PCLOS 2010 Hanging with Blank Screen

[Grainger]

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 with Pentium 4 processor, 2 gb RAM, one 80 gb HDD with a partition running Windows XP (hardly ever used now) and Linux partitions for PCLOS, and one 500 gb HDD which has 260 gb still unpartitioned. It is coupled to an older PC running "Real 32" via a KVM switch which is functioning perfectly.

I have been running PCLOS 2007 for over two years and it has been cast-iron stable.

About a month ago I installed PCLOS-kde-2010.07, re-formatting / and /home partitions, and the installation seemed OK.

However, periodically the screen goes blank with a faint unblinking cursor at the top left-hand corner and nothing will respond, forcing me to power off and re-boot. This occurs regularly now and in any application - Dolphin, Open Office, Configure.  On one occasion it did this during applying updates with Synaptic, and I got the impression that it was still running as the HDD tell-tail lights were still blinking, so I left it for some time before turning off and I'm sure it completed the updates. Just once it displayed the following error message:-

"error: unexpectedly disconnected from boot status device
Starting display manager:
Starting net profile: The default is the current profile
Checking for new hardware"

It then hung.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rgds

Grainger

[kjpetrie]

Check your HDD leads are clean and correctly seated. It could also be a failing drive or motherboard. It sounds like an intermittent fault which is becoming increasingly frequent and I suspect the recent reinstall is a red herring.

[Ramchu]

Does it do it when you are logged in to Windows ?

[Grainger]

I booted Windows this morning (first time for many months!) and used it as much as possible for several hours. It did not hang, but this was maybe not a long enough test. I had intended to go back in later and try more usage.

I then went into PCLOS and it hung within about 20 minutes of use.

I hope this helps.

Rgds

Grainger

[menotu]

Just a thought - you may want to do an md5sum and media check on the downloaded iso & CD just so you can remove that from the equation.

[Grainger]

I did md5sum and media check before installation and they were OK.

[Grainger]

KJP

Sorry I didn't reply to your suggestion - I checked connections and remade them, they seem OK.

I have been using Windows now for a few days to test it (after installing PCLOS 2007 I never went back to Windows) and it hasn't crashed, but PCLOS 2010 still hangs. This suggested to me that the problem was with my PCLOS installation not the HD or motherboard. However, I have now acquired a replacement HD and intend to try the following steps:-

1. Re-install PCLOS 2010 on the existing HD.

2. If this still gives trouble, replace my first HD and install again.

Thanks for your help.

Grainger