Ubuntu

Ubuntu 8.04 crashes - locks up my pc

Asked by flatlander

I've just installed Ubuntu 8.04 - my first time with Linux.

Everything seemed to be going fine until the system suddenly crashed. This happens EVERY time I boot into Ubuntu - after anything up to 20 minutes use, apparently at random. This seems to shut down my graphics card:- the monitor goes blank and displays "no signal - going to sleep". I thought this might be a screen saver issue at first, but nothing will wake the system up again, not even Control-Alt-Del. (I have since disabled the screen saver and it still happens)
The only way out of this is the PC reset button.

Is this the Linux equivalent of Windows' infamous blue screen? I hoped Linux was going to be better...
:(

Any clues on this ?
If not, I need to know how to get my PC to boot into Win XP again as the default OS...

My system details:
Abit KV7 with AMD Sempron 3300+ and 2Gb RAM
ATI RADEON 9200 128Mb AGP
Ubuntu is installed on its own 80Gb HDD

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peter b
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Revision history for this message
marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#1

Please check:
1) - Please check your video cable unplug and replug to the connector...
2) - Check your hardware fans to be sure are they working...
3) - Make a deep check your RAM... press ESC when you see the GRUB row at startup.... and run memtest for all night long

Hope this helps

Revision history for this message
flatlander (juggle) said : 		#2

Thanks for your answer, but my hardware is OK.

I've just noticed this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=765510

It seems that many others have the same problem, which has been unresolved for some time.

I need a computer which WORKS, so I'd be most grateful if someone could tell me how to uninstall Ubuntu and get my WinXP system back again. Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Steven Rose (steveydoteu) said : 		#3

Boot from your Windows install media, and install it as it would have been in the first place. Tell it to use all the free space and it will format the drive, in turn overwriting Ubuntu.

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Best peter b (b1pete) said : 		#4

helo flatlander,

it looks like there's a problem with the boot record - you can not boot into xp.

for sure you installed ubuntu after xp and - apparently- ubuntu grub installation WAS NOT directed to the / partition of ubuntu and the MBR was over-written (on which xp lives, that's a MANDATORY xp default -it can not be installed BUT THERE).

secondly, is there a swap partition for ubuntu ? minimum for ubuntu 2 part - a / and a swap.

just a hint --> boot with xp media and use the recovery console to recover xp's boot record - if I remember correctly, there should be among other commands a

fixmbr

and

fixboot

commands; details how and when to use them see Microsoft url's. I's say try this first before the radical xp re-install - maybe it'll work.

about ubuntu if I may --> personally I switched to it many years ago and believe me never looked back. pls remember, ubuntu is not win and because of that ITS RULES MUST BE STRICTLY OBSERVED - case in point dual boot installation --> ubuntu CAN BE INSTALLED ON ANY type of partition be it logical or primary AND its loader/grub can be installed either on MBR or its own / or /boot partition BUT in the latter case IT MUST BE DIRECTED TO DO THAT.

there are plenty of howto's around ubuntu DUAL BOOT INSTALLS - just google for ubuntu dual boot howto before another install attempt

peter b

Revision history for this message
flatlander (juggle) said : 		#5

fixmbr did the job.

thanks