gparted didn't work either (that was just to see if it was the live ubuntu media at fault).

[kansasnoob]

If you can locate the motherboard specs (diagram) you'll likely find something called Clear CMOS - or maybe JBAT - these things vary greatly from MoBo to MoBo, but you can usually change one jumper for about one minute with the power off to clear the CMOS which will restore the MoBo defaults, then place the jumper back in it's normal position and try booting the live Trusty media again.

Probably just google motherboard model + clear CMOS or PC model + clear CMOS and you should find info specific to that machine. Be careful and practice safe static discharge protocols to prevent damage.

[matt_symes]

.

Missed your update earlier in this thread.

[grahammechanical]

If we boot a computer without a hard disk or with a hard disk without an operating system we usually get a message to the effect that there is no OS and we should insert a disc with an OS and then press Enter.

You are not getting that. So, the problem is happening before hard disk is accessed. Computers usually run Power On Startup Tests (POST) and if anything is wrong will communicate the fact by a message on the screen or by a series of bleeps. You are not getting that.

These kinds of messages at least confirm that the CPU and RAM are working as is the BIOS memory program. Clearing the CMOS is a good idea. If the CMOS battery was no longer holding a charge then there will be a screen message to enter the BIOS. You are not getting that.

Check also for anything that could cause overheating and perhaps cause the motherboard to shut down.

Regards.

[lee-barber86]

cleared the CMOS -no good. It might be worth mentioning that pressing f2 causes it to hang, but with the 'preparing to enter setup' message showing and pressing f12 does the same but with the 'preparing one-time boot menu' message showing -so it knows what it should be doing. Also the screen dims every time and the keyboard (appears to) stop taking input.