Linux Boot Disaster

Hi all, I apologise for this but everything I have read so far cannot resolve my issue.

I have a linux aspire one AOA 110 Aw.

Suddenly it has stopped working properly.

It starts booting...appears to go through POST but then stops with a black screen and a mouse cursor.

I have tried a million things it seems and nothing is resolving the issue.

I do not have any recovery discs as it is second hand.

Please help in Laymans terms.

 

Do you have access to an external device like a Live CD/DVD or a Live USB stick?

Have you tried to boot from an external device?

 

I have created a iso bootable usb stick to install but it wont do it.

I managed to partially boot to a screen with the linux penguin on it with the words linux and linux.com around it.

It wont do anything else.

 

ok heres the latest

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,2)

 

What linux distro did you use? I would suggest Linux Mint.

 

try a Lucid Puppy Linux live bootable USB drive and make sure you have the BIOS set to boot from it.

 

I'm no linux expert, but I recently tried to install Ubuntu 10.04LTS on an old sony VAIO laptop for fun. I was repeatedly getting the kernel panic not syncing message. I ran a memory test from the bootable Ubuntu CD and turns out my memory was defective. Removed the RAM to see what would happen. It worked to a degree, running on 128Mb of integrated RAM seems to be not enough to install linux as it completely and utterly failed. It just froze durrign install.

I'd say run a RAM test, you'll probably find that it's faulty.