[SOLVED] Intel NUC D54250WYK after install black screen with flashing cursor

[Silberdrachi]

So i previously had Linux Mint 18.3 installed on my NUC, and decided that a fresh install was in order. I first updated the latest bios that worked successfully, and then booted into the live disk by usb. I installed the OS (third party addins, adding pw and all that jazz) and waited. I walked away from the machine and made a sandwich, and when i came back all i had was a black screen with a flashing cursor. I decided that i must have missed an error while i was away and so installed again. This time i watched and it seems sometime after it was installing some python libraries, and languages, it just goes right to a black screen with cursor and stops doing anything.

Unplugging the live disk and trying to boot gives me the same black screen with cursor.

Secure boot is still disabled.
The mSATA drive is still the primary drive, and if i mount the SSD in the live boot i can see files there. They look right but ill be honest i don't know enough Linux to know if something is missing off the hop.

Am i missing some other trouble shooting step?

[leo-tech]

What I would do:

- disconnect PSU, open NUC case, remove and carefully insert again the RAM modules
- try to install Mint 19.1
- if the problem persists, try to install Mint 18.3, see if this works

[Silberdrachi]

What I would do:

- disconnect PSU, open NUC case, remove and carefully insert again the RAM modules
- try to install Mint 19.1
- if the problem persists, try to install Mint 18.3, see if this works

Well you hit the nail on the head. I disassembled the whole thing before the upgrades to clean it out and it looks like the ram module was in slot 2 not slot 1. Kind of strange to me that it worked to boot, and most of the install but then failed partway through. Either way i am up and running now. Thanks for the help.

[leo-tech]

I did not realize you have a single-channel memory (i.e. only one of two memory slots occupied), I guess this article might be of interest:

Dual-channel vs. Single-channel, does it matter?
https://nucblog.net/2015/09/dual-channe ... -it-matter

[Silberdrachi]

Yeah its really not the best situation but 95% of the work being done on this nuc is Kodi and Spotify for my media center control. I originally had two sticks in there but i had to cannibalize it to swap it into my nas in order to get better performance there. Now at this point my nuc is kind of getting old enough id rather just think about upgrading to one of the 8th gen ones when i get a 4k tv.