(Solved) HP Compaq After the Storm

[Ramchu]

The Inlaws brought me their computer yesterday, I had set it up to dual boot ( Win XP & PCLinux KDE ).
Its an HP Compaq Presario SR5030NR - 1gigt RAM - 160gig Hard Drive - Intel graphics (intigrated).

They told me that it quit working right after a storm about 6 weeks ago.

Here is the odd thing, it will boot and run Win XP just fine, but when I try to boot PCLinux, it hangs
with a kernel panic.
So I thought I would run a Live CD and if necessary reinstall - But it won't boot any of the live CD's
that I have. The live CD will hang with a kernel panic or I get multiple input/output errors - can't read
block XXXX and can't read cache XXXX.
It will when trying to run a Live CD nearly always drop me to a command prompt login - (if it doesn't
kernel panic). Then I can login as ether guest or root, but when I type startx it returns : Error can't find file
XXXX and if I type XFdrake I get : Error can't find file XXXX ( Sorry I don't have the exact file numbers
but the only way I have to get them is write them out- not going to happen as there are too many)

Does anyone think that this is a corrupted Hard Drive or another hardware issue ?

[AS]

The Inlaws brought me their computer yesterday, I had set it up to dual boot ( Win XP & PCLinux KDE ).
Its an HP Compaq Presario SR5030NR - 1gigt RAM - 160gig Hard Drive - Intel graphics (intigrated).

They told me that it quit working right after a storm about 6 weeks ago.

Here is the odd thing, it will boot and run Win XP just fine, but when I try to boot PCLinux, it hangs
with a kernel panic.
So I thought I would run a Live CD and if necessary reinstall - But it won't boot any of the live CD's
that I have. The live CD will hang with a kernel panic or I get multiple input/output errors - can't read
block XXXX and can't read cache XXXX.

That sound like some problem reading the CD itself ...
Is it an option for you to try with a LiveUSB ?

It will when trying to run a Live CD nearly always drop me to a command prompt login - (if it doesn't
kernel panic). Then I can login as ether guest or root, but when I type startx it returns : Error can't find file
XXXX and if I type XFdrake I get : Error can't find file XXXX ( Sorry I don't have the exact file numbers
but the only way I have to get them is write them out- not going to happen as there are too many)

Does anyone think that this is a corrupted Hard Drive or another hardware issue ?

[Ramchu]

That sound like some problem reading the CD itself ...
Is it an option for you to try with a LiveUSB ?

No - but I can try changing out the CD/DVD Rom.

[AS]

That sound like some problem reading the CD itself ...
Is it an option for you to try with a LiveUSB ?

No - but I can try changing out the CD/DVD Rom.

well, try it, mediacheck also may be handy in your case   

AS

[Ramchu]

I did a media check and it returns OK to install form this media.
I also did a memory test on that computer and it did not return any errors.

and Thank You for your help !

[AS]

I did a media check and it returns OK to install form this media.
I also did a memory test on that computer and it did not return any errors.

and Thank You for your help !

that was on the computer affected from the storm ? if yes, the CD and CDROM unit are fully OK ...

[Ramchu]

that was on the computer affected from the storm ?

Yes that was on the affected computer.

[AS]

that was on the computer affected from the storm ?

Yes that was on the affected computer.

This "reasonably" exclude CD/CDROM issues ... we need to look elsewhere ..
How much RAM is installed on that computer ? Exactly which ISO are you trying ?
At which point the boot process start to get errors ?

[Ramchu]

This "reasonably" exclude CD/CDROM issues ... we need to look elsewhere ..
How much RAM is installed on that computer ? Exactly which ISO are you trying ?
At which point the boot process start to get errors ?

The ISO is KDE 2012.2
It has 2 512 MB sticks of DDR3 RAM
The Errors come at random times in the boot process with the Live CD's

[AS]

This "reasonably" exclude CD/CDROM issues ... we need to look elsewhere ..
How much RAM is installed on that computer ? Exactly which ISO are you trying ?
At which point the boot process start to get errors ?

The ISO is KDE 2012.2
It has 2 512 MB sticks of DDR3 RAM
The Errors come at random times in the boot process with the Live CD's

try this:

at the LiveCD boot screen press F6 (options), select "Default", remove the option quiet, change the option splash=silent to splash=verbose, press ENTER to start the boot ... may be you can spot some relevant error message ...

[Ramchu]

Tried to take a pic of the errors with my cell phone.

free image hosting

[AS]

Tried to take a pic of the errors with my cell phone.

I see ... SQUASHFS is the compressed filesystem upon which the LiveCD is built.

If this is an official remaster, which is known to be correct, there is some problem, most likely around RAM/CPU/BIOS settings ... alternatively could be that the RAM is not recognized entirely ... i.e. only 512 MB ... resetting the BIOS sometimes help ...

If it is not an official remaster, I would try an official ISO ...

If I understand correctly you are experiencing problems both: when using the LiveCD and when trying to boot from the installed system ... which is a further hint that something went wrong on that system ...

[Ramchu]

Tried to take a pic of the errors with my cell phone.

I see ... SQUASHFS is the compressed filesystem upon which the LiveCD is built.

If this is an official remaster, which is known to be correct, there is some problem, most likely around RAM/CPU/BIOS settings ... alternatively could be that the RAM is not recognized entirely ... i.e. only 512 MB ... resetting the BIOS sometimes help ...

If it is not an official remaster, I would try an official ISO ...

If I understand correctly you are experiencing problems both: when using the LiveCD and when trying to boot from the installed system ... which is a further hint that something went wrong on that system ...

This is an official Live CD that I have used several times.
When I look in the BIOS I see : Installed Memory 1024 MB/PC2-4200 (Memory Bank 1 512 MB DDR2 SDRAM--- Memory Bank 2 
512 MB DDR2 SDRAM)

Yes you understand correctly that the problems are both with booting the live CD and when trying to boot the installed system.

[seaplane_tux]

   We had two HP Compacs bought from Cosco and the RAM in both of them within a year went half dead. bought new sticks of RAM and everything worked like a charm.
     One place to check the RAM being at fault was start up in windows and see what it recognizes. On our computers WinXP would say we had 348 MB of RAM or some weird random number when a whole Gigabyte was installed.

[AS]

Thinking loudly:  

When you run mediacheck it PASS, it means the system is able to read correctly the entire LiveCD.

When you boot, something get corrupted as you can see, a bad remaster must be excluded based on on your info ... what remain ?

The difference between performing a mediacheck and booting the system is that the amount of RAM used is much higher ...

The CPU really could be excluded because otherwise I doubt mediacheck would PASS...

... to me,  what it remains are BIOS settings and RAM ...