Old box acting up, fix or replace?

[cormanaz]

I have an old HA a1410n that I have attempted to fix and turn into a linux box. The only thing that was wrong with it was the hard drive, so I put an SSD in it and loaded Ubuntu 16.04. It started up and ran, but (as can be noted from other of my posts on the forums here), it has been having problems with locking up.

I started fishing around in the logs and there are some drive-related errors. I searched for some online info about whether this machine is compatible with a SSD, and the only thing I found (here https://www.mrmemory.co.uk/ssd-upgrades/hp/pavilion-desktop/media-center-a1410n) says the HD interface may not be compatible. But it works except when it sits idle for a long period and locks up.

So I am faced with what to try next. I could replace the SSD with an older HDD, but I'm not sure this is what's causing the lockup problem. It could be something with the Linux configuration or some other hardware issue. OTOH It is an 11 year old box, and there aren't even any bios updates for it except one that fixes connectivity issues, which I'm not having.

So maybe the smarter thing to do would be to get a more modern mobo and processor to go along with my SSD. But if it's a Linux issue I'd be spending a lot of money for nothing.

Any sage advice out there about which option to choose?

 

[R_1]

try a smaller ubuntu variant. puppy linux has always run great on old machines. tiny core linux also runs great on old machines.

the above link simply means that when the computer was new(11yrs ago) SSD's were experimental and were not a viable upgrade. times change and the system is fine as it has SATA the SATA generation will determine the maximum speed the SSD can acheive.

the system may be having a hard time waking the ssd, try disabling the sleep modes, ssd'd sip power so its still a win over a hdd.

 

[cormanaz]

So I got tiny core and booted it from cd. The first time it wouldn't boot. Tried again and it booted and got to the UI screen. The mouse worked, I moused over the icons at the bottom. It froze then after a few seconds it rebooted. So looks like I've got some hardware problems. Would you agree?

 

[R_1]

I agree.
RAM, motherboard, cables. something is broken.