Installed FC 18 Strange Error Message/Black Screen
 

Hi:

I helped my best friend install Fedora 18 on his Toshibia laptop today.
It's an Intel Pentium and 32bit architecture.

At the first boot firefox was working fine until I ran
The update ran fine until we answered y (yes) to the size of the update.
It started to update and than everything; browser, desktop and terminal all locked up and froze. I tried Ctrl+Alt+Del and that would not comply.
Had to do a hard shut down.

Waited a bit and re-started the laptop-
Saw the usual 'Welcome to Grub'; Fedora loaded and than this message at the top of the black screen shows.
What should I do? Or try?:scratch:

Before I installed Fedora 18 on this laptop my friend had Windows Vista Home Premium installed on it and it would consistently lock up and freeze as well. I suggested installing Linux; my friend agreed-

After the black screen with the word TOSHIBA it would just hang to a black screen. (Or) Shortly after logging in the desktop would lock up and freeze and Ctrl+Alt+Del wouldn't comply and again another hard shut down was the only way.

I'm confused-

Try some other distro. 32-bit is history. I do not think many modern mainstream Linux distros are tested thoroughly on 32-bit platform.

Edit: You may want to replace RAM on this one.

If you have problems on both OSes, Windows and Linux, this may be a hardware issue. Nonetheless I wouldn't recommend to replace hardware based on guesswork, proper tests should show you the culprit. At first I would test the harddisk (using the disk manufacturer's diagnosis tool) and the RAM (using Memtest86+). Also, have a look at the temperatures, high temperatures can also cause lockups.

Any clue what that error message means?

I'll go get Memtest now for him--

I've never ran Memtest before--
Will it tell me what the issue is?

Run MemTest86. If it tells you your RAM is bad then it is bad. If it gives you no error your RAM may be still bad. I've seen a report on the net MemTest86 gave the first error on seventh day of running!

I've never used Xfburn but I'm thinking it can't be much more different than Brasero that I use on my other distro-
I'll put a new CD in my laptop's drive and see if it will prompt me to drag the :
into the application:-

Be back in a bit-

For a Linux user I suggest you get a USB stick and put SystemRescueCd on it. It will be a great help troubleshooting and fixing any problems with your box, be it Linux or Windows.

If you have Xfburn installed you usually make a right-click on the ISO-file and choose "Burn with Xfburn", can't be much simpler.

Successfully burned Memtest to DVD+R

Couldn't get Fedora to boot at all. Shut down and rebooted again.
Fedora is now up and running and my friend is now online.

Well being on line only last about 5 min's all envirnments and the browser are all locked up/frooze. The mouse and keyboard are non-funtional. Performing another hard shut down because nothing else is working.....

My friend wants to know what that error message means; I had to tell him I don't know.
If you do know specifically please; tell me he is starting to get upset.

Run Memtest while Fedora is up and running?

You have to boot from the Memtest CD to run the test, it will start automatically, just let it run overnight.
But anyways, that the system locks up after 5 minutes makes it more likely that this is either a temeperature or PSU problem, IMHO.

Overnight; got it--

I'll let him know it's possible overheating or PSU problem.
I think Memtest will prove what is needed if I can get him to run it.

The good new is I was able for the last 15 min's to watch the update in the terminal run on my friends system!

It just locked up and froze again.:cry:

I'll hang out and stay for the night and try to encourage my friend. That may not be easy as he had only known Windows all his life.

Thank you for your help; TobiSGD;)

Bad news TobiSGD and Emerson:

The keyboard and underside of the laptop got warmer than usual.
The fan stopped working and I smelled like a plastic like smell in the air.

After trying to re-start the laptop 5 times this morning the only thing I got was the Fedora splash screen and hit enter. No matter how many times I hit enter Fedora would not boot and the screen stayed black.

I told my friend that he would have to replace the fan and may even need a new motherboard.
He's now looking online for a new laptop.

Thanks for all of your help.;)

:~$ Toshibia Intel pentium 32bit laptop is toast!