[clug] Linux help needed please

Alastair D'Silva alastair at d-silva.org
Mon Oct 1 05:58:04 MDT 2012


> On 09/30/2012 08:35 PM, Karen Yahoo wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > A very kind friend of mine in NZ installed Ubuntu Linux on my laptop
> > about 12mths ago when Windows died and he convinced me how
> awesome
> > Linux was to use. I have had no problems until just recently. The
> > laptop keeps rebooting when I try to shut it down and the wireless,usb
> > ports, memory card slot and cd/dvd drives have all stopped working. I
> > have had some problems with the fan being quite noisy and the laptop
> > running a bit warm. Could these be linked to the problems?
> 
> Hi Karen,
> 
> My initial thought is that it might be a hardware failure - something on
the
> motherboard may have gone bad and just lost connection with a whole
> range of onboard parts.  Package upgrades in Linux don't normally cause
> anything like that (not in my eight years of using it, certainly).  What
is the
> make and model of the computer?
> 
> In my experience if the laptop is overheating it can manifest in the
entire
> machine locking up - it no longer responds to key presses, the same image
is
> displayed, and the only way to un-wedge it is to hold the power button in.
> You're not getting anything like that?

If you suspect hardware problems, there is a good chance they will show
themselves as memory errors (or they may in fact be memory errors).

My first port of call would be to burn to a CD (or write a USB key) with
Memtest86+:
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

This will take the OS out of the equation.

-- 
Alastair D'Silva           mob: 0423 762 819
twitter: evildeece   msn: alastair at d-silva.org
blog: http://alastair.d-silva.org






More information about the linux mailing list