I have a Dell XPS M1210, with VESA: G72 Board - bali1 graphics. I'm running Ubuntu 12.04, and my updates are current. I don't know a lot about computers or Linux. I use Linux because I like the open source model, and because it's essentially free. I can't afford to buy a new computer at this time.
This problem began with a system freeze. I had to force a shut down by holding down the power button. Since then, when I restart the computer, it fails to boot into the latest version of the OS (Ubuntu with Linux 3.5.0-45-generic, as noted in the title of this thread.) While starting up, a bunch of text flashes by, which I assume to be BIOS. There seem to be some error messages, but they go by too quickly to catch. The process eventually comes to a point where all I have on my screen is a flashing cursor in the upper right corner. At this point, I have only found two ways to proceed. One is to hold the power button to get the computer to shut down. the other is to press the power button for maybe half a second. If I do this, some more text flashes by. It's on the screen long enough for me to catch the last couple lines, which say:
load fallback graphics device [fail]
will now halt
Then, the computer shuts down.
When I restart it, I get the GRUB screen, which allows me to select to boot into an older version of the OS. If I select the immediately previous version, Ubuntu with Linux 3.5.0-44-generic, the system does boot fully. However, the display resolution is wrong. You'll have to forgive me for not knowing what the correct resolution is, but the one my system boots into is obviously wrong, or, at least it's not the one I'm used to using. If I go to the system settings, and try to adjust the resolution to what I think it should be, I have only two options for resolution where I'm used to seeing more. The two that I have are 1024x768, and 800x600. Neither seems correct to me.
Is this a graphics problem? Is it repairable? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.