Tell me more ×
Ask Ubuntu is a question and answer site for Ubuntu users and developers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

My laptop had Window Vista on previously (sorry). Something went wrong, I can't remember, and I tried to reinstall but couldn't, installed a replacement second hand HD, and installed Ubuntu instead. It worked ok for a little while, before crashing. I ended up reloading Ubuntu three times. It works for a while after (say 3-5 hrs of domestic web browsing), and then crashes.

When I turn it on now, it comes up with some options to restart in safe mode, run tests and so on. I can't get it to start normally. I'm not going to re-install again.

Below are screen shots of what happens when I follow some of these test options. These screen shots mean nothing to me. Any ideas? Surely I can fix this....

enter image description here enter image description here

share|improve this question

1 Answer

up vote 5 down vote

The screenshot says "unrecovered read error", which usually suggests that the hard drive is dying. Get a new hard drive.

However, if this is the second hard drive dying in your laptop in a short period of time it may suggest that the problem is somewhere else - maybe in the SATA controller, faulty RAM, laptop overheating etc.

At any rate, Ubuntu is not at fault :)

share|improve this answer
I believe on the Ubuntu installation CD, in the first bootmenu, probably a submenu of this, you should find a utility named memtest86 which will check if your RAM is faulty somewhere. But like Sergey I'd rather go for the HDD or SATA-controller, the latter one is unfortunately not interchangable in a Laptop. – Paul Hänsch Nov 1 '12 at 12:12

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.