Why won't my PC boot into either the installation or a live CD?
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@JamesChamberlin no, I don't get any messages just a blinking cursor. I get the blinking cursor whether I try booting the hd or the cd.
@j_jerry I have never reflashed my bios so I'll have to look into that.
@btncix I don't have a monitor here to try that with but I might try that this weekend.
@yaneck no I haven't tried that yet, I haven't really opened up my laptop like that before, then again I just got it in May.
First off thank you to everyone that has provided suggestions I appreciate it. I think this weekend I am going to buy a flash drive load a linux distro on it and try and boot from a flash drive see if that helps. If that doesn't work then I am going to look into those sugestions.
I installed linux as a dual-boot with Windows XP and the laptop would not boot. It would POST then show a blinking dash at the upper left of a dark screen.
I could get it to boot by pressing the start button twice, then waiting a bit before pressing start again. I assume it was some fluke of the BIOS.
You might try the procedure I described and if it that has no effect, try removing the battery, disconnection the power, then pressing start twice and waiting some time.
If that does not have any effect, see if you can clear the BIOS by resetting a jumper on the motherboard. Some laptops let this be done. Look at the documentation of your laptop and try google for information.
@btncix: I have a Lenovo y430 Ideapad Laptop I got in May this year, I am going to check my warranty and see if I have anyway to send it in. Yeah, this is crazy I bought this laptop cause I wanted a intel based machine (my previous laptop was a ppc ibook G4) and I have been happily trying different distros ever since I got it. So this is very disappointing right now.
@j_jerry: I am pretty sure I saw that option in the BIOS setting.
@thorkelljarl: That sounds like what I am seeing, I will definately try that tonight.
I agree with someone's suggestion by removing you HDD, Allot of times, on my desktop computer, one HDD would prevent me from booting my system and get the experience you having. It could be the HDD is not sitting properly. Oh by they way no matter if it's live-cd. The kernel will try to mount your HDD even if the filesystem is bad and can block the boot process. I'm not sure about grub. Also try a specialize cd like UBCD http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/. Repartition you drive and try again. I have Toshiba Laptop and my HDD had went bad and believe it or not. It was very very simple to remove, so I don't think it should be that hard for you. And try to boot from a live-cd.
P.S. How long did you wait before giving up on boot. And if you using grub, hit tab a few times before and after cursor blinking and see if anything happenes.
Will you try to remove the drive, also UBCD has some tools that you can use to see if you HDD is in good health... I say tryout UBCD... If you can't burn it, let us know... Did you try @thorkelljarl suggestion... I hate to say it, but it also could be the end for HDD... LILO, can have similiar command, if not tab...
Man this is so frustrating, I did that hard reset as suggested, no luck. I made a USB bootable version of puppy linux 4.3, no luck. I think I am going to send this back to Lenovo. Thanks for the help and suggestions.
Sounds like the dvd rom is messed up. Do you have another? I didn't see ( maybe I overlooked it ) where you tried one of the boot discs in another computer. Still, I keep thinking it's the dvd rom. If you could find another dvd rom and try it. If that's not it it's gotta be the motherboard -- send it back to Lenovo for a replacement.
Last edited by SharpyWarpy; 09-27-2009 at 06:49 PM.
Reason: grammer
@btncix: the laptop is a Lenovo Ideapad y430, pretty nice machine with good specs for the price I paid. I had originally wanted a Thinkpad but even a refurbished one with lesser specs cost more than the Ideapad. The laptop is still under warranty so they are going to send me a box, have me send it out and then swap the hard drive, re-image it and send it back. They said it would take around 5 business days. Thanks again for the suggestions and help, it was much appreciated and definately more helpful than the Vector Linux forum. The LQ forums are truly awesome. As soon as I get this thing back I am going to try Slackware again.
@SharpyWarpy: thanks for the suggestion but I didn't have another DVD drive to try out. I doubt that it would have worked as it wouldn't boot from the flash drive and I know the BIOS supports it.
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