Black screen on startup
 

Before i start id like to say im a total newb to linux.. Used windows for years but I'm not tech minded, my old pc run slow so i bought an ipad! Then was given a linux pc but a good friend about 4-5 years after buying an ipad.


Brief history
A friend of mine the other day gave me a pc he had lying around unused but dusty and had linux installed. i got it home and it worked perfect but no sound, messages him and i was told by a him to locate the "analog output" click that in settings and make sound run through it, all i could find was dummy output ( i think its called ), i researched it and found its because it was bugged so to sort it out i needed to uninstall and reinstall so i followed some guys code and did that.. It said the install was successful in the control panel type thing. but on restart i get a blank screen.. Like my monitor isn't working! " i used this method http://itsfoss.com/fix-sound-ubuntu-1304-quick-tip/ no sure if links are allowed but i used this guys method to try and get my sound back and ended up with a blank screen after restart.

I get to the grub menu ( think its called )

http://i60.tinypic.com/a3ecud.jpg

I have found many post relating to blank screen but non are like the picture i posted or talk really in death tech talk which i don't understand.. I think in the grub menu i need to change something but I'm confused

I believe its when you reinstall stuff that it makes the monitor not work?? Could this be the case?? If so can you help??

Ps sorry if i posted in wrong section i am a total newb so please forgive me

And no in death tech talk, try keep it simple :)

Thanks commando.

Ps if you want me to explain things further please say. I'm not computer literate sorry but i will do my best.

Just curious what might happen when you hit the 'Enter' key with that first item highlighted as it is in the photo.

It boots up the system as you would normally.. but then goes back to the blank screen again .. The computer seems to be starting up and working just no image.

Are you saying the computer goes past the GRUB menu when you hit Enter? It starts to boot Linux Mint and then returns to the GRUB menu?

What happens is if you click enter is it just goes past the grub menu and starts up as if you had switched it on.. You see 4 green dots on screen as if it was loading then it just switches to a blank screen?

Edit nothing happens after that just stays on a blank screen

Edit again i did a video.. Here http://youtu.be/E7WUsb2YjmY not much but might help..

With the first item highlighted hit the e key, go to the end of the line that starts with linux add the word nomodeset hit ctrl-x and see what happens.

After that i clicked crtl and x and all it did was reboot but bought me back to the grub on startup ( started back up my computer and without me touching anything took me stright to the grub menu ). I then proceded to start it up by clicking the first highlighted in the grub menu but it just went back to a blank screen.


Edit this what end of the line looks like.. I put that where it said linux i did it but after boot returned to normal. This is what it looks like without monodeset in it http://i60.tinypic.com/r1lst5.jpg

change the linux line to look like this and then boot:
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0.-37-generic root=UUID=a2156181-1db4-43e1-b1fc-7c248392cd2f nomodeset

note that I can't see all the uuid so I may the uuid number wrong.

Hi tried nomodeset after what you said and i tried nomodeset quiet splash and quiet splash nomodeset.. I tried all 3 of these and non worked?

Here is a few things to try to get things fixed. http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/842 At the black screen you may be able to hit alt-ctrl-f1 to get a login screen. If so, log in with your username and password and run the following commands
when asked for password use your user password, reboot and see if that fixes thing

Hi i tied the first thing on the list and that was the link, it wanted me to get to the line in grub after hitting e and find a line starting with linux and ending with "quiet splash" i did find that line but after quiet splash i had "$vt_handoff" ( after quiet splash) like this http://i57.tinypic.com/35ciqon.jpg

I was confused if i should delete it, or add the code in before it or after it.. I didnt delete it but did what was asked and put the code infront of it and then with no luck on restart put it behind it.. I typed in nomodeset.modeset=0'

I then tried nomodeset grub_gfxmode=1280x1024x24 infront of svt and behind it again with no luck on reboot

I then tried to do the login screen fix using my " user password" after alt,cntrl, f1 then the sudo commands for both..

http://i61.tinypic.com/2mgvb5t.jpg this was the end result but after a restart no luck..

Any other ideas?? I don't think i should play the lottery anytime soon with luck like this.

get back to your login screen and post the output of also try the nomodeset without the

[/QUOTE]

I tried the deleted quiet splash svt with new code nomodeset and it didnt work. I rebooted and still nothing

After trying
[QUOTE=colorpurple21859;5303478]get back to your login screen and post the output of I got this screen http://i57.tinypic.com/70kxgg.jpg i haven't done anything after this screen?

post the ouput of this looking for what modules are being loaded and errors.

lets get away from only GUESSING

with this being a OLD computer and you are getting a black screen
-- now i am GUESSING on this
you are trying to use the DEFAULT gnome3 desktop

so the likely FIRST thing to check is the 3d card ( if this computer has one )
It might NOT be supported any longer
OLD ati cards are NOT supported
and OLD Nvidia 5 and older are NOT supported
with the just OLD nvidia 7000 cards needing a old LEGACY driver


also if this computer is SO old that it only has 512 meg of ram
that might cause problems


so
Please post the hardware specifications