HI all, I recently decided to repurpose an old Samsung R780 laptop, specs afaik are Samsung R780 - Core i3 330M / 2.13 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD - DVD SuperMulti DL - 17.3" wide 1600 x 900 / HD+ - NVIDIA GeForce 310M. This is very old , around 2010 so i wasn't expecting much but tried Zorin 17.3 Core and to my surprise it worked really well. Didn't do much with it and not touched it for a couple of weeks . Started up today, booted ok but anything i try and run, the window opens but is empty, nothing there just black background. Any help will be muchly appreciated.
You can check a few things:
Are Secure Boot and Fast Boot disabled in the BIOS?
If you use dual boot with Windows
also deactivate the fast start in Windows.
Start Zorin in safe mode (sure graphics). To do this, go to "Advanced options" as soon as the grub menu appears.
Then go to the settings for additional drivers. You can find these under System>Software and updates.
You could try it with a different graphics driver. For a quick trouble solution choose Nouveau. Nouveau works in any case, but is not so suitable for games etc. However, if you don't want to do anything graphics-intensive, you can use it without any problems. However, the Nvidia driver will only work if you install an older kernel or add a ppa.
It is also recommended to switch to Xorg as Nvidia does not work well under Wayland. To do this, log out and then just click on your user when you log in again. A cogwheel will then appear on the screen where you can select Xorg.
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Hi and welcome. Just to add that Samsung are not brilliant when it comes to BIOS updates, they never provide any. The Integrated Resource at a school where I worked purchased some Samsung P530 Notebooks. Remember the infamous Intel Meltdown? Intel did not provide patches. You had to run the Intel program that diagnosed if your CPU was at risk but it was down to the manufacturers to provide the solution. Out of all the devices we had, only the Samsung ones never got a meltdown patch for the P530s. One of the first bits of advice I state in the unofficial manual for Zorin 17 is to update the BIOS because sometimes Zorin would not install unless the BIOS is updated. All I can say is you have been lucky to get it to install. An unfortunate forum member from Brasil could not get Zorin to install a few months back and this was a current device. I searched for a BIOS update from the official Samsung site here in the UK; all that was available was a manual for the notebook, and that was a recent device. My advice would be to trade up for a Dell Notebook. I repurposed a Dell E6550 Latitude that the service I worked for could not upgrade to Windows 10 as it was only licenced to run Vista, only Windows 7 and up qualified for the Upgrade. The service allowed me to have it as a 'Bonus'. My eldest is now running it after I Installed MX-Linux 23.1 KDE (Plasma). I changed the CMOS Battery, bought 8 Gb RAM to replace the 2 Gb RAM, and swapped out the DVD-ROM/CD-R for a new DVD-RW.
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Hi Forpli, thanks for the reply. I will try these later and let you know how i get on. Still baffles me how it worked before and not now.
Hi swarfendor437, thank you for the suggestion. I was very lucky and surprised to get it working originally. One of my greatest problems is that I look after my tech and all my old gear is in very good condition but virtually obsolete. I used to have a Psion series 5, brilliant bit of kit, still worked and like new but no use for it. Sold it for a few quid on flea bay. I am supposed to be having a clear out but I hate throwing good stuff out so try to find a use, I don't really need it. I have an old HP laptop too but Zorin wouldn't even look at it so it will have to go. I should say I have a fairly new PC running Win 11 and another older one on win 10 so plenty to play with.
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Hi oldmanlinux, I still have my first PC originally a P120, which had a 1 Gb Fujitsu Hard Drive, a basic sound card and S3 Graphics. I upgraded it with an Evergreen AMD 400 Mhz Processor. Never got beyond 16 Mb RAM. Computer shop spliced a USB 1.0 port for me. Upgraded graphics to Matrox Mystique and added Rainbow Runner add on, also Matrox 3d add-on card, and upgraded drive to Quantum Fireball 20 Gb drive, and just before Analogue got turned off, a Matrox TV card! Had to get a patch to reinstall Windows 95 after processor upgrade as Windows 95 could not handle 400 MHz processor. Fun times.
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Welcome to the Forum!
Because you have Nvidia Graphics, I would suggest to switch to X11/Xorg if not already done. That should work better with Nvidia.
Another Point could be the old Hardware. Maybe an older Kernel could be needed for this - especially when You want use a Nvidia Driver.
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Hi Ponce-De-Leon, thanks for the reply .... well switched on today and everything worked ..... strange ... Yesterday i restarted twice and shut down completely twice and neither helped but today ... all ok. I did the change to Xorg though when it booted. Now im checking for updates but it is stuck on 'waiting for packagekitd to exit'. .. so now gonna search for that here. Thanks again for the responses, no doubt i will have more questions for you experts.
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Well sorted the waiting for packagekitd problem... i changed the download server from UK to Main , refreshed the software list and then started the updater again and it works ok.
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