Acer Aspire laptop boot erro

[lexon]

My fairly new Acer Aspire 3515 laptop has developed a start up issue. Purchased about 7 months ago.
Every couple of days or so, when I boot Mint 7, I get the below text on the screen. Then all I get is text on a black screen with a lot of errors indicated. Had to use a camera.
I put in the Mint 7 CD and do a new install, I still see the same text as in the photo but everything is ok for a day or two.
The back to all text with errors. Do a new install again.
It has a 1.6 g cpu and 3gb RAM.
Any ideas? Thanks.



lex

[lagagnon]

Looks like a hardware fault to me - especially as it is failing both using your HD partition and while using a live CD. Try a different distro Live CD to be sure but it fails at checking your ATA bus, which to me says hard drive or ATA bus failure. Also, double check your system BIOS and make sure there appear to be reasonable choices in the BIOS - also see if the BIOS detects your hard drives OK. Turn on SMART hard drive diagnostics in the BIOS and see what it tells you when it boots.

[lexon]

Looks like a hardware fault to me - especially as it is failing both using your HD partition and while using a live CD. Try a different distro Live CD to be sure but it fails at checking your ATA bus, which to me says hard drive or ATA bus failure. Also, double check your system BIOS and make sure there appear to be reasonable choices in the BIOS - also see if the BIOS detects your hard drives OK. Turn on SMART hard drive diagnostics in the BIOS and see what it tells you when it boots.

Thanks for the reply.
The error message is there when using a Mint 7 Live CD but the Live CD runs fine in the computer.
I have used that CD for installs on three computers with no issues.

I did not see the error message with Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD or PCLinuxOS.

The Phoenix BIOS is what is in the computer.
There is no Smart drive option. The BIOS does see the drive very well.

If the drive does fail, I have the original drive that came with the computer that has Vista Basic on it.
I can always over write Vista with Mint if the present drive fails. Both drives are 160gb same manufacturer/ model number.

lex

[Husse]

The
mp-bios bug 8254 timer not connected to io-apic
is a fairly well known and common bug for some hardware
In spite of the name the bug is not in the BIOS but BIOS dependable
First if you have some nvidia or AMD specific settings in BIOS such as Q-fan, cool'n quiet or AMD-live disable them
Add
acpi=off no acpi
as boot parameter (I think you know what to do)
Somewhat older systems may benefit from not using USB mouse and keyboard but that's a long shot
Long topic in the LQ forum (for Fedora) here
A more technical explanation here
This is from 2007 and refers to the kernel not quite up to it - it should be now but the basis laid out is still of interest
It may have something to do with the DSDT and you could try to ask 67GTA if he is kind enough to help you with a new one - if my memory serves me right he has done so already for someone else

[lexon]

Thanks for the reply.
I just downloaded and burned an ISO for Mint 8 Gnome. The install and updates are all done. No error messages now. Time will tell.
The two soft reset failed messages no longer seen. The Timer message has never been an issue with Mint 7 and is not around anymore.

lex

[Husse]

I've seen it too - it's mostly a non issue

[lexon]

I found out a couple weeks ago the drive with Mint on it is on its last leg.
I cannot even run Live CD anymore.
I slipped in the drive that came with the laptop that has Vista Basic on it. Works fine.
I also ran the live CD using this drive and no issues.
I will look into buying a replacement drive and install Mint on it.
A new original drive is available for about $40.00.
I would attempt a dual boot with Mint but after reading quite a few searches on this issue, I see that Vista does not like to play with Linux.
I have dual booted Mint 8 and Ubuntu 9.10 and they play very well together. No action was needed by me.

lex

[Husse]

I don't think you get a problem with Linux and Vista - Windows 7 on the other hand seems to have issues
I have also seen a recommendation from Ubuntu not to use grub2 for more than two operating systems
In the installs I have made I have put grub2 in the partition (PBR) so I can't really tell

[lexon]

I did some 'Net searching for the hard drive in this laptop and found out they do not have a good track record. The drive is defective.
I ordered a brand that does have a good track record and installed Mint 7 on it. I do not like Firefox 3.5 in Mint 8 so I will be staying with 7.

Lex