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‎06-16-2019 08:43 PM

HP Recommended
Product: HP Mini 5101
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 (32-bit)

Hello, 

I have an old HP Mini 5101 laptop on which I made the mistake of installing Windows 10, simply because it made the computer really slow. So, I wanted to install a lightweight Linux OS on it to speed it up and to try and get a feel for Linux. When I try to boot to the installation media, AKA a Flash Drive with the ISO image burned onto it, I get a black screen and a blinking cursor (a horizontal line much like an underscore) in the top left corner. This cursor lasts forever, and I can't get it to stop doing this, I've tried multiple Linux OS's (Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon, Linux Mint 19.1 Xfce, Linux Mint 18.1 Xfce, and Peppermint 10, all to no avail. I've tried making sure USB Legacy Support was enabled, and it is. I've put everything with USB in the title first in the boot order, also to no avail. I've tried different USB ports, I've tested the flash drive with the installation media burned on it on my desktop, and it booted to the USB drive fine. I've also made sure any "fast boot" or "secure boot" options are disabled, as this PC has no secure boot or fast boot setting. I cannot for the life of me figure out why this laptop refuses to boot to the USB drive. Here is some extra info about the laptop and flash drive:

 

Product Name: HP Mini 5101

Product Number: FM977UA#ABA

USB Flash Drive: Lexar JumpDrive TwistTurn USB 2.0 8GB Flash Drive

3 REPLIES 3

‎06-17-2019 12:37 AM - edited ‎06-17-2019 12:40 AM

HP Recommended

Just a couple thoughts here. Is there a setting in BIOS for booting from legacy devices? I mention that because some older laptops have that setting and it was to prevent/allow booting from a usb floppy drive. On a laptop I had years ago if it wasn't enabled I could not boot from any usb device.

Have you tried tapping away on the F9 key after powering on? Many laptops require that to choose the select the desired boot device no matter what is at top of boot devices list in BIOS.

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‎06-17-2019 09:52 AM

HP Recommended

Yes, I have enabled the setting labeled "USB Legacy Support" and that did not fix the problem. I have also tried tapping the F9 key and manually selecting the option "USB Hard Disk", which also didn't solve my problem.

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‎06-19-2019 12:23 AM

HP Recommended

The only other thing I can think to suggest is maybe trying another flash drive. HP laptops can be finicky sometimes about brand. I know one year several of us in the Expert program were having problems creating Recovery Media on some brands.Also are you installing same bit OS as was native to your mini- 32bit vs 64bit?

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