this post was submitted on 30 May 2026
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PC stuck at American Megatrends screen (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 weeks ago by remustan37@sh.itjust.works to c/buildapc@lemmy.world
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Hi. I finally decided to install Linux on my old PC (not booted in years). But when I plugged in my live USB and booted up, my PC is stuck here.

I tried booting up without a USB. Now a windows xp screen is asking me to start normally or boot with safe mode (3 safe mode options to be exact). Normal start does not work (the PC automatically reboots without warning). I choose safe mode with command prompt and bunch text shows up and ends with .../mup.sys

Any idea what should I do here? I have no use for my windows so I don't mind removing it. Also time resets every time I boot up the PC.

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[–] p_consti@lemmy.world 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If the time resets, change the CMOS battery (usually a round one, a bit smaller than a coin).

Don't know about the other issue, it seems stuck trying to detect USB devices, so it may be unable to work with your stick, you could try an older one (usb 2?), but the motherboard or usb controller may just be damaged with no easy fix.

[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 3 points 2 weeks ago

Battery is likely a CR2032

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Also time resets every time I boot up the PC.

If the PC has been offline and unplugged for years, the CMOS battery on the motherboard is probably dead. This battery maintains the time & date information, as well as the BIOS/UEFI configuration settings (which includes the boot device order).

Replace the battery (usually CR2025 or CR2032) and then review all of your BIOS settings, especially the boot devices, and also verify that the available RAM is what you expect.

Also, this is a Windows XP machine? You should check the motherboard and power supply for signs of the capacitor plague:

Also, a final educational video

[–] elvith@feddit.org 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

To add to other comments: This is an old PC that runs a Pentium 4 and is probably still running a BIOS instead of a modern UEFI.

Make sure your install disk and Linux distro can boot in Legacy Mode and that the drive is formatted with MBR. I haven't used such old hardware in a while so I don't know if this support is still universal or something to look out for.

Also keep in mind, that MBR only supports drives up to 2TB.

Also on my old PC back then that had a Pentium 4, I had massive problems with USB drives and my PC would never boot when I had any USB drives connected. I always had to burn CD-Rs with the installers...

[–] remustan37@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How do i burn CD with installer? The only CD player I have is in the pc and an old Samsung CD player

[–] elvith@feddit.org 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

So... From what I gathered:

  • PC boots to Windows (or... it's defective remains) if you unplug your USB drive.
  • PC hangs in this spot if you boot it up with the USB drive connected.
  • Hang occurs, when the BIOS tries to enumerate and identify the USB drives

I'd try the following:

  • Switch the USB drive to another USB slot. Try a few different slots (might be a problem with the physical connection or the USB controller and other slots may be using another controller chip,....). Also try those on the front and back (if your case has some on the front)
  • If your PC has a PCI card with additional USB slots: Try to avoid using them for the drive, but for testing purposes, it's worth a shot.
  • Try other drives. At this point, it shouldn't matter much what filesystem is on them, as you want a drive that is recognized by your Mainboard.

If you have a drive identified that seems to work, check it is partitioning (you want MBR). And check that your distro supports Legacy Boot from MBR - for a quick test you could also try to boot Memtest86+ which claims to support Legacy Boot, MBR and "Pentium class x86 / x64 CPU"

https://memtest.org/

Edit: For testing other drives, you do not need to put the installers on them. The first step is to get past the hang in the BIOS when it tries to recognize the drives. You can reformat/image them later on, if you found a compatible one.

Why other drives?

That PC is probably 20+ years old. There's a ton of compatibility in the USB protocol, but current devices are probably not tested against these old Chipsets. There may be bugs/different interpretation of the spec/whatever on both sides and you might need a bit of luck to find a working one.

Also... This all assumes the hardware is still in working condition. If the capacitors went bad, some bits flipped in the BIOS Flash, ... Getting the drive to work might only be the first obstacle.

[–] remustan37@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The issue was with partition system. I switched to MBR (using ventoy). Now I was able to get into antix's(386-core) bootloader from there (I dont know if my terminology is right).

I booted into antix but system crashed after kernel loaded. This was the first time. Second time it got stuck in loading hardware specific modules screen

Thanks for helping out.

[–] elvith@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Tale a look at your PSU and mainboard for failed capacitors (someone posted and example image what you do not want to see). Check your CPU Fan (working?), then honing the bios an check if it lists CPu temperatures and such and if they look good. then try to run memtest to check your RAM.

That should tell you hopefully what part might be causing the crashes.

[–] wackyheartfluid@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Depending upon the age of the bios, it may not recognise USB sticks over a certain size. If you can burn your Linux ISO to a CD-R you might have more luck.

[–] Dran_Arcana@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

P4 motherboards are generally modern enough to USB boot, but only if it's MBR formatted.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 5 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think that I've ever seen something like that occur, but can you hit DEL at boot, go into the "boot options" or similar in the BIOS and try manually selecting the USB flash drive as your boot device?

Can you try a different USB flash drive, on the assumption that it's something about the device?