linux-image-4.13.0-31 fails to boot

[Gabriel Antunes]

OS: Mint 18.2 sonya
CPU: Intel Core i5-3337U CPU @ 2.7GHz
GPU: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ivybridge Mobile
RAM: 3828MiB
intel-microcode/xenial-updates,xenial-security,now 3.20180108.0+really20170707ubuntu16.04.1 amd64 [installed]

I'm using a Sony Vaio SVF14215CB laptop and neither linux-image-4.13.0-26 nor linux-image-4.13.0-31 are able to boot.

I use my laptop with an external HDMI monitor. In 4.13, the boot animation appears only in the laptop screen and then it goes black (and the screen backlight goes off) after a couple dozen seconds (feels like the same time as nominal boot time). The external monitor is unaffected during the entire process, given that GRUB also doesn't show up in it and I usually just blindly select the boot option using my external keyboard.

Both the boot process and boot animation in the external monitor work nominally with linux-image-4.10.0-42 but Meltdown is scary.