Z12.4 Core crash on restart

zabadabadoo

Wed Jun 05, 2019 4:47:39 pm

Zorin 12.4Core and WinXP dual boot laptop.
I have recently encountered occasional crash/hang on startup, where Zorin is default OS in grub startup menu. Sometimes just black screen with cpu fan running fast, or some screen noise artifacts displayed with fan running fast. Have had to recover by force power off button. Then default restart to Zorin goes OK .
Happened today after restart folowing Zorin sw updates (restart was asked for by sw updater).
Other times after WinXP is used, then restart to run Zorin.
Any ideas to fix this anyone?

Swarfendor437

Wed Jun 05, 2019 8:09:42 pm

zabadabadoo wrote:Zorin 12.4Core and WinXP dual boot laptop.
I have recently encountered occasional crash/hang on startup, where Zorin is default OS in grub startup menu. Sometimes just black screen with cpu fan running fast, or some screen noise artifacts displayed with fan running fast. Have had to recover by force power off button. Then default restart to Zorin goes OK .
Happened today after restart folowing Zorin sw updates (restart was asked for by sw updater).
Other times after WinXP is used, then restart to run Zorin.
Any ideas to fix this anyone?

It could be a kernel update. Try booting in advanced mode and see if earlier kernels are more stable after testing for few days. If so will advise on how to stop newer kernels from being installed.

zabadabadoo

Fri Jun 07, 2019 9:27:12 am

@Swarf,
Thanks for your reply. I will try the "advanced mode" option a try and see if results are more consistent.

NB. I have also seen on one or two occasions after choosing Zorin from startup list, that the pc performs a reboot instead of proceeding to Zorin. Was then OK when Zorin again chosen on second attempt.

Swarfendor437

Fri Jun 07, 2019 4:30:36 pm

That sounds like a potential corrupt Boot partition and may even indicate potential MBR failure. I would ensure you backup your critical data.

zabadabadoo

Sat Jun 08, 2019 10:01:58 am

@Swarf,
Yes always good advice. My Zorin and WinXP partitions are all always regularly backed up to a separate removable drive regardless.
Also still have 12.4Core on USB pen drive from original install.

zabadabadoo

Tue Jun 11, 2019 3:35:24 pm

Using the Advanced Options from grub menu. Both the listed generic listings sometimes hang on "loading the ramdisk..." step.
I have also tried the Recovery option for latest kernel. If I let that go on to a normal boot then seems ok.
Startup of Zorin goes OK once it gets going. Just occasionally has to be force restarted before that happens.
Is it a problem with grub?
Is there a way to refresh grub, or is a full re-install of Zorin necessary?
Remember I am a refugee from Windows, so go easy if I am talking nonsense.

Swarfendor437

Tue Jun 11, 2019 4:20:15 pm

OK, You did say it is dual-boot - it might be a GRUB issue but not sure if that is the cause and I presume GRUB holds both the launcher for XP and Zorin. I personally prefer the Matthew Moore method whereby the Windows MBR remains intact and you install GRUB onto a different partition, but this would mean a reinstall and you would need a Windows XP installation disc to do a bootrec.exe repair to take Windows back to using MBR instead of being a GRUB entry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlTgaWs9BD0

zabadabadoo

Wed Jun 12, 2019 2:48:13 pm

@Swarf,
I remember you referring to that "Nontradiional method" of dual-boot in another post on here recently, but well after my dual-boot install.
Noted, but I will see how things pan out before giving in to a re-install.

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