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Long story short:
I recently (maybe a week ago) installed Ubuntu 9.10 on my laptop so I can dual boot Ubuntu/Windows 7. What I found out was whenever I went back to Windows to play some games, the next morning Grub won't load and the computer will restart over and over (so I had to use the Ubuntu CD to recover Grub to get everything to work again). I got sick of that after it happened a couple of times so I searched for some solutions to fix it. What I found is that some Windows software will write info in the boot sector and mess up Grub, and I was given a couple of solutions to try.
here
I tried solution 2 (reverting to an old version of Grub) and I followed all of the steps on the guide (except for the very last step about "If Windows is not on the boot drive"). After I did that, I decided to restart to test everything out. Lo and behold, NOTHING works now. My computer will get past the initial "Dell" screen and then it will go to a black screen. I got into the bios to try to boot from a CD (I tried to boot from the Ubuntu CD again so I could recover the new version of Grub) but that also leads to the black screen.
Has anyone encountered this before and can anyone help? I posted this on the ubuntu forums but I figured I could get some extra input from knowledgeable people on TL.
Edit: changed the link so it doesn't stretch the screen
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I also dual boot Ubuntu and Windows on my laptop. Basically the exact same thing happened to me, it has something to do with the 9.10 update, which isn't stable yet. I got some fatal error and whenever I tried to boot ubuntu I would get the command line. My Windows is still stable and working just fine. I pretty much just did what the command line recommended, which included a check disk, but to no avail.
For me I had to delete my ubuntu partition, and will either make a new one or switch to some other linux distro.
EDIT: Oooops sorry, I meant the 10.04 update isn't stable yet.
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It could be that the older version of grub you installed is using a VESA driver not supported by your video card, this usually shows as blocked and funky text, I'm not exactly sure I've never encountered this problem before. When it boots to the black screen with your ubuntu cd in try pressing enter and see what happens.
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Well, currently I can't boot into anything (as the screen just goes blank after the initial BIOS screen). Is there anything I can do to bypass all of that and just go straight to Windows?
Edit: celious I'll try that (right now I'm on another comp with my dead comp right next to me =P).
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On April 08 2010 05:35 ArC_man wrote:
Well, currently I can't boot into anything (as the screen just goes blank after the initial BIOS screen). Is there anything I can do to bypass all of that and just go straight to Windows?
Edit: celious I'll try that (right now I'm on another comp with my dead comp right next to me =P).
Did you try pressing F8 while the computer is first booting and trying to boot in safe mode?
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@ celious: I tried and it doesn't work =(
@ DeathByMonkeys: I can press F2 and go to the BIOS, F8 will give me another screen (saying F2 to go to BIOS, F12 to go to boot selection menu) and then it will go to the blank screen again =/. Pressing F12 at the start will just give me the blank screen.
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Are both of your OS's on different partitions? Did you successfully run Ubuntu for any amount of time or did it immediately not work? There could have been an error in your installation.
Also if you have the Live CD you can go to the BIOS when you boot and change the primary boot to your CD/DVD drive or USB if you have an .iso installed into a flash drive. From there just boot the Live CD and you can try and figure out what's going wrong once you actually get a successful boot.
If you have the genuine Windows 7 CD you could also try booting from that if it has a recover mode so you can atleast get something to work with.
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My OS's are on different partitions. They were both working properly so I don't think there was an error on the Ubuntu installation. The problem was when I went to Windows, Grub would be messed up and I would have to recover it.
I have the Live CD and I tried going to the BIOS to change the primary boot to CD but I still get the blank screen =(
Unfortunately I don't have my Dell recovery CD with me at the time (I'm gonna go home this weekend to get it).
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So if you press F2 to get to the BIOS menu you get a black screen, if you press F8 to get to the boot menu you get a black screen, and if you do nothing you get a black screen?
From there I don't know if there's much you can do. Does the computer make any noises if you just let it sit there in the black screen implying it's trying to boot, but the screen is just not working?
I don't know how you chose which OS you wanted to boot, but mine was you would just select Windows or Ubuntu immediately while booting. Ubuntu was the second choice for me, so you could trying pressing the down arrow after booting and hitting enter. Then trying pressing CTRL + ALT + F1-F5. This is an attempt to bring up a virtual terminal (probably won't work, but it's the last thing I can think of).
If all this fails, you may just have to wait until you get back home and try the recovery CD and continue this thread from there.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help, maybe someone of more Ubuntu knowledge than I can help you.
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I can enter the BIOS with F2 and fiddle with stuff, but anything after that brings up the black screen.
It doesn't make any noises if I let it sit there (it doesn't make any noise usually since it's relatively new... at least I know I have the warranty >_>).
Yea the CTRL+ALT+F1-F5 doesn't work either =(
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On April 08 2010 06:19 ArC_man wrote:
I can enter the BIOS with F2 and fiddle with stuff, but anything after that brings up the black screen.
It doesn't make any noises if I let it sit there (it doesn't make any noise usually since it's relatively new... at least I know I have the warranty >_>).
Yea the CTRL+ALT+F1-F5 doesn't work either =(
If you can change the stuff in your BIOS then you should be able to change the primary boot and then attempt the go from there. Once you get the black screen the changes to your boot order should still be changed for the next time you boot? I don't know, these attempts at trying to boot may just be a lost cause.
And by noises I don't really mean weird noises, just the noises that play when you hit the splash screen in Windows, or Ubuntu for that matter.
If you're still under warranty you may just want to trying calling tech support. Also if there are any computer shops in your area you could bring your rig in there and have them take a look at it.
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Yea I tried that too... now I'm doubting that the Windows recovery CD will work.. since I can't even get the Ubuntu CD to boot =/
If all else fails, at least I this thing is still on warranty -.-z
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If you can get into the repair console by booting from Windows disc, you can try repairing the MBR. On win7 it was bootsect /nt60 C: /mbr or something like that. I had an issue when I deleted my ubuntu partition but grub was still in the mbr (couldn't boot into anything) and that fixed it.
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Ok so I've made some progress (amazingly).
What happened was, I kept fiddling around with the BIOS and then I saw this "Revert to Default Settings" thing. I was almost sure it wouldn't work but after I tried it, I got this "Grub Error" message and I was able to boot onto the CD again (so I was able to fix reinstall grub all over again except with the old version).
Now all I need to fix is getting Windows 7 to boot. I'm not sure what to put on the menu.lst. I have Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.
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EPT
