Date: Mon, 1 Jan 2001 02:02:07 -0500
From: "David Hettel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Off topic: BIOS boot problems
----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Hanson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Libretto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, January 01, 2001 12:11 AM
Subject: Re: Off topic: BIOS boot problems
> Date: Mon, 01 Jan 2001 05:05:35 -0000
> From: "Matthew Hanson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: Off topic: BIOS boot problems
>
> David,
>
> Thanks for all the tips. I have in fct narrowed the problem down. First
of
> all, I should clear something up. I don't know if I forgot to mention on
my
> first note posted as "Off topic" that this buggy system I'm working on is
> not a Libretto. I think I had mentioned that it was a desktop PC with a
> Matsonic MB. I'm getting the inpression from your notes that you're
> thinking it's a libretto.
>
> I think I said that I took all the cards out of the system except the
video
> card from a working system, and memory from a working system. I
experienced
> the same problem of the system locking up anywhere from 0 to 200 seconds
or
> so. Again, SOMTIMES the system would work, sometimes it wouldn't. I was
> beginning to suspect that the only constant that seemed to exist for when
> the system wouod work, was when the ambient air temperature was warm.
>
> So easly this morning as the idea stuck me, I crawled out of bed, took a
> gooseneck lamp with a low power mini bulb, shoved it inside the mini tower
> case on its side, and covered the corners with magazines to keep the heat
> in. Sure enough, after 20-30 minutes and a few attempts at booting, the
> darned thing booted up just fine. The system ran for 10-15 minutes with
no
> problems, booting and rebooting, and just sitting playing mp3s.
>
> Today when I got up, again, the thing would not boot. I put the lamp back
> in, covered the sides, and in 15-20 minutes, the thing booted fine once
> again.
You know this sounds like you may just have a bad connection somewhere. I
would look for a loose connection. The heating may just be enought to
expanding
a loose (or dirty) connection. Try paying special attention to any area
where
you may have Gold pins pluging into a tined socket.
If I where you, I would try pulling the cable to your hardrive, from the
motherboard
and running a pencile eraser over the pins, on the MB and the hardrive.
Also any chips that are in sockets on the mother board, I would remove, and
reinsert, one at a time. Also pull the video card and lightly run an eraser
over it's
pins. Your trying to remove the surface oxidation.
HTH
David Hettel
>
> Now I'd tried heating up the lithium battery by itself originally the
other
> day a few times, but nothing. I'm suspecting a cracked MB, or some failed
> component on it. I haven't yet tried swapping the power supply, but the
> area I put under the lamp was the center of the MB, acutally moving it
over
> the the CPU side oonce in a while during the 15-20 or warming everything
up.
>
> So I've got the experiment to repeat the same way twice now. I took it
> outside to sit an hour ago. I'll bring it in, then I'm sure it won't
boot.
> If it boots after the third round of heating under the lamp, I'll be
pretty
> convinced it's a MB component of flaw of some kind. I think I mentioned
> that I found the MB was being held in with ONE screw. There was another,
> but it was too small, and was basically keeping the board from swinging!
> I;m told tonight that my friend's kids took the MB out and replaced it
while
> trying to fix something theirselves.
>
> I'll still look at testing the battery though. I still don't understand,
as
> you suggest, how the battery can have enough power to maintain the CMOS
> settings, but for some reason may need more power to allow the system to
> read the settings. But it's the cheapest/easiest thing to replace if it
> tests bad. I'll run it down to the camera store on Tuesday.
>
>
> About the bad HDD:
>
> You siad:
> >Plug the baby into a desktop with a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE converter ($10),
then
> >use Partition Magic, Ranish Partition Manager, Linux, or any other good
HD
> >low-level MBR formatter to get rid of that messy MBR, restore it to
normal,
> >and format the entire HD.
>
> I did try to get Partition Magic to access the drive, but PM froze up
trying
> to access the drive. It was the only drive in the system at that point,
so
> I made it slave to another and tried booting PM from floppy. Still PM
froze
> up attempting to access the drives.
>
> At least I THINK it froze trying to access the drive. This was back
before
> I had this heat/cold issue in this system buttoned down. I'm pretty sure
> the system was working and booting off another HDD at that point. I'll
> throw the dead HDD in another unit, and try booting PM from the FDD in it.
> It's be nice to be able to recover the thing.
>
> >There should be no way on earth a virus can affect the HD unless the HD
has
> >flash BIOS and the virus has changed that.
>
> Well, I assume the virus blew the MBR apart, and that that was why I was
> getting the DOS boot message that no boot record could be found on the
HDD.
>
> >All of the Major HD makers should have a low-level program that'll nuke a
> >messed up MBR and restore the HD to working condition.
>
> I just don't see how I'll be able to access the drive of the system
doesn't
> recognize the drive in the first place. The BIOS sees it, but trying to
> execute commands on it as the C: drive just comes up with errors saying
that
> no such drive exists. I'll try again though. If such programs exist,
there
> must me a way for them to effect a drive with a bad MBR. Unless, of
course,
> the drive has developed unrelated mechanical problems. This PC tried to
> survive amongst a huge hoard of kids.
>
> Well... I'll do some more testing. Thanks for the help David.
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
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