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I was working with Comsol and the simulations were big so Ubuntu (18 LTS) was stopping in the middle of the simulation with the cursor locked and I had to turn the laptop off with the power button. This happened several times until finally the laptop did not boot instead it shows the grub menu. From there if I choose to boot normally there comes a black screen and nothing happens even in nomodeset.

If I choose the recovery mode it works a little bit until it stops again at a screen with some lines of code. I cant put the picture of the screen here without reputation but the last line reads something like:

[ 1.971959 ] ehci-pci 0000:00:04.1: irq 17, io mem 0xd3389200

I also tried booting from USB which goes to the black screen even with the nomodeset. Similarly if I try to install a new one it goes to the black screen even in nomodeset.

My laptop is a MacBook 2008 model which is why the comsol simulations were so heavy for it.

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  • Try and run memtest from the GRUB menu. Confirm that it sees all of your memory. Let it run for at least one complete pass. Report back to @heynnema
    – heynnema
    Dec 1, 2018 at 21:28
  • Thanks zx485! Before I saw your reply I started with replacing the optical drive with one from another not functioning macbook. It was because the old drive was malfunctioning and I couldnt boot from usb so I wanted to get the drive going and boo from CD. When I changed the optical drive the computer suddendly didnt get stuck on booting. It did a bunch of stuff that it doesnt normally do for booting and then went on to... see the complete answer in the next comment there wasnt enough space here
    – AriN
    Dec 2, 2018 at 14:07
  • By the way do I put the question as answered?
    – AriN
    Dec 2, 2018 at 14:45
  • I don't see any comments/answers from zx485. The optical drive has nothing to do with your problem. Why/how did you decide to change it? More than likely you had a memory DIMM that needed reseating, and opening up the machine jostled it enough to start working. Memtest can be run from your GRUB menu, or by booting to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB.
    – heynnema
    Dec 2, 2018 at 16:56

1 Answer 1

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Thanks heynnema!

Before I saw your reply I started with replacing the optical drive with one from another not functioning macbook. It was because the old drive was malfunctioning and I couldnt boot from usb so I wanted to get the drive going and boo from CD. When I changed the optical drive the computer suddendly didnt get stuck on booting. It did a bunch of stuff that it doesnt normally do for booting and then went on to the login page. Maybe all the connecting and disconnecting on the motherboard somehow jolted it or maybe it was a complete coincidence...

Can I do a memtest from the terminal? It seems ok like my browser opened as the previous session and so on but it would be good to be sure everything is fine. I also would look online to see how to do a memtest from terminal and get the answer here.

Thanks so far!

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  • Run memtest from your GRUB menu, or if you don't see it there, boot to a Ubuntu Live DVD/USB and run it from there. Run at least one complete pass. Report back to @heynnema
    – heynnema
    Dec 3, 2018 at 3:52
  • The memtest came back with zero errors. I ran it for a full cycle but no errors and the computer works as I mentioned. But maybe we could get to the bottom of this. There is this other system check when I load from a USB and I ran that too, which found 4 brocken files I dont know which files.
    – AriN
    Dec 3, 2018 at 13:22
  • The other system check says "check the disk for defects" on the grub menu.
    – AriN
    Dec 3, 2018 at 13:28
  • That means that either your DVD disc didn't burn correctly, or your optical drive is bad still. The system is working OK right now, yes?
    – heynnema
    Dec 3, 2018 at 15:12
  • Yes, it is working OK.
    – AriN
    Dec 3, 2018 at 15:22

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