The issues i get through linux come from my failure to understand it
I’d argue that’s true of any user’s experience with any OS, including what you just experienced with Windows.
Getting out of S mode is actually very trivial, certainly moreso than many of the changes one might be expected to make in Linux. There’s a certain type of user that “S Mode” is intended for. You’re not that user, and Linux is likely to be a negative experience for that user.
Linux has been ready for education for a long time! Most of the public high school machines I interacted with in the mid 2000s were linux based. There was a dedicated Mac lab for creative work.
That’s what Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Google Workspace Starter, and Proton Mail Essentials are all priced at. Seems like the market price to me
A few things stand out to me in your screenshot.
It lists the GPU as consuming 0W, which is likely not true. Based on that, the power / current limit reason is probably inaccurate
Your temperatures are both well below TJ Max for those components, so I don’t see the Temp limit reason as valid either.
Your GPU utilization is at around 50%, but I also see your framerate at an even 144 - I would surmise that you have vsync enabled.
If this is a hard / full system freeze, there will be nothing you can do because the system has fully locked up. Test whether or not this is the case by pressing CapsLock and seeing if the status indicator light changes states.
Freezing like you describe is often a hardware issue, I recommend that you start by testing your RAM with Memtest86
You should, it’s quite powerful and can work in tandem with both DMDE and UFS Explorer!
Power cycling the drive reboots and reinitializes it. I’ve mostly seen it with SSDs - you get a few dozen MB worth of reads before it drops out, unplugging and reconnecting a SATA power connector that many times would be real tedious so you automate it with a relay.
I own a repair shop and use USB to SATA adapters all the time. Sector scans, imaging/cloning, and booting live environments.
It has less to do with the medium and more to do with the quality of your chosen adapter.
I have one of the adapter you pictured, ordered it to test it out because it was comparatively low cost. Did not order more.
I have about a dozen of the Sabrent adapters and they see daily use.
USB can actually be ideal in some data recovery scenarios. HDDSuperClone / OpenSuperClone support a relay mode that turns a disk off and back on to regain access after they drop out, and that is reliant on a USB connection.
useless
pre-7th gen i5’s
I’ve got systems with second and third gen i5s that are handling Windows 10 just fine, seems like what the school really needs is some SSDs.
Linux would definitely run better, so that’s worth it too.
If this school is heavily embedded im the Google ecosystem, ChromeOS Flex is an option. FydeOS is similar but without the Google Account requirement.
Awesome breakdown and troubleshooting so far!
I wonder if the previous owner removed the battery because of this issue in the first place.
The fact that the flickering is full-width bands that don’t appear in screenshots indicates to me that this is a signal issue to or through the display.
An important variable to pay attention to and experiment with is the display’s refresh rate. It’s possible that is what is changing with and without the battery, though you most likely would have noticed if that were the case.
Since the problem varies based on battery presence, it would be appropriate to source a replacement battery - especially if you purchased a cheap aftermarket battery. The real deal for your system is available for $80USD from Parts People compared to $20-$40USD for low quality Amazon junk.
After the battery, my main suspicion is a fault on the mainboard leaking voltage from the battery circuit and affecting the display signals. Even without the infrequency of the problem that would be tricky to isolate and remedy.
Overall, this screams hardware issue and I don’t believe you will find a software trace of it. The problem is not visible in screenshots, so the software environment does not know that it exists.
A software approach to a hardware problem is an exercise in futility.
Test your memory with Memtest86
Test your disks too. badblocks is a Linux utility. I like the Victoria and HDDScan Windows programs because they’re less pass/fail in their reporting - you can see that a disk is degraded even if all of the sectors technically respond.
Limits app installations to those on the Microsoft Store and also disables Terminal / Powershell.
Makes for a super simple tamper-proof system that is similar to a Chromebook but a little more versatile. It’s a good solution for users who are all-in on the Microsoft ecosystem - think those who live their lives in Edge, Word, Excel. The restrictions keep them out of hot water.
Those restrictions are obviously annoying to those who want to install regular x86_64 apps from an .exe / .msi file or use Powershell / Terminal / CMD.
Switching out of S mode is very easy: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/switching-out-of-s-mode-in-windows-4f56d9be-99ec-6983-119f-031bfb28a307