[tlug] apparent hardware problem(s) -- but where?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

BALUTA Chris writes:

 >  - I was, after two or three times, able to install unbuntu 9.09
 >    (jaunty jakalope, or something) from the same cd. But then the 
 >    system, while sometimes running fine, would hang

Caveat lector: I am not a hardware expert.

Intermittent problems of this kind are typically hardware-related.
They can be caused by hardware-driver mismatches, but are also often
busted/badly-designed hardware.

 >  Assuming/guessing it might be a disk problem

This doesn't sound like a disk problem.  If you're having disk
problems of the kind that can be fixed by disk replacement, the dmesg
utility or one of the logs (kern.log, syslog, messages) is likely to
be full of disk error messages.  I bet it isn't.

 > Same problems.  (Locking up/ screen colors going goofy, looking
 > like a photographic negative, etc.).

That sounds like a problem with the graphics card or the graphics
driver to me.  However ...

 >   Meanwhile, ubuntu lets me know "it's time to update to 9.10."
 > So I allow it to go through the 1 1/2 hour process, and things
 > seem ok. Great. No problems. Log out and let the machine
 > sit for a couple of hours. Log in. System locks up! Reboot attempt -- no
 > good (disk light is on, I can hear it chugging along, but a vast,
 > blank screen. I waited a good few minutes -- much longer than previous
 > boot ups took to complete -- to no avail.) Reboot attempt - good. 

Machine at different temperatures may or may not boot?  That sounds
like you have a problem with a mechanical connection, or perhaps a
non-solid state component.  Do you have hardware that reports
temperature and stuff?  Are CPU and GPU heat sinks firmly seated?

 >   - memtest86 has been run throughout this process. On 2 or 3
 > occasions, there were no errors. On the others, there were a
 > plethora of errors.

That sounds like mechanical problems with the memory.  Try letting the
machine cool down, unplug it, ground yourself, and then take out all
the memory and reseat it.  Similarly all other mechanical connections:
video card, disk controller card, disk cables, etc.

Good luck.