off topic: hardware advice

Janina Sajka janina at afb.net
Mon Jun 25 11:03:38 EDT 2001 

OK. So it's not a problem.
Usually, cmos passwords aren't used by blind folks. But, if you chose to
use it then there is no problem with that.

On Sat, 23 Jun 2001, Kenny Hitt wrote:

> Hi, it is prompting me for my password.  This is mormal.  When I got the
> system, I set the password to prevent the system from booting.  If I hadn't
> done that, I would have lost the system when I made the mistake of dating a
> woman who turned out to be a preditor.  When things got violent, she ended
> up with the laptop.  Since she couldn't boot it, it was returned.
> The password has nothing to do with my problem.
>
>           Kenny
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 23, 2001 at 06:59:44PM -0400, Janina Sajka wrote:
> > It doesn't sound to me like there's any particular problem. The shutdown
> > from Windows behavior you describe is just all too common. While it may
> > have many causes, it is absolutely correct that the next boot include a
> > run of scandisk. That is how it should be.
> >
> > The business about your cmos password is another matter. Is it trying to
> > get you to set a password in cmos? Or did you ever set such a thing and
> > now it wants you to enter it? In most cases, blind users should avoid cmos
> > passwords like the plague--because you won't have speech during cmos.
> >
> > But, what are you doing to get into cmos? It shouldn't come up unless you
> > request to get into cmos via whatever command does that on your system.
> >  On
> > Sat, 23 Jun 2001, Kenny Hitt wrote:
> >
> > > Ok, here goes.
> > > First, up until June 12, the laptop was a Windows only system.  I always ran
> > > software speech, so I didn't have any feedback until the system reached the
> > > desktop.
> > > The computer has two problems which might or might not be related.  Both
> > > problems are intermitent.  They occurr about every month to two months.
> > > One problem, is sometimes the system will crash during a Windows shutdown.
> > > The system will start shutting down, but hang just before it powers off.
> > > When this happens, and I go ahead and press the off button, Windows will
> > > run scandisk the next time I boot.  The system usually boots with
> > > no problem.  That problem seems to occure after I've installed or uninstalled
> > > software in Windows, so I've always thought it is a Windows problem.
> > >
> > > Second problem:
> > > When you power on the system, you hear the drive power up, BIOS prompts me
> > > for my password, and you hear the drive start to access.  However, the access
> > > stops responding imediately, and won't boot.  When this happened in late
> > > April, I just left it until a friend came by to read the screen.  The message
> > > on the screen said that Windows was booting in safe mode.  It hung just after
> > > it printed that message.  If I power it off, and back on four or five times,
> > > it will finally boot and the problem won't happen again for a month or two.
> > > When it happened yesterday, I had a DOS floppy, so I booted up with it.
> > > Unfortunately, I've been brain dead lately, so I didn't have a floppy with
> > > ASAP.  For the last two weeks, when I needed to boot to DOS, I've just run ASAP
> > > from the Windows partition on drive C:.  When it failed this time, I booted with the DOS floppy, and tried to switch to drive C:.  The system just beeped at
> > > me after I type the c: command.  Once again, powering it off and back on
> > > finally got it to boot.  I now have a ASAP floppy for the next time!
> > >
> > >           Kenny
> > >
> > > On Fri, Jun 22, 2001 at 04:35:01PM -0500, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> > > > Backup and wait a minute.
> > > > What kind of a problem are
> > > > you specifically referring to.
> > > > Tell us exactly what happens and
> > > > in what sircumstances if any particular ones.
> > > > Greg
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Jun 22, 2001 at 04:24:48PM -0500, Kenny Hitt wrote:
> > > > > Hi, my laptop is having intermitent hardware failure.  When I used windows,
> > > > > I thought it could be a bad driver.  Now that I have Linux installed, I know
> > > > > for sure it is hardware.  Specifically, my hard drive.  My question is:
> > > > > since I always hear the drive power up, is it more likely to be the controler,
> > > > > or could it just be the hard drive.
> > > > >
> > > > > When it happened this morning, I didn't have a DOS floppy with ASAP to varify
> > > > > what message it displayed.  I've got one now for the next time it happens.
> > > > >
> > > > > One other thing, after trying to boot 4 or 5 times, it came up with no
> > > > > problem.  This behavior is consistant any time it happens.
> > > > >
> > > > >           Kenny
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
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> > >
> >
> > --
> >
> > 				Janina Sajka, Director
> > 				Technology Research and Development
> > 				Governmental Relations Group
> > 				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
> >
> > Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175
> >
> > Chair, Accessibility SIG
> > Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
> > http://www.openebook.org
> >
> > Will electronic books surpass print books? Read our white paper,
> > Surpassing Gutenberg, at http://www.afb.org/ebook.html
> >
> > Download a free sample Digital Talking Book edition of Martin Luther
> > King Jr's inspiring "I Have A Dream" speech at
> > http://www.afb.org/mlkweb.asp
> >
> > Learn how to make accessible software at http://www.afb.org/technology/accessapp.html
> >
> >
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> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
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-- 

				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Will electronic books surpass print books? Read our white paper,
Surpassing Gutenberg, at http://www.afb.org/ebook.html

Download a free sample Digital Talking Book edition of Martin Luther
King Jr's inspiring "I Have A Dream" speech at
http://www.afb.org/mlkweb.asp

Learn how to make accessible software at http://www.afb.org/technology/accessapp.html

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