Had two empty slots, so stuck two more in. Now, when I turn the machine on, it comes up a blank screen. OK, power down, power back up, it come to grub screen. Select the only OS (Linux Mint 18.2 64bit XFCE) and sometimes it loads, and sometimes the message "kernel not valid ELF file" comes up. Power down, power up, repeat until it boots right. No rhyme or reason.
So I upgraded the kernel from 4.08.0-53 to 4.10.0-42 (this was the upgrade offered in update-manager)
Still pops the "not valid ELF file" a couple of times before I get a successful boot.
Before I start chasing rabbits, I'd like some advice. Here's my machine's info:
Do I start with a bios update? There's both an A10 and A11 available. However, they are windows .exe files, so I'm unsure how to do that with a linux install.System: Host: bruce-OptiPlex-GX620 Kernel: 4.10.0-42-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.28) Distro: Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya
Machine: System: Dell product: OptiPlex GX620
Mobo: Dell model: 0PY423 Bios: Dell v: A07 date: 03/31/2006
CPU: Single core Intel Pentium 4 (-HT-) cache: 1024 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3) bmips: 5985
clock speeds: max: 2992 MHz 1: 2992 MHz 2: 2992 MHz
Altho the motherboard has 4 dimm slots, I've read that it won't recognise dimm3 or dimm4. Obviously, mine does. lshw sees them. But this didn't happen until I put sticks into these slots. Is there an explanation for this?
Do I have a grub problem, and how would I trouble-shoot this?
Any other suggestions?