Is there a step-by-step instruction to test a laptop or PC for hardware failures?
 

Is there somewhere a step-by-step instruction for how to completely test all hardware components of a laptop or PC?

Since three days, I am desperately trying to install Lubuntu 14.04 (LTS) on an old IBM Thinkpad. The processor is an Intel T2600 with 2GHz, the laptop has 2GB RAM.

I use a Lubuntu USB Live Stick.

It took me already two days to discover that I have to give the "forcepae" option for the machine to do anything at all, because the processor has to run in PAE mode.

In the installation menu of Lubuntu, when I select "Check disc for errors" and remove the "quiet" and "splash" option and add "forcepae", the USB stick is checked, and the tests says that it is ok.

When I then select "Try without installing" and also enable/disable the above options, booting begins, a LOT of messages are printed, and it stops with

"System V initialisation compatibiiity [OK]"

Sometimes it stops with

"Starting ntpd [OK]" (or something similar, concerning NTP)

or

"Stopping early crypto disks [OK]" (Or "starting crypto..."? I do not remember.)

The laptop had Windows XP installed formerly, and very often the screen just froze.

I suppose that there is a hardware failure somewhere.

I have tested the machine's hardware with nearly every tool from the UBCD (Universal Boot CD). Nothing of them reported any error (CPU stress tests, RAM tests, HD stress tests,...)

How can I proceed now? How can I find out whether there is a hardware failure or whether I do a mistake in the (for the most part automated) installation process. Lubuntu is conceived to recycle old hardware, and I do not want to throw away this laptop.

Thank you in advance,
Duplex

PS: What is the meaning of the two "--" at the end of the kernel parameter list?

PS2: I have burnt "Hiren's Boot CD" with Unetbootin to an USB stick because I have read so often that this was the best tool to do hardware disgnostics. The booting process hangs with the message "Setting up system devices..."

You've tested the most obvious things, the ram and hard drive, and apparently they both passed. Are you getting any overheating issues, i.e fan going really fast for prolonged periods of time??? If so, you may need to clean out some dust bunnies. You can try blowing out some of the external vents which can be done without disassembly. Does it have intel integrated graphics or a separate ati or nvidia graphics adapter? Intel graphics usually don't go bad, but separate ati or nvidia graphics adapters tend to overheat and, over time, tend to malfunction with frozen screens like you described with WinXP. If that's the case, there's not much you can do.
I don't know how you checked the ram; I assume with something like memtest. If there are two sticks of ram, you could try pulling one out and running with just one stick at a time and see if there's any difference just to conclusively eliminate the possibility that one stick is bad. That's not likely but it can be easily checked,

Hi...

If all else fails, take it to a computer repair shop and see if they can diagnose what the issue is. ;)

Regards...

No.

No, I think it is the original intel graphics, since I never have changed anything. But I will lookup this with a diagnosis program from UBCD or by using the serial number and a lookup at IBM itself. I will do this tonight.

Yes, memtest+ V5.xxx and many others, running for a long time. CPU stress tests for computing 1,000,000 digits of Pi and so on. I do not understand your idea with pulling out one stick. The memtest goes over all bytes, so it must touch and test both sticks. Or am I wrong?

Thank you in advance,
Duplex

If you have tested the hardware already this might be an incompatibility between Ubuntu and your hardware. Try a different, non-Ubuntu based distro and check if the problem persists.

@kilgoretrout: PC-Config V9.33 from the UBCD says the videocard is

VESA-VGA (ATI) 32 Bit-Bus, 16384k RAM
VGA chipset: ATI ???

Unfortunately, even while running PC-Config, the ASCII-screen froze :-)
Maybe there is something wrong with the input devices and it is not the screen that is frozen? I wonder how tests such as computing Pi zo 1,000,000 digits and solving huge systems of linear equations can pass through...

@TobiSGD: I have little hope in trying a different distro. But if you could name me a slim, non-Ubuntu/Debian distro, I would give it a try.

I am stubborn. I do not want to throw away this laptop, but donate it to a poor school kid of mine. What is wrong with the hardware? I am at the edge of desperation...

One of the lightweight Salix versions (like the Openbox or Fluxbox spin) would be good for a test.

I have just downloaded the latest salix-fluxbox-14.1.iso (32 bit), booted with "debug forcepae" option, and the installer already freezes at the "Test keyboard map" where I tried to select the German keyboard layout. This happened with both kernels offered (with and without SMP).

My "ultima ratio" now is to look whether there is a BIOS update for that machine.

Is there not a universal tool that successively tests all components of a PC or laptop?

Thank you!

Have you tried it without those options? At least the non-SMP kernel shouldn't even offer PAE.
There are some commercial Windows tools that we have used in production at some OEMs I have worked for, but those are too expensive for normal use. For Linux there isn't such a tool I know of, but if you have already tried the tools on UBCD I would guess that this is not a hardware problem.

Own a couple of IBM gear myself.

Usually Linux friendly as hell. And mine. One has Savage graphics chip and the other is SIS graphics chip.

Have you at least md5sum checked any of your Linux downloaded isos to check for iso file corruption during the download process? Before installing what was said iso to a bootable medium like CD/DVD/or USB?

I am currently using mine for developer testing on http://antix.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5638

If hardware is OK. I would not over think on incompatibility with distros over much.

Might help. Might not.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

Unless you are a stubborn cuss I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CnJgxogBUU

Though a lot depends on make, model, year of hardware described in this thread, Which I find lacking.

First of all, thanks to all of you for your efforts to help me. I will try everything you propose and report the results.

Yes, I did. I selected the Salix non-SMP kernel and then just accepted every proposed option with "OK" (e.g., I did not select German keyboard layout). The installation passed completely, saying at the end something like "Installation successful. You can now restart your computer".

So I did. I unplugged the USB installation stick and rebooted, pressing no key at all. Now the machine hangs with the message

[ 6.755375] kvm: disabled by bios

That's an ATI GPU and given that you had hangups and freezes on WinXP, it may very well be on its way out. However, you appear to be booting various livecds and presumably get an acceptable display so this GPU may have some life in it yet. You may be running into issues with linux and ATI graphics as there is a long history of those kind of problems. You can try various livecds and see if you can get an acceptable graphics display without installing but the recent *buntus and many other distros will probably puke on a non-pae cpu. One I know that works for sure with non-pae cpus is the current Debian(i386):

http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/...86/iso-hybrid/

I just installed the xfce version(debian-live-8.1.0-i386-xfce-desktop.iso) on an old Pentium M, non-pae, Centrino laptop and it works great.

With regard to your ram, it's probably fine. When you have erratic computer problems, the usual troubleshooting consists of basic logic and component substitution with known working components. The ability to do that with laptops is limited. Running with one stick of ram and then the other is a way of accomplishing that if you don't have known good ram you can swap in. The ram may be passing memtest but behave differently under load. It's highly unlikely and from what I saw in rokytnji's linked video, the ram on that laptop may not be that accessible without extensive disassembly. If that's the case, I wouldn't bother.

Duplex...

Please refrain from swearing! I understand you're frustrated but not only do people of all ages have the ability to access the forum, some of us here don't care to see it, either. Please see the LQ rules and delete the offending words.

Regards...

OK. I am very sorry. Just done. Sorry again.

This offends ME concerning the life I had and have to live and 1,000,000,000 other people since the beginning of mankind. Please remove this from your signature. Let us rather use Aristoteles' logic and Immanuel Kant's "Kritik der reinen Vernunft".

And please do not let us start an argument about this. Let us just solve the non-religious installation problem by using the logic given to us from who knows.