Need help with random kernel panics

[usbman]

This is a rather long story.

I was installing Xubuntu 9.10 with a LiveCD. In the middle of the installation a kernel panic occured (crash and blinking capslock+scroll lock). I shut down the computer and restarted.

BIOS crashed. I shut it down, waited for 20 minutes, and booted up. No crash this time.

BIOS settings were reseted to defaults (how is that possible?). Since then, the PC has printed something like this at every bootup (can't remember exactly):

FastTrack (tm) 1995-2001 Copyright .....
...
Scanning for IDE devices........ (computer waits for 15 seconds)

No array is found!

Press Ctrl+F to enter setup, Esc to continue booting

(continues booting after 10 second timeout)

If I press Ctrl+F, it shows a menu like this (I can't remember much of it):

Choose an option:

• 1: auto setup
• 2: ????
• 3: Read array
• 4: ????
• 5: Configure setup array something

No matter which option I choose, it just reboots without giving me any feedback/menus and scans for IDE devices over again.


If I let it continue booting, GRUB showed up and crashed with error 15. (xubuntu livecd crashed while installing so it didn't work, obviously)

I rebooted, inserted Xubuntu 9.10 LiveCD and selected "Try xubuntu without any change to your computer". Got kernel panic right after X server started and cursor showed up.

I rebooted, and tried the LiveCD a couple times. Kernel panic every time.


I burned Xubuntu 9.04 LiveCD with my fully working laptop, and rebooted the broken pc with the liveCD.

This time there was no kernel panic. I managed to install a working Xubuntu 9.04 system to hard disk.

I rebooted, it scanned for IDE devices, grub showed up, and the system booted up.


Great! I chose to install the updates. In the middle of downloading packages stage a kernel panic occured, so I rebooted.

The system booted up normally. I chose to install the updates again. This time, a kernel panic came when installing the updates.


Now, it gets past BIOS and GRUB but drops me to "initramfs" command line and reports lots of errors. (probably because it crashed before updates were completely installed)


So.... Why does BIOS act weird? How to fix these kernel panics? I want to reinstall Xubuntu but I don't do it yet because I'm scared of kernel panics.

The 7 years old hardware:

Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2000+
RAM: 256Mb
Hard disk: 82.3Gb
GPU: Nvidia GeForce Ti 4200
Mobo: KT3 Ultra

It's not overheating because in BIOS it shows 35 degrees hot. (the pc has ran 80 degrees hot and worked fine with win9 (stupid smilies)

[devils casper]

It looks like Graphics Card is not working properly and soemthing is wrong with other hardware part(s) too. Could you post a few more error messages here?

[usbman]

It looks like Graphics Card is not working properly and soemthing is wrong with other hardware part(s) too. Could you post a few more error messages here?

Why do you think the problem is in graphics card?

I can't find any error messages from /var/log.

[devils casper]

Now, it gets past BIOS and GRUB but drops me to "initramfs" command line and reports lots of errors

Post errors that appear at startup.

Why do you think the problem is in graphics card?

In 95% cases, system hangs because of Graphics Card malfunction. It could be cause of wrong Graphics Card Driver, unsupported Xorg configuration or faulty Hardware.

I can't find any error messages from /var/log.

Sometimes OS doesn't get enough time to log error messages.

[usbman]

I reinstalled Xubuntu 9.04 from LiveCD to hard disk. It boots up, X server & XFCE works, mouse & keyboard works, everything works.

But BIOS is acting weird and I keep getting random kernel panics. There are no error messages when kernel panic comes.


When I turn on the PC, the usual BIOS text shows up (do you want me to write down that too?), and then it shows this:

MBFastTrack133 (tm) "Lite" BIOS Version 2.00.1.22
(c) 1995-2001 Promise Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.

Scanning for IDE devices.............

No Array is defined.......................................

Press <Ctrl+F> to enter FastBuild (tm) Utility or
Press <ESC> to continue booting..._

If I press ESC, it keeps going, GRUB shows up, and Xubuntu starts.

If I press Ctrl+F, this menu shows up:

FastBuild (tm) Utility 1.32 (c) 1996-2001 Promise Technology, Inc.

============================[Main Menu]===============================

		Auto setup....................[ 1 ]

		View Drive Assignments........[ 2 ]

		View Array....................[ 3 ]

		No disk is found. Please check the
		power and data cable connection. 
		<Press Any Key to Exit>

		Controller Configuration......[ 6 ]


=========================[Keys Available]============================

Press 1..6 to Select Option                   		[ESC] Exit

If I press 1, 2, 3 or 6, it reboots. If I press any other key, it reboots.

It does the above things at every reboot. It didn't do that before. How can I disable that "fasttrack" utility? It seems to be the root of all problems.

Once when I was using xubuntu, it just suddenly closed linux/xubuntu and showed me that fasttrack thing.


I don't think it's a hardware failure. BIOS is just messed up. Do you think that removing and re-inserting CMOS battery can fix the BIOS?