Persistent System Shut Down to Black Screen

[sakimonkey]

About 12 months ago after 10 years using horrible Windows Vista and wanting no more to do with Microsoft, we and decided to give Linux a try. After doing research online, we thought Mint Cinnamon would be a good start. We installed Version 18.1 Serena (32bit) on our 10 year old desktop PC. It has performed well with no major problems until the last few weeks.

During a web browsing session the system suddenly rebooted itself and ever since then we are having intermittent crashes where the screen just goes black (usually when browsing on Firefox but this is what PC is mostly used for). Thought it was a Firefox stability issue but it also happened when browsing Software Manager and opening Thunderbird. The PC remains powered on, the screen goes black (but not black black like when the PC is off). There is still light behind it and an unblinking cursor in the top left corner. The only thing we know to do is a forced shutdown and reboot. Its on booting that the fun begins (not). The system may:

1. Open normally
2. Will get a far as the Packard Bell logo screen where the boot menu is and go no further. It gets stuck in a loop trying to boot up but won’t. We force shutdown again
3. Black screen saying “error: no such partition. Entering rescue mode….grub rescue> Having no idea what the hell to enter here!!!! we force shutdown again and restart?

Then yesterday after the screen blacked out it flashed and up came a load of text beginning:
BUG unable to handle kernel paging request at a8105658
followed by lines and lines of text and numbers and ending with
651.5960241 kernel panic not synching. Fatal exception in interrupt
651.5960241 kernel offset: disabled

We are at a loss as to why this is happening or how to fix it. Had no luck having searched Linux forums and googled the hell out of this. We don’t know if these are separate problems or all linked to one issue. As complete novices we are wary that the various solutions offered (which appear to be countless) if we try them may lead to getting into an even bigger mess than we’re already in.

And just to put the tin hat on it, last weekend after a normal boot up, up comes "cinnamon just crashed you are currently running in Fallback Mode." Clicking restart cinnamon just creates a repeat until “no” is clicked. Now desktop environment looks like MATE.

Is our system kaput or what?

If there is anyone who can assist us with this problem it would be greatly appreciated.

willowisp@blackbird ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: blackbird Kernel: 4.4.0-53-generic i686 (32 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.2.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Machine: System: Packard Bell BV product: ISTART D2391 v: PB82111001
Mobo: Packard Bell BV model: RC415 v: 1.0
Bios: American Megatrends v: Rio3V308 date: 04/18/2007
CPU: Dual core Intel 2140 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB
flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 6383
clock speeds: max: 1595 MHz 1: 1595 MHz 2: 1595 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200/1100]
bus-ID: 01:05.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
GLX Renderer: ATI RC410
GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-53-generic
Network: Card: Realtek RTL-8100/8101L/8139 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
driver: 8139too v: 0.9.28 port: b800 bus-ID: 02:05.0
IF: enp2s5 state: unknown speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full
mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 80.0GB (28.3% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST3802110AS size: 80.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 72G used: 20G (29%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: swap-1 size: 1.88GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 182 Uptime: 2 min Memory: 276.9/1757.6MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35
willowisp@blackbird ~ $