off topic: hardware advice

Mon Jun 25 11:09:32 EDT 2001

It is not at all unusual that your Windows system run scandisk after an
improper shutdown--or a failed shutdown. That's a good thing, not a bad
thing. Sometimes, this also means that you get booted into safe mode.
Again, it's not a bad thing. And, it doesn't mean you have a hardware
problem. It just means you're running an inferior OS.
 On Sun, 24 Jun 2001,
Kenny Hitt wrote:

> Hi, currently it boots every time, and fdisk has no problem with the FAT
> partition.  Of course it sees the sizes of my Linux partition, but it doesn't
> know there type.
> Guess I'll have to wait until it fails again.  I have a DOS and ASAP floppy
> sitting here for the next time.  The drive doesn't make any unusual noises,
>  that's why I thought it might be a problem with the mother board.  I'm hoping
>  it is just the drive, but I thought I'd try to find out for sure.
> my hardware experience is with desktops instead of laptops.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>           Kenny
>
> On Sat, Jun 23, 2001 at 07:34:25PM -0500, Gregory Nowak wrote:
> > Hi Kenny,
> >
> > Ok, that's more to work with.
> > Your first problem seems to be pretty common
> > (at least in my experience).
> > Regarding your second and more serious problem,
> > if the hard drive doesn't make any unusal noises
> > I'd say it's your controller or bios.
> > By unusal noises, I mean something like
> > grinding  sounds, or the spindel spinning up half way,
> > dying, and doing a full spin up again.
> > If you don't get any of thoes noises, then most likely,
> > it's not the hd.
> > One question that comes to mind is
> > if you've tried running fdisk from DOS?
> > Yes, I know you can't access your c: drive, but
> > I wanna see what fdisk has to say just the same.
> >
> > If you're feeling couragious,
> > and if you have someone sighted that
> > can help you setup your bios again after it's been cleared,
> > then let me know, and I'll give you a debug/gdb script to run.
> > This script is better then loading setup defaults from cmos.
> > It's the equivalent of opening up your machine,
> > and yousing the cmos clearing jumper.
> > I once had a problem simular to yours on an
> > old 586 gateway machine.
> > Since I didn't remember where the jumper on that board was
> > for clearing the cmos, the script did the trick
> > by clearing the cmos, and thus fixing my problem.
> > Let me know if you want that script, and I'll dig it up.
> > Greg
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Jun 23, 2001 at 05:47:04PM -0500, 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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> > >
> > >
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> >
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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

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