BIOS Problems after Mint 7 install??

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bobpur
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BIOS Problems after Mint 7 install??

Post by bobpur »

This problem involves two computers sharing the same malfunction. Both have the same motherboard. A8N32-SLI Deluxe made by ASUS. Both boards have run Ubuntu and derivatives in the past. Linux Mint from about Bea up to and including Felicia. (K), (X), Ubuntu from about v6.10 to v8.10. Gnome, KDE, Xfce, and Fluxbox. However, with the new versions of Ubuntu and Mint, After installing in a dualboot configuration with WinXP, I saw a warning on the linux start-up screen about ACPI not being recognized by linux and I should update my BIOS and complain to the Bios vendor. When I fired up Windows to see that GRUB was working correctly, it went as far as the Boot screen with the slide bar across the bottom and then BSOD'd with the warning that my Bios should be updated. I went to the ASUS site and got the latest BIOS update and installed it. No go. It still gives the BSOD message that the ACPI is screwed up and I should update my BIOS.. To clarify, An ACPI malfunction message showed up when first firing up linux and then manifested a similar message on a Blue screen in Windows, Linux still worked. Windows does not. After the BSOD it reboots to the message and cycles around until stopped. One other thing, One machine that messed up runs Ubuntu v9.04 the other Mint 7. The problem never showed itself until the latest versions of each distro was installed.

More specs: This machine I'm using now is a 4400 AMD dualcore socket 939 with 2 gigs Corsair RAM and SATA hard drives. It won't load XP and Mint is down with the Nvidia driver problem. I wiped the drive and tried Win2K with no luck. Vista 32-bit, however is running fine for the moment. I'll have to re-write everything once this mess is fixed. :(

The other machine is a 3800 dualcore AMD socket 939 cpu with 2 gigs of Corsair RAM and PATA hdd's. It copied the other ones problems today and I haven't touched it yet.

Flashing the BIOS has not helped the first one and I haven't touched the second one. I did find an ACPI driver on the ASUS site for this mobo. I don't want to get into that until morning.

If anyone can help I'd appreciate it. I provided all the info I think pertains but if there are any more questions, I'll try to answer them.

Thanks
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Husse

Re: BIOS Problems after Mint 7 install??

Post by Husse »

Google for
A8N32-SLI ACPI
and you will find topic after topic basically stating this mobo is not ACPI compliant
Why things start happening now and as they do is not easy to tell
A BIOS upgrade may be the solution, but I'm always reluctant to do that....
bobpur
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 125
Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2006 5:46 pm

Re: BIOS Problems after Mint 7 install??

Post by bobpur »

I did the BIOS flash thing. I bumped it up to the 1405 version. No luck.

I thought it odd that Vista would work and XP didn't. I figured out that the disk might be the problem since the Vista disk was brand new and the XP disk had some miles on it. I tried another XP disk on the computer with the AMD +3800 cpu and it worked. That one is up and running again. The one with the AMD +4400 cpu is still down. Apparently, while showing the same problems, this one gets there by a different way. I guess this one will remain a Vista machine until a cure is found. OR a straight Linux Mint machine. :)
bobpur
Level 3
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Posts: 125
Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2006 5:46 pm

Re: [SOLVED] BIOS Problems after Mint 7 install??

Post by bobpur »

Hmmm, it looks like this has degraded into a Windows issue. Since Mint seems to run OK.

As I need Windows to run some software, I need to dualboot. So, my apologies for bringing, what turned out to be a Windows problem, to a linux forum.

Thanks.
Husse

Re: BIOS Problems after Mint 7 install??

Post by Husse »

No problem - dual booting is allowed :)
But I can't support you in Windows any more - it's years since I used it except far a few encounters with Vista on my laptop
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