[Discuss] Post issue with bootable linux

[smallm at sdf.org (Mike Small)]

Jerry Feldman <gaf.linux at gmail.com> writes:

> I have a guy with an older system
> Core2 duo CPU
> 4GB ddr2 scramble
>
> Dell motherboard
> The problem is when I boot with a known good bootable Linux usb

Known good bootable on BIOS only systems too, or would you have always
UEFI booted this stick before?

> Ubuntu, Fedora the system fails to post.

Fails to post as in doesn't get past the POST? Any beeps? If it's really
failing during or before POST that would rule out anything software
related, from boot loader on down.

> 1. Dell logo comes up
> 2. Press F12 (boot) or F2 (setup) the light flashes on the usb and the
> system is otherwise frozen.
> 3. Neither the setup nor boot menu come up
>
> However, when I use a bootable gparted USB it comes up fine. When I go to
> the boot menu and select the usb, it boots.

This would contradict it being a POST or pre-POST failure unless it was
by chance.

I dunno, I've had an old laptop whose keyboard would fail unpredictably
in ways that seemed to be related to total power draw. It wouldn't get
far trying to run Windows 2000, but OpenBSD or Slackware with a
lightweight wm would run for hours at a time with all or almost all the
keys working. I supposed that some component or circuit had gotten where
voltages were in some ambiguous area that was somehow a function of
current or else heat was changing physical distances between parts in
tricky little ways that started to matter over time.  Maybe your
friend's machine has some kind of power budget issue that it's getting
crankier about over time, and one of your USB sticks draws current a bit
differently than the other.

-- 
Mike Small
smallm at sdf.org