Problem installing mint 18 on laptop

Papa_Bear

Hi all

I recently attempted to upgrade to linux mint 18 on a laptop that previously had mint 16 on ti but the performance was poor due to low RAM (500MB!) so I bought 2 x 1GB modules and installed them.

So the problem begins when I try to install linux (any variety - even lubuntu!) as the install process just hangs with an error which appears to be with the video RAM. However when I remove either RAM module and place the remaining module in either slot the installation completes albeit slowly. But when I run an update the synaptic package manager and Firefox no longer works.

If I later replace the second module and reboot the laptop, the same problem occurs again and the machine will not boot or install any linux os.


Any thoughts on this one?

Cheers

niallb

What model is the laptop, and what model are your RAM chips?
Can you check to see what BIOS version the laptop is running?

Keplar240B

Have you tested the new RAM with memtest?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memtest86

Papa_Bear

The laptop is a Targa visionary x10

Bios is AMI Hiflex v1.54

The RAMs are Samsung 1GB DDR PC3200U 30331 CL3 - E0
M368L2923DUN - CCC 0715

Memtest runs for hrs with no errors

Thanks for your help

niallb

There's quite a range of those laptops.
Can you boot to a command prompt with the single chip and run this command to find out what CPU you have?

(login as the user you created during setup at the login: prompt if you've no desktop)

cat /proc/cpuinfo

Some CPU as well as motherboards have memory limits.

When memtest is running - can you see it list both DIMMs ?
Does it test through both of them when you leave it running and count up to 2GB ?

niallb

Can't find any result on Google for a Targa Visionary X10 !
Is there anything else written on it?

niallb

If it's the XP10, you might have been better off just getting another 512MB - only mention I can find of it restricts it to 1GB over two slots.

Papa_Bear

Hi Niallb

Thanks for taking the time to reply

Yes its an XP10 - my mistake

Ive checked memtest and it registers the 2G (2048M)
and 1G (1024M) if I just have one module in.

I dont see any counting going on except for the % pass/test and the no. of passes which will continue indefinitely as you know.

The clock rate is 2127MHz
L1 cache is 64K
L2 cache is 512K

When the machine boots with both DDR modules in, the screen does not display the Linux Mint graphic (as it does with either one module inserted), but instead displays a message saying

[3.3019] radeon failed to reset GPU

which led me to think it was a video memory issue

Here is the result of the cat /proc/cpuinfo comand

---

processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 10
model name : mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP-M 2800+
stepping : 0
cpu MHz : 1462.406
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 1
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fdiv_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mp mmxext 3dnowext 3
dnow 3dnowprefetch vmmcall
bugs : fxsave_leak sysret_ss_attrs
bogomips : 2924.82
clflush size : 32
cache_alignment : 32
address sizes : 34 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid

---

Cheers

niallb

Thanks.
If you type dmesg, you should get a dump describing the drivers loaded by the kernel during boot.
There should be information there about the RAM which might give a clue.
Have you tried a 32bit build or a pae build?

If dmesg doesn't show 2GB of ram being successfully initialised, it may give a clue as to why, you might need to tell it you have more.

Interrupt the boot process and try to edit the boot loader line.
Look for the end which probably has the word 'quiet' in it. Add

mem=2048m forcepae

to the end and continue boot.

If that fails go again without the forcepae.

If that works you can go about getting that added automatically to the boot configuration.

Papa_Bear

Thanks Niall


I cant boot the machine with 2G of RAM installed so running the dmesg comand probably wont show the info id need.

The other suggestions regarding interrupting the boot process and adding code is at this moment a little beyond my ability but i will brush up and give it a try.

niallb

You'd usually interrupt the boot process by pressing ESCape.
You should see instructions on screen to tell you which button to press to Edit.
It depends on which bootloader you're using, so I can't give you a definite suggestion.

niallb

Sorry, I thought you could boot the machine with 2GB in, but the windowing system didn't load. Do you get a text based Login: prompt or a shell prompt?

Did you do the cat /proc/cpuinfo with just 1GB installed?

Papa_Bear

Yes I ran the cat /proc/cpuinfo command with 1GB. I cannot get any response beyond a certain point. I dont even get the graphical boot screen. It appears as if I was doing a recovery boot (as in displaying text output on screen) which them just seems to get stuck in a loop.

I can get to a shell prompt if I do a recovery boot.

Ill try interrupting the boot and see what I can find.

Thanks again