Black Screen on MICRO-STAR model GF615M-P31 MS-7597

[MoonRise]

OK, not really a black screen but something definitely not quite correct and can't determine what.

Below are the specs of the system and what OS it has currently that works. Really want to migrate this system to PLASMA 5. 16.04, 16.10 and 17.04 do the same thing.

I can get to the log-in fine, after that, all I see is wallpaper. No desktop elements or mouse pointer.

Tried to determine if X and Plasma were running. It seems X is but not Plasma from what I could tell but couldn't determine why and why no mouse pointer.



System: Host: MYtestmch Kernel: 4.4.0-79-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.4)

Desktop: KDE 4.13.3 (Qt 4.8.6) Distro: Kubuntu 14.04 trusty

Machine: Mobo: MICRO-STAR model: GF615M-P31 (MS-7597) version: 1.0 Bios: American Megatrends version: V2.7 date: 12/13/2010

CPU: Hexa core AMD Phenom II X6 1045T (-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm) bmips: 32550.1

Clock Speeds: 1: 800.00 MHz 2: 800.00 MHz 3: 800.00 MHz 4: 800.00 MHz 5: 800.00 MHz 6: 1400.00 MHz

Graphics: Card: NVIDIA C61 [GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a] bus-ID: 00:0d.0
X.Org: 1.18.3 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau) Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a/integrated/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 304.135 Direct Rendering: Yes

Network:
Card-1: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e800 bus-ID: 04:00.0
IF: eth1 state: down mac: 6c:62:zz:zz:zz:zz

Card-2: Realtek RTL8169 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d800 bus-ID: 01:09.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:22:zz:zz:zz:zz

Drives: HDD Total Size: 1500.3GB (41.1% used) 1: model: ST31500541AS

[MoonRise]

Nothing I do will keep it from doing that. I've never run into a machine that was this bad at trying to get to work. I guess I'll leave it 14.04 as it does work.

[Snowhog]

That is a very old BIOS in that machine. Any chance it can be updated?

[MoonRise]

True it is and I thought of that but wasn't ready to go down that road at the moment due to what I have the system doing. Believe it or not, upgrading the OS would have been easier to recover from due to how I have the data split and configurations saved. If the BIOS did not correct the issue and I tried going back to 14.04 and then it didn't work either I couldn't risk that at the moment.

I'll definitely give that a try once I can actually retire it's current function which I hope by mid-July. I'll let you know. I was just wondering if there would be a reason why 14.04 works and all the ones with Plasma5 do not. It just struck me as odd, that's all.

[Snowhog]

Is it an option to attempt installing the latest 14.04 kernel in the later(est) releases of Kubuntu?

[MoonRise]

I would think so. Not sure how to go about that. I've read about doing that but never tried it as I never had the need. When opportunity knocks!!

As far as BIOS, I did do some searching and their site for that motherboard and the BIOS wasn't the best. Have yet to find it thought they did have a tool that worked on Windows that seemed to allow BIOS updates but this machine is all Linux. I have it running virtual Windows quests but doubt I can use it past the virtual shell to the Host.