Ran into a strange issue with Linux Mint 17.1 32-bit and this ITX board. Created bootable 4GB USB stick for Mint 17.1 32-bit and everything looks fine at the get go. Linux Mint bootloader count down and then it automatically boots to a live install of Mint. Desktop shows up after the small LM logo and all still looks good. Move mouse pointer around and no problems. Go to click on Firefox to launch browser and the pointer turns into a cartwheel that shows progress and then locks up tight, and sometimes the screen would then show diagonal saw toothed lines on the monitor. No mouse or keyboard controls system is locked up. Rebooted and tried again and same results. Rebooted and tried again and this time went to navigate to software manager and it locked up tight again. Swapped RAM out just because its quick and easy, removed the 2GB of DDR2 533Mhz and replaced that with a single 1GB 667Mhz DDR2 stick and problem remains. Put the other RAM back in since I need the 2GB vs 1GB even though slower FSB RAM.
Troubleshooting methods used ...
1.) Ran Memtest86 which is part of this distros boot loader options. 5 passes with no RAM issues. Swapped RAM with other known good RAM and problem remains as well.
2.) Removed USB stick and booted the same version of Mint off of a DVD-R everything looks good until once again launching browser or navigating in which system locks up.
3.) *Note the DVD-R and USB stick work perfectly fine in other systems so I know there is nothing wrong with the OS.
4.) On about the 5th boot Cinnamon displayed an error message that looks like it had some sort of conflict and so it disabled some features. * I should have written down the error message.
5.) Connected the SATA hard drive back to this system and booted Windows 7 64-bit with no problems. So I know that the hardware is healthy and so it had to be a driver or some other conflict with this motherboard and that distro.
Here is hardware specs for this build:
CPU = Athlon 64 x2 4450B 2.3Ghz 45w TDP socket AM2
RAM = Corsair 533Mhz DDR2 ( 2 x 1GB = 2GB dual-channel config )
PSU = 430 watt coolermaster ( Voltages are all healthy )
Here is the motherboard for more info on it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500045I am thinking that this might be driver or bug related, to this board, but not sure how find the exact cause. Does anyone know if there is a event log like Windows has to see what happened and what may have been reported as failing. My linux skills are weak when it comes to problems like this. Its strange that everything looks good until you go to do anything with it other than move the mouse pointer around.
For the fact that Windows 7 64-bit runs flawless on this I can rule out a hardware failure.
I suppose I could try a distro other than Mint on it and see if I can find one that behaves and look to see what drivers are used maybe and compare to see if I can find the cause.
