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Old 04-21-2006, 07:34 AM   #1
Old_Fogie
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Old Laptop - Freezes When Reboots Any OS other than Windows 98


I've got an old laptop. Running slack 10.2 Compaq presario 1250.

It's not a major issue but was wondering if it could be solved. It's more of an annoyance really but if I can fix it that would be nice.

This pc was designed/shipped with windows 98 first edition.

My problem: If I use any other operating system than Windows 98 first or second edition, or windows ME, just after the bios boot screen the video gets corrupted and then the laptop freezes.

So if I use Windows NT, 2000 XP, or any version of Linux I have to say shutdown/halt, then power on the pc. So it's not a Linux only thing per se'

Now it's not a big deal in Linux as I really never need to reboot that often except when loading it. Unless down the road slackware installers automatically reboot as needed during the install schema and I'm away from keyboard at the time; only to crash me out and have to fsck the newly installed drive and screw it up.

I think this problem occurs, and I'm not certain, but I think it's because Linux and the later versions of windows constantly mount, unmount drives as read, then read-only on the fly, repeatedly and the old bios does not like it.

If I tell the computer to write lock the master boot record in the bios, I cant even boot win2000 winxp or linux.

I thought the issue might be because of LILO re-writing the boot record so I put in bootmagic from powerquest, as the first primary partion as FAT on the drive...then let me load linux from that with lilo installed in the partition that linux is native to. I thought maybe the mobo wanted to see FAT or FAT32 on the first partition. But still no luck.

Can I tell Linux not to play with the read/read-only thing and just leave the drive read-write or is that simply how linux tells if the computer crashed thus starting the fsck checks.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
 
Old 04-22-2006, 05:51 AM   #2
zytsef
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If I'm understanding you correctly, then no, Linux knows whether to perform fsck by whether the partitions were cleanly unmounted when Linux last shutdown. I'm pretty sure most of the parts mounted by fstab when you boot are kept in read/write mode as long as the system is up. So, you don't have any problems if you completely shutdown and then boot again?

My initial impression is that you either have a weird bios issue or a failing drive. Most hdd manufacturers now provide diagnostic tools available for download off their site. Giving the bios settings a good once through for anything suspicious might not be a bad idea. Does the system get to the IDE detection part of the boot sequence after a reboot?
 
Old 04-22-2006, 06:14 AM   #3
ioerror
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Quote:
I think this problem occurs, and I'm not certain, but I think it's because Linux and the later versions of windows constantly mount, unmount drives as read, then read-only on the fly, repeatedly and the old bios does not like it.
Linux doesn't use the BIOS to access drives, so this is unlikely to be the problem.

Quote:
Can I tell Linux not to play with the read/read-only thing and just leave the drive read-write or is that simply how linux tells if the computer crashed thus starting the fsck checks.
zytsef has answered this, I would just point out the fsck will refuse to check a drive mounted rw, which is why / is initially mounted ro.
 
Old 04-22-2006, 02:42 PM   #4
Old_Fogie
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zytsef
So, you don't have any problems if you completely shutdown and then boot again?
Correct. If I'm in linux and say "halt" or use "shutdown" in KDE the computer powers off properly and no errors.

But If I'm in linux and say "reboot" then the computer goes down nicely, I get the compaq boot splash screen, then I see loading linux, and the graphics at that initial point have their letters wrong, almost dislexic looking, then about 3 seconds or so the computer will literaly freeze up.

The same thing happens when I used to use any version of windows greater than ME before I fully switched over to Linux.

Quote:
Originally Posted by zytsef
Does the system get to the IDE detection part of the boot sequence after a reboot?
I wish I could tell but the pc freezes up about 5 seconds in or so, I doubt it even gets to that point.

Basically since I've been running windows 2000 on this computer for about 5 years now up until a month ago when I switched it's been this way for years. So I doubt I have a hard drive problem, but I will run a utility that came on floppy from Compaq to double check that is a good idea.

The only settings available to me in the bios are "Access Mode = Dos" OR "Access Mode = Other". There is a little description of both of those two options for the drive access mode. It lists "Other for Unix, Novell" so I've been using that,up until just a day or so ago, when I put the Bootmagic in on first partition with FAT.

I even freeze now if I reboot and get to the Bootmagic boot splash screen too.

What's even more weird is: If I use a microsoft windows 98 boot, or the bootmagic boot disk, or drive image boot disk, to boot the pc up, even now with linux and hit reboot, or do a simple control alt delete, and quickly pull out the floppy, I reboot and go into Linux no problem no freeze.

Like I said it's really weird and probably a goofy old Bios.

Before I loaded in linux I ran what they call a script file to permanently wipe out the boot sector of the drive to be sure I had no residual crap from window and I used partition magic to make my partitions, then I just installed slackware. Slackware re-formated the partitions again as part of it's install. I only have swap and ext2 in addition to the boot magic partition as FAT now, but the boot magic didnt exist when I first installed.

I do appreciate you guys taking the time to look at this. You did help me understand the fsck thingie now.
 
Old 04-22-2006, 06:14 PM   #5
zytsef
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That's truely a bewildering problem, Old_Fogie. It probably isn't an OS problem, given that it seems to have trouble with anything newer than Me, but neither does it sound like hardware if you get as far as "loading linux..." before problems start cropping up. I don't know what to tell you.
 
Old 04-30-2006, 06:27 PM   #6
Old_Fogie
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well, no luck...I ran the diagnostics from compaq and it says ok. which is good to know. so I think i'll just have to live with no reboot like I have with this pc for another 5 years so long as it lasts hahaha.

thanks again all.
 
  


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