Hi folks,

Intel PIII
Ubuntu 7.04 desktop.


I just discovered my PC starts very slow, hanging on memory test, hardware detecting, etc. Finally it boots with Ubuntu running w/o problem.

Would it be a hardware problem? It is time for this old PC to retire?

Please advise how to check the problem and fix it. TIA


B.R.
satimis

I have an older computer too, and it does seem to hang on the memory too. I think it just takes a bit of time to check out 512mb ram. I've tried booting it on knoppix cds and it doesn't make a lot of difference at that part of the boot.

Personally, since the computer works just fine once it's running, I'm going to continue using it, I just know to allow about 10 minutes for it to go from off to desktop.

That computer is my second computer, wife uses it mostly. 500mhz proc, 512mb ram, 40gb drive, no cd, no sound. Running SuSE 10.0. Still works, and the wife likes it, so going to keep using it until it totally dies. It'd probably scream with a small distribution like Puppy or DSL, but she's happy with it so I'm definately not going to change it.

Another thing, you're keeping an older computer out of the junk heap for a little longer.

Check the machines bios settings. There should be a boot option that allows a fast boot that skips extensive memory testing.

The PIII is not obsolete, I still run PII, PIII and pentiums on my lan.

If your system spends a lot of time in the hardware detection phase looking for drives that aren't there, and you are using lilo, you can add a line to lilo.conf so that the PC will skip drives that aren't there
substitute the correct device identifier in place of "hdx"

I don't know if that's actually an issue for you or not, but if it is that should do the trick

I agree with grayflea and chuckbuhler. Set the BIOS for quick POST and, if your disk is SMART capable, make sure that's set. You say it's slow, but what are you comparing to? Or has it been progressively getting slower over time? If POST still finds the correct amount of memory, the correct disks and they still work I wouldn't worry. You could always run Memtest from the Ubuntu CD to check your memory. How much memory does it have? I'm just guessing, but a PIII with 512MB SDRAM I would expect, even with quick POST, to take about 7 seconds to complete the memory check. I'm basing that on an old PII266 with 196MB SDRAM that took about 15 seconds.

This reminds me of my Cyrix P150+ (120MHz) after upgrading to 128MB DRAM. Without quick POST I could go to the opposite end of the house, get something to drink and come back before it started the third cycle.

Hi folks,


Thanks for your advice.

I think it is the problem of motherboard, Abits BE6. I can't start BIOS to change settings and boot sequency. Pressing [Del] on keyboard has no response. Tried changing an USB/PS2 keyboard without improvement. Both USB and PS2 ports did not work on keyboard. However USB ports worked on printer and USB mouse. I can't start memory test on CD.

It hangs long time after checking memory and hangs again on starting immediate after memory test. Hareware check does not hang too long time.

Any advice? Ubuntu starts and works without problem.


B.R.
satimis