How can I find out what's wrong with my laptop?

mib2berlin

@Pardus
Hi, as you may know older hardware is often better supported than newest on Linux.
The HP has an Intel GMA integrated GPU and this should be supported from any distribution.
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/hp-pavilion-g6-review/
Can you boot into a live system from CD or USB stick?
At boot you can choose basic or extended GPU support.

Pardus

@mib2berlin said in How can I find out what's wrong with my laptop?:

@Pardus
Hi, as you may know older hardware is often better supported than newest on Linux.
The HP has an Intel GMA integrated GPU and this should be supported from any distribution.
https://www.cnet.com/reviews/hp-pavilion-g6-review/
Can you boot into a live system from CD or USB stick?
At boot you can choose basic or extended GPU support.

From USB stick.
I don' t know. I plug in the USB stick, turn on the laptop, select the USB from the boot menu and use it.

mib2berlin

@Pardus
You wrote it fails to install not to run a live USB stick without installing.
May you check Puppy Linux, it run completely in the RAM without installing.
There are many hardware tools to test RAM, HDD and so forth running from a USB stick too.

pearcem01

@Pardus Based on what you are saying I would be very suspicious that the hard drive is failing/failed.

The advice from mib2berlin is solid, if you can boot into a live disk of linux and it works (meaning you can see the desktop and interact with it), that to me would lead me to believe that your graphics card is functional and that the first step would be to replace the hard drive. This is reinforced because of the increasing in errors/freezing/etc. you experienced, because hard drives do occasionally just die, but they commonly flake out before they do with weird crashes and errors.

You might have several things going on simultaneously and the machine is old so that happens, but the graphics card is being used in the "Zorin OS USB" and based on your description it is functioning so again, I would lean toward the problem is the hard drive.

If you want to do some more research to see what hardware is in the laptop here is the link to the HP site, towards the bottom of the page you can enter the serial number to get all the specs for that machine.

Good luck!

sgunhouse

I will agree with @pearcem01 here. If it runs from a stick then the problem is the HDD. Easy way to check - have the bootable stick check the hard drive for errors.

Honestly, 12 years is a long time for magnetic media regardless, but the fact it does run from the USB pretty much rules out other hardware.

TbGbe · Win: Snapshot Vivaldi 7.2.3621.47

@Pardus said in How can I find out what's wrong with my laptop?:

From your signature

HP Pavilion g6
128GB SSD
4 GB RAM
Try ZorinOS 17.1

The SSD could be failing in the same way a HDD would (as mentioned by @mib2berlin and @sgunhouse ).

paul1149

The USB v. hard drive test is the first one I would do. If you're ok on usb, try replacing the hard drive.

The next thing I would do is compare your hardware to the linux kernel you are using.

Run inxi -Fxxxrza from a command line and see if there is any incompatibility. If you're running a latter kernel, the problem may be there. Try an older one, or one designed to maintain support for older hardware.

You can also do a RAM test.

Pardus

I think I forgot to mention that my laptop has an (Kingston) SSD. It's 6 years old. I am currently using my laptop via USB stick because I cannot install an OS on my laptop.

System:
  Kernel: 6.5.0-27-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz maybe-ubiquity
    initrd=/casper/initrd.zstd quiet splash ---
  Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.33 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0
    vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Zorin OS 17.1 base: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion g6 Notebook PC
    v: 0594110000204610000610100 serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1670 v: 09.25 serial: <superuser required>
    BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: F.15 date: 05/20/2011
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325
    serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
    status: Discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Pentium B940 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Sandy Bridge
    family: 6 model-id: 0x2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 0x2F
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 128 KiB
    desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x32 KiB L2: 512 KiB desc: 2x256 KiB L3: 2 MiB
    desc: 1x2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1139 high: 1174 min/max: 800/2000 scaling:
    driver: intel_cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 1174 2: 1104
    bogomips: 7981
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass
    mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW,
    STIBP: disabled, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel ports: active: LVDS-1
    empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,VGA-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0106
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: AMD Seymour [Radeon HD 6400M/7400M Series]
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: radeon v: kernel alternate: amdgpu pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16
    ports: active: none empty: VGA-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:6760
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-3: Cheng Uei Precision Industry (Foxlink) HP Webcam-101 type: USB
    driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-1.5:5 chip-ID: 05c8:021e class-ID: 0e02
    serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver:
    X: loaded: ati,modesetting,radeon unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915
    display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.2x8.0")
    s-diag: 414mm (16.3")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 model: LG built: 2010 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 101
    gamma: 1.2 size: 344x194mm (13.5x7.6") diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1366x768
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 2000 (SNB GT1)
    v: 3.3 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
    chip-ID: 8086:1c20 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.5.0-27-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: bcma-pci-bridge v: N/A modules: bcma pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 14e4:4727
    class-ID: 0280
  Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8136
    class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: wlp4s0b1 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Broadcom BCM2070 Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR type: USB driver: btusb
    v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-1.3:4 chip-ID: 0a5c:21b4 class-ID: fe01 serial: <filter>
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: down
    bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes
    address: <filter>
  Info: acl-mtu: 0:0 sco-mtu: 0:0 link-mode: peripheral accept
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 133.68 GiB used: 305.2 MiB (0.2%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Kingston model: SV100S2128G
    size: 119.24 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s
    type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 225a scheme: MBR
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: TransMemory
    size: 14.44 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s
    type: N/A serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: N/A size: 1.88 GiB used: 1.42 GiB (75.3%) fs: overlay
    source: ERR-102
  ID-2: /var/log raw-size: 11.22 GiB size: 10.94 GiB (97.52%)
    used: 305.2 MiB (2.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb3 maj-min: 8:19
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 43.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 1995 apt: 1978 lib: 917 flatpak: 17
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
    1: deb cdrom:[Zorin-OS 17.1 Lite 64bit]/ jammy main restricted
    2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zorin.list
    1: deb https://packages.zorinos.com/stable jammy main
    2: deb https://packages.zorinos.com/patches jammy main
    3: deb https://packages.zorinos.com/apps jammy main
    4: deb https://packages.zorinos.com/drivers jammy main restricted
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zorinos-ubuntu-apps-jammy.list
    1: deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/zorinos/apps/ubuntu/ jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zorinos-ubuntu-drivers-jammy.list
    1: deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/zorinos/drivers/ubuntu/ jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zorinos-ubuntu-patches-jammy.list
    1: deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/zorinos/patches/ubuntu/ jammy main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zorinos-ubuntu-stable-jammy.list
    1: deb https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/zorinos/stable/ubuntu/ jammy main
Info:
  Processes: 213 Uptime: 40m wakeups: 3 Memory: 3.76 GiB
  used: 3.48 GiB (92.6%) Init: systemd v: 249 runlevel: 5 tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: N/A Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: xfce4-terminal
  inxi: 3.3.13

So I took notes of what you said. I will check my RAM and SSD and I think I'll buy a new ssd and try again.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

greybeard

Did you verify the Hash files to see if the ISO file is somemow corrupt?

Also there are many small Linux distros about:

I recall using Damn Small Linux on a Win98 laptop with a PII and 48 MB of RAM (there is a new 2024 version!)
there are also Slitaz and Tiny Core as well as others.

~~I wouldn´t be too quick to blame the HDD. I am stll using an old white MacBook from 2008 and the mentioned win98 laptop~~ with original HDDs. Though it is possible...
Oh... SSD... it is possible it has exeeded its write capacity. They do have a limit.

sgunhouse

@greybeard I really think they should make sort of a hardware RAM disk for temp and cache files (and of course swapfiles - all the stuff that gets frequently rewritten or erased). That way you're not limited by the computer's actual address space.

I coild name several more small distros, though one in particular was already mentioned: Puppy Linux.

paul1149

@Pardus said in How can I find out what's wrong with my laptop?:

Kernel: 6.5.0-27

Linux was on kernal 2.6 when that machine was made.