I had this machine running just sweet.
Abit AN52 MOBO 3 GB ram Leadtek 8600gt 512 video card.
This morning booted in dows there were 3 updates I downloaded them and ignored the restart till I had to take off for 2 hours. I clicked restart and left expecting to see my windows login screen when I got back.
The PC had gone to sleep.
I woke it . NO screen
Hit the reset button NO boot screen but the machine booted. It's grub is set to default dows in 8 seconds. I have it set for remote desktop. So I logged into it from a pc on the network and noticed the VGA card was dead and not able to load.

I shut it down pulled the card and popped it back in. And now I have a boot screen for the bios.
But NO grub I get the 2 dvd's checking for bootable disk and then a (unable to load OS ) error.

I booted the suse 10.3 DVD and choose Hard disk and my original grub came back and I booted windows.
Now I want to try and fix the grub boot partition by booting SUSE and running the boot manager.
Came here looking for tips before I mess it all up.
I also ordered an ASUS 8600 pcie card today and will be sending this leadtek back. The thing has lost it drivers in dows twice now and then this today.
Thanks for any tips you all might have
Allan

there may be more than one issue

q1) were any of the MS updates a fix for the ntldr bootloader?...I suspect they were cos ms does not like linux and tends to overwrite the MBR any chance it gets, heh heh.

q2) MS likes a restart, so I am a little confused by what you wrote. Unless you meant it went into screensaver mode or worse still....into suspend mode in MS?

can I suggest that you not do that again. (Better still get rid of MS) heh heh

q3) unable to load OS ...is normally a bios error...if no bootable devices are found.

However, that means that the MS bootloader has screwed up...(again?)

The solution, IMHO is to rely on grub and you almost fixed it without much help I see.

If you have time, read my signature on how grub works with MS and linux.

I like to keep a live cd handy in any case.


Part (2) I gather that in used a Suse dvd to re-install grub to mbr, good
but you do not know how to boot it?

You could solve this in 3 ways

1) redo the suse dvd and see if there is an option for recovery of suse boot options
2) when at grub menu ...shortly after bios checks....press C for commands and try

root (hd.....AND PRESS TAB KEY TO BRING UP what grub detects....read my trouble shooter on what to do next.....but I will give a quick example

root (hd TAB key pressed ...response hd0,0 hd0,1 hd0,4 hd0,6 etc and linux is on hd0,4
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/ PRESS TAB KEY lists kernel write it down and complete that bit...then add new bits.....root=/dev/hda5
initrd /boot/ PRESS TAB KEY and get list of initrds...choose one of the same build as your current kernel


3) use suse dvd...redo grub...but not into mbr but into the correct linux partition

then after bios press c for commands
root (hdX,y)....see signature for grub speak
chainloader +1
boot

will jump grub from mbr to linux grub partition to try again


however, it depends on whether you understand your suse kernel names as well

Thanks for the reply.
The updates were security related one was for tcip I think.
Anyhow after the update I could login with remote desktop. But I still had no video on the machine locally.
So I pulled the card blew it with air in a can lol and popped it back in. That's when I got video back.
But I also got the no OS error after the dvd's are checked for a bootable disk.
Before I pulled the card It would boot NO video / remote login worked.
I wonder if it's not the 8600 card that caused this whole mess.
I didn't fix or rebuild anything as of yet. I just used the suse dvd to get the prompt for boot cd / hard disk / or floppy . When I choose hard disk the normal grub manager dos lines start flashing across the screen , IE Loading grub version xx.xxx and 2 seconds after that my normal screen with grub and all the original settings opens.

The video card has a bios of it's own that normally flashes at some point on the screen at boot.
I have to wonder now if it's not corrupted and that's why grub doesn't load by it's self.
The card is going back I hope to have the new one and time tonight to install it.
Since I got the PC booted this one has had issues with the mouse. And settings at the same res things in the task bar don't look right.

I have the new video card in
Still using the suse 10.3 disk to boot by choosing harddisk at the prompt.
I logged into suse once and played in the bootloader settings. Messed it up because now I don't get a prompt for suse or windows or floppy. It just goes strait to windows. (still need a CD )
With no cd I get (unable to load OS ) error.
What's the best way to fix this.
I tried installing suse again and it wants to reformat the linux partitions and reload , no option of a repair.
Is there a live disk I can make that will let me rebuild or reinstall grub?
Thanks
Allan

I used the word recovery but suse uses the word rescue see this post on howto

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...e-10.1-495380/

Seems the 10.3 rescue doesn't work.
I fiddled with it and got no where. So I reinstalled 10.3 on the same partitions.
I had nothing valuable on them , just the nvidia drivers and other rpm's.
I still had the NO OS error at the post screen.
So I did a bios update and a hard reset with the jumper on the mother board , then re set the bios settings and wham!! Huston we have lift off. All is back to normal.
I figured the crapped out video card must have screwed with the bios somehow.
BTW I had a leadtek 8600GT 512MB I now have an Asus 8600GT 512 MB
The asus seems better (in windows gaming anyways!) Maybe my other card was a dud from the getgo.
Thanks for the replies.
Allan