computer only boots to memory test
 

Hello,

I have installed mint and everything was running fine for a few days but now when I try to boot up my computer it just boots to a memory test screen that runs over and over and does not allow me to even log into my mint. Has anyone else had this problem? if so please tell me how to correct it.

Thank you in advance for your prompt response

This doesn't sound like a linux problem and more like a hardware problem. To confirm this try removing your harddrive and see if the same behavior occurs, your BIOS is more than likely not even handing off the system to the hard drive to boot and is either detecting some hardware problems or the board is going bad.

thank you for your response, I unplugged the hard drive and reconnected it and have the same problem. This was a brand new hard drive that mint was installed on. So would you be suggesting that the mother board or the drive itself is bad? thank you again for your help in this matter.

Motherboard - More than likely BIOS or it could actually be some bad memory. With how cheap sticks of ram are I would go by a small stick or RAM and pull yours out and put the new, known good, stick in and see if it boots. If it does you know one of your sticks is bad and you can try to boot off of each one until you replicate the problem.

If it still stays on the BIOS/memory tests with the new known good stick of RAM you should use another computer to burn the most recent version of your motherboards BIOS and flash it to the most recent/stable.

My suspicion is bad BIOS here but these troubleshooting steps are the best way to confirm. You could try doing the BIOS flash first if you don't want to drop the $20 on a stick of cheap RAM.

thank you so much for your help, since I am as dumb as a tree stump as to how to use another computer to burn the most recent version of the motherboards bios and flash it to the most recent/stable I guess I will go buy a stick of ram and try placing it into those slots and hope it resolves the issue. Thanks again so very much for your help my friend.

Just remember to pull the old sticks out and try booting off them one at time, remove any external connections and if possible remove any expansions cards you may have installed.

If you provide the manufacturer and model number of your motherboard I can try and give you the steps to flash it(provided the manufacturer has the documentation available)

I am curious . If me. I would boot a live cd first before blaming hardware.

Definitely a cheap way to trouble shoot.

Puppy 4.31 pretty much boots on any of my hardware for troubleshooting purposes.

Hi Rokytnji,

So are you suggesting I download this puppy 4.31 and try running that to see if it fixes this issue first? sorry if I am appearing to be a bit on the not fully educated side about this issue.

Hi Kustom,

pull them out and test them one at a time correct? I have three sticks in there....
thanks again

If the system is stuck on the BIOS/memory test it doesn't matter what you have on a USB drive or even your hard drive since it won't even try to boot off it. I could see this suggesting being valid if it got passed the BIOS but its not.

Yep, take it down to minimal boot mode which means removing any expansion cards, external connections like USB printers and the like.

Just have your monitor, keyboard, mouse and power plugged into the system. Try booting off one stick of memory and see if it gets passed the BIOS, if it does keep going until you find the one that doesn't. Thats your bad stick that you need to replace. If none of the sticks work its probably your motherboard, you could try getting another stick of known good memory from a local store and see if it boots off of it to confirm whether its the mobo or not.

I was not aware that this was a bios memory test thing. I thought OP was at least getting to a grub screen. My bad if so.
I boot AntiX 12 off of a 16GIG SD external flashcard (full install, not live flash drive) on my M&A Companion Netbook on which
the zif hardrive has died till I get the funds to buy a new zif ribbon and hardrive for it later.
I at least could access bios to see that the hardrive was not recognised anymore in bios (hardrive was making clicking noises, and ribbon has a cut now/my fault pulling drive out/I cut the ribbon with a pen knife prying up drive). I guess the OP has a different problem than I had.

So Kustom42 is right on point with motherboard or ram stick problem if bios can not be accessed. I am a bit surprised though that no beep codes were mentioned. Usually with bad ram. The computer beeps a code plus no screen or boot messages.

And Yeah. Puppy 4.31 was what I was suggesting as it is a small iso download and is pretty forgiving on hardware. Even old hardware.

Yep, I agree 100% with you rokytnji, kind of weird symptoms with this but as I always say... If technology worked like it was supposed to all the time we would be out of a job.