I'm trying to revive an old computer. The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB of RAM. The internal connections are all PATA. It has both USB ports and a DVDRW drive installed. Up until a month or so ago, it ran as well as an old computer could, with Gentoo installed. Then a hard disc went bad, and that's when the fun began. The BIOS, which dates from 2004, wouldn't let me boot from a USB stick (the only options are USB-FDD and USB-ZIP). So I started burning boot CDs, all of which fail: Gentoo current install disc; SysRescue CD; the Debian 7.0 live install disc; Archliinx; and OpenBSD. As I said, they all fail, quite early on in the process: the BIOS tells me "ATAPI CDROM: No Emulation" and then starts loading each disc, but fails one way or another, never getting through a kernel load as far as I can tell (which isn't very far). I have swapped the DVDRW drive out for another one, with no change in results; I have changed the PATA cable connected to the DVDRW twice, also with no change in results. MemTest seems quite happy with the installed RAM. The boot failures are inconsistent, but, for what it's worth, here is how they each fail: (1) Gentoo install disc: Gets as far as starting to load the kernel when the screen goes black. Sometimes that triggers a BIOS reboot, but at other times it just sits there. Tried several combinations of kernel modules: nofb, noacpi, no-hardware-detection, and so on, without any making a difference. (2) Sysrecue CD: Latest version simply segfaults after the "ISOLinux" declaration. (3) Debian 7.0 live install disc: Gets to the menu of choices, and will usually allow me to make a choice; picking "Install" in any form causes a black screen followed by a reboot. Under the "Advanced" menu I can run MemTest, though. (4) Archlinux install disc: Once I got to the menu, with the motherboard wildly beeping in the background, but wasn't able to select any of the choices. Every other time it just triggers a reboot. (5) OpenBSD 5.6 install disc: Starts loading the kernel but freezes after printing the UC copyright notice. Google turns up lots of suggestions for the "no emulation" message, most of which are either "switch the cable" or "change the drive", both of which I've tried, as noted. The next thing I'll try is to remove one hard disc, install it in some other functional computer, and install a bootable Gentoo (or whatever) on it there, then reinstalling the disc on the old computer to see if it will boot from it. I'm happy (enough) to do that, but I'm bothered by the brick wall I've hit in trying to do something ordinary, namely to boot from a CDR. Any ideas? -- Peter King peter.king@utoronto.ca Department of Philosophy 170 St. George Street #521 The University of Toronto (416)-978-4951 ofc Toronto, ON M5R 2M8 CANADA http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/ ========================================================================= GPG keyID 0x7587EC42 (2B14 A355 46BC 2A16 D0BC 36F5 1FE6 D32A 7587 EC42) gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 7587EC42
Does it have PXE Boot? I ran into a wall with my Zotec (brand new generation, so pretty disanalogous in various ways), but when I noticed it spitting out PXE messages, I thought, "Why not try that?", and had good success.
Unfortunately all I can offer to this conversation is that I'm having a similar problem! I've removed the hard drive and tried booting from a USB drive, I've also tried the different RAM cards individually in case there was an issue with it. I even tried removing the video card and tried to get it to boot from a USB drive with an SSH connection but it never gets that far. The machine was working fine before so the last thing left is that there's a hardware issue with the motherboard. Unfortunately I don't have a second motherboard to test that assumption. -Tim
On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 10:49:24AM -0400, Peter King wrote:
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB ^^^^^^^^^^ Asus A7V8X-X
Sorry; I mangled the name of the motherboard. I also forgot to mention that I tried all the boot discs out on another computer, and they all work perfectly well there. -- Peter King peter.king@utoronto.ca Department of Philosophy 170 St. George Street #521 The University of Toronto (416)-978-4951 ofc Toronto, ON M5R 2M8 CANADA http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/ ========================================================================= GPG keyID 0x7587EC42 (2B14 A355 46BC 2A16 D0BC 36F5 1FE6 D32A 7587 EC42) gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 7587EC42
Have you tried swapping out the power supply? I've found that marginal power supplies cause all manner of weird failures. Sent from my android device. -----Original Message----- From: Peter King <peter.king@utoronto.ca> To: TLUS <talk@gtalug.org> Sent: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 11:19 Subject: Re: [GTALUG] Unbootability On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 10:49:24AM -0400, Peter King wrote:
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB ^^^^^^^^^^ Asus A7V8X-X
Sorry; I mangled the name of the motherboard. I also forgot to mention that I tried all the boot discs out on another computer, and they all work perfectly well there. -- Peter King peter.king@utoronto.ca Department of Philosophy 170 St. George Street #521 The University of Toronto (416)-978-4951 ofc Toronto, ON M5R 2M8 CANADA http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/ ========================================================================= GPG keyID 0x7587EC42 (2B14 A355 46BC 2A16 D0BC 36F5 1FE6 D32A 7587 EC42) gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 7587EC42
On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 11:19:02AM -0400, Peter King wrote:
On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 10:49:24AM -0400, Peter King wrote:
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB ^^^^^^^^^^ Asus A7V8X-X
Sorry; I mangled the name of the motherboard.
I also forgot to mention that I tried all the boot discs out on another computer, and they all work perfectly well there.
Is the cd drive set to master, slave or cable select? If cable select, are you using a cable select compatible cable and if so is there a device in the master position on the cable? -- Len Sorensen
On 21 October 2014 10:49, Peter King <peter.king@utoronto.ca> wrote:
I'm trying to revive an old computer.
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB of RAM. The internal connections are all PATA. It has both USB ports and a DVDRW drive installed. Up until a month or so ago, it ran as well as an old computer could, with Gentoo installed. Then a hard disc went bad, and that's when the fun began.
The BIOS, which dates from 2004, wouldn't let me boot from a USB stick (the only options are USB-FDD and USB-ZIP). So I started burning boot CDs, all of which fail: Gentoo current install disc; SysRescue CD; the Debian 7.0 live install disc; Archliinx; and OpenBSD. As I said, they all fail, quite early on in the process: the BIOS tells me "ATAPI CDROM: No Emulation" and then starts loading each disc, but fails one way or another, never getting through a kernel load as far as I can tell (which isn't very far). I have swapped the DVDRW drive out for another one, with no change in results; I have changed the PATA cable connected to the DVDRW twice, also with no change in results. MemTest seems quite happy with the installed RAM.
The boot failures are inconsistent, but, for what it's worth, here is how they each fail:
(1) Gentoo install disc: Gets as far as starting to load the kernel when the screen goes black. Sometimes that triggers a BIOS reboot, but at other times it just sits there. Tried several combinations of kernel modules: nofb, noacpi, no-hardware-detection, and so on, without any making a difference.
(2) Sysrecue CD: Latest version simply segfaults after the "ISOLinux" declaration.
(3) Debian 7.0 live install disc: Gets to the menu of choices, and will usually allow me to make a choice; picking "Install" in any form causes a black screen followed by a reboot. Under the "Advanced" menu I can run MemTest, though.
(4) Archlinux install disc: Once I got to the menu, with the motherboard wildly beeping in the background, but wasn't able to select any of the choices. Every other time it just triggers a reboot.
(5) OpenBSD 5.6 install disc: Starts loading the kernel but freezes after printing the UC copyright notice.
Google turns up lots of suggestions for the "no emulation" message, most of which are either "switch the cable" or "change the drive", both of which I've tried, as noted.
The next thing I'll try is to remove one hard disc, install it in some other functional computer, and install a bootable Gentoo (or whatever) on it there, then reinstalling the disc on the old computer to see if it will boot from it. I'm happy (enough) to do that, but I'm bothered by the brick wall I've hit in trying to do something ordinary, namely to boot from a CDR. Any ideas?
With apologies, this is just another "this might help slightly" email. I'd suggest following Tim's thought on removing components and trying again. Specifically, the hard drive. I realize you're trying to install to it, but see if something like Knoppix or Sysrescue can boot with the HD disconnected. I admit it's more a feeling than any actual facts I can extract from your email, but my guess is that the HD or the motherboard communication with the HD is messed up, and the boot process on these various discs is dying when it goes out to probe for media. Maybe. If the CD boots successfully with the HD out, try the HD in another computer - should tell you a bit. Hope this helps. -- Giles http://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr@gmail.com
Try a boot disk circa 2005. This sounds like you have some hardware that is deprecated and no longer has modern kernel support. Bill On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 10:49 AM, Peter King <peter.king@utoronto.ca> wrote:
I'm trying to revive an old computer.
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB of RAM. The internal connections are all PATA. It has both USB ports and a DVDRW drive installed. Up until a month or so ago, it ran as well as an old computer could, with Gentoo installed. Then a hard disc went bad, and that's when the fun began.
The BIOS, which dates from 2004, wouldn't let me boot from a USB stick (the only options are USB-FDD and USB-ZIP). So I started burning boot CDs, all of which fail: Gentoo current install disc; SysRescue CD; the Debian 7.0 live install disc; Archliinx; and OpenBSD. As I said, they all fail, quite early on in the process: the BIOS tells me "ATAPI CDROM: No Emulation" and then starts loading each disc, but fails one way or another, never getting through a kernel load as far as I can tell (which isn't very far). I have swapped the DVDRW drive out for another one, with no change in results; I have changed the PATA cable connected to the DVDRW twice, also with no change in results. MemTest seems quite happy with the installed RAM.
The boot failures are inconsistent, but, for what it's worth, here is how they each fail:
(1) Gentoo install disc: Gets as far as starting to load the kernel when the screen goes black. Sometimes that triggers a BIOS reboot, but at other times it just sits there. Tried several combinations of kernel modules: nofb, noacpi, no-hardware-detection, and so on, without any making a difference.
(2) Sysrecue CD: Latest version simply segfaults after the "ISOLinux" declaration.
(3) Debian 7.0 live install disc: Gets to the menu of choices, and will usually allow me to make a choice; picking "Install" in any form causes a black screen followed by a reboot. Under the "Advanced" menu I can run MemTest, though.
(4) Archlinux install disc: Once I got to the menu, with the motherboard wildly beeping in the background, but wasn't able to select any of the choices. Every other time it just triggers a reboot.
(5) OpenBSD 5.6 install disc: Starts loading the kernel but freezes after printing the UC copyright notice.
Google turns up lots of suggestions for the "no emulation" message, most of which are either "switch the cable" or "change the drive", both of which I've tried, as noted.
The next thing I'll try is to remove one hard disc, install it in some other functional computer, and install a bootable Gentoo (or whatever) on it there, then reinstalling the disc on the old computer to see if it will boot from it. I'm happy (enough) to do that, but I'm bothered by the brick wall I've hit in trying to do something ordinary, namely to boot from a CDR. Any ideas?
-- Peter King peter.king@utoronto.ca Department of Philosophy 170 St. George Street #521 The University of Toronto (416)-978-4951 ofc Toronto, ON M5R 2M8 CANADA
http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/
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My standard suggestion: when things go strange, especially on an old system, replace the bios battery. Bill On 21/10/14 12:48 PM, Bill Thanis wrote:
Try a boot disk circa 2005.
This sounds like you have some hardware that is deprecated and no longer has modern kernel support.
Bill
On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 10:49 AM, Peter King <peter.king@utoronto.ca> wrote:
I'm trying to revive an old computer.
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB of RAM. The internal connections are all PATA. It has both USB ports and a DVDRW drive installed. Up until a month or so ago, it ran as well as an old computer could, with Gentoo installed. Then a hard disc went bad, and that's when the fun began.
The BIOS, which dates from 2004, wouldn't let me boot from a USB stick (the only options are USB-FDD and USB-ZIP). So I started burning boot CDs, all of which fail: Gentoo current install disc; SysRescue CD; the Debian 7.0 live install disc; Archliinx; and OpenBSD. As I said, they all fail, quite early on in the process: the BIOS tells me "ATAPI CDROM: No Emulation" and then starts loading each disc, but fails one way or another, never getting through a kernel load as far as I can tell (which isn't very far). I have swapped the DVDRW drive out for another one, with no change in results; I have changed the PATA cable connected to the DVDRW twice, also with no change in results. MemTest seems quite happy with the installed RAM.
The boot failures are inconsistent, but, for what it's worth, here is how they each fail:
(1) Gentoo install disc: Gets as far as starting to load the kernel when the screen goes black. Sometimes that triggers a BIOS reboot, but at other times it just sits there. Tried several combinations of kernel modules: nofb, noacpi, no-hardware-detection, and so on, without any making a difference.
(2) Sysrecue CD: Latest version simply segfaults after the "ISOLinux" declaration.
(3) Debian 7.0 live install disc: Gets to the menu of choices, and will usually allow me to make a choice; picking "Install" in any form causes a black screen followed by a reboot. Under the "Advanced" menu I can run MemTest, though.
(4) Archlinux install disc: Once I got to the menu, with the motherboard wildly beeping in the background, but wasn't able to select any of the choices. Every other time it just triggers a reboot.
(5) OpenBSD 5.6 install disc: Starts loading the kernel but freezes after printing the UC copyright notice.
Google turns up lots of suggestions for the "no emulation" message, most of which are either "switch the cable" or "change the drive", both of which I've tried, as noted.
The next thing I'll try is to remove one hard disc, install it in some other functional computer, and install a bootable Gentoo (or whatever) on it there, then reinstalling the disc on the old computer to see if it will boot from it. I'm happy (enough) to do that, but I'm bothered by the brick wall I've hit in trying to do something ordinary, namely to boot from a CDR. Any ideas?
-- Peter King peter.king@utoronto.ca Department of Philosophy 170 St. George Street #521 The University of Toronto (416)-978-4951 ofc Toronto, ON M5R 2M8 CANADA
http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/
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-- Bill Heagy
On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 10:49:24AM -0400, Peter King wrote:
I'm trying to revive an old computer.
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB of RAM. The internal connections are all PATA. It has both USB ports and a DVDRW drive installed. Up until a month or so ago, it ran as well as an old computer could, with Gentoo installed. Then a hard disc went bad, and that's when the fun began.
There appears to be no such thing as an A7X87. Would help to get that part right at least.
The BIOS, which dates from 2004, wouldn't let me boot from a USB stick (the only options are USB-FDD and USB-ZIP). So I started burning boot CDs, all of which fail: Gentoo current install disc; SysRescue CD; the Debian 7.0 live install disc; Archliinx; and OpenBSD. As I said, they all fail, quite early on in the process: the BIOS tells me "ATAPI CDROM: No Emulation" and then starts loading each disc, but fails one way or another, never getting through a kernel load as far as I can tell (which isn't very far). I have swapped the DVDRW drive out for another one, with no change in results; I have changed the PATA cable connected to the DVDRW twice, also with no change in results. MemTest seems quite happy with the installed RAM.
I find it odd if a bios from 2004 can't CD boot. I was able to CD boot a machine in 1997. I don't think you could even install XP by any method other than CD boot. Now there is more than one type of CD boot, and some motherboards might only implement the one windows uses and that might not be what linux uses. Also I have seen cases where you could boot from a CD but not a DVD even with the same exact iso file burned to the disc.
The boot failures are inconsistent, but, for what it's worth, here is how they each fail:
(1) Gentoo install disc: Gets as far as starting to load the kernel when the screen goes black. Sometimes that triggers a BIOS reboot, but at other times it just sits there. Tried several combinations of kernel modules: nofb, noacpi, no-hardware-detection, and so on, without any making a difference.
(2) Sysrecue CD: Latest version simply segfaults after the "ISOLinux" declaration.
(3) Debian 7.0 live install disc: Gets to the menu of choices, and will usually allow me to make a choice; picking "Install" in any form causes a black screen followed by a reboot. Under the "Advanced" menu I can run MemTest, though.
(4) Archlinux install disc: Once I got to the menu, with the motherboard wildly beeping in the background, but wasn't able to select any of the choices. Every other time it just triggers a reboot.
(5) OpenBSD 5.6 install disc: Starts loading the kernel but freezes after printing the UC copyright notice.
Google turns up lots of suggestions for the "no emulation" message, most of which are either "switch the cable" or "change the drive", both of which I've tried, as noted.
The next thing I'll try is to remove one hard disc, install it in some other functional computer, and install a bootable Gentoo (or whatever) on it there, then reinstalling the disc on the old computer to see if it will boot from it. I'm happy (enough) to do that, but I'm bothered by the brick wall I've hit in trying to do something ordinary, namely to boot from a CDR. Any ideas?
-- Len Sorensen
On 10/21/2014 10:49 AM, Peter King wrote:
I'm trying to revive an old computer.
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB of RAM. The internal connections are all PATA. It has both USB ports and a DVDRW drive installed. Up until a month or so ago, it ran as well as an old computer could, with Gentoo installed. Then a hard disc went bad, and that's when the fun began.
The BIOS, which dates from 2004, wouldn't let me boot from a USB stick (the only options are USB-FDD and USB-ZIP). So I started burning boot CDs, all of which fail: Gentoo current install disc; SysRescue CD; the Debian 7.0 live install disc; Archliinx; and OpenBSD. As I said, they all fail, quite early on in the process: the BIOS tells me "ATAPI CDROM: No Emulation" and then starts loading each disc, but fails one way or another, never getting through a kernel load as far as I can tell (which isn't very far). I have swapped the DVDRW drive out for another one, with no change in results; I have changed the PATA cable connected to the DVDRW twice, also with no change in results. MemTest seems quite happy with the installed RAM.
The boot failures are inconsistent, but, for what it's worth, here is how they each fail:
(1) Gentoo install disc: Gets as far as starting to load the kernel when the screen goes black. Sometimes that triggers a BIOS reboot, but at other times it just sits there. Tried several combinations of kernel modules: nofb, noacpi, no-hardware-detection, and so on, without any making a difference.
(2) Sysrecue CD: Latest version simply segfaults after the "ISOLinux" declaration.
(3) Debian 7.0 live install disc: Gets to the menu of choices, and will usually allow me to make a choice; picking "Install" in any form causes a black screen followed by a reboot. Under the "Advanced" menu I can run MemTest, though.
(4) Archlinux install disc: Once I got to the menu, with the motherboard wildly beeping in the background, but wasn't able to select any of the choices. Every other time it just triggers a reboot.
(5) OpenBSD 5.6 install disc: Starts loading the kernel but freezes after printing the UC copyright notice.
Google turns up lots of suggestions for the "no emulation" message, most of which are either "switch the cable" or "change the drive", both of which I've tried, as noted.
The next thing I'll try is to remove one hard disc, install it in some other functional computer, and install a bootable Gentoo (or whatever) on it there, then reinstalling the disc on the old computer to see if it will boot from it. I'm happy (enough) to do that, but I'm bothered by the brick wall I've hit in trying to do something ordinary, namely to boot from a CDR. Any ideas?
If you think the MB might be the problem, one thing I would try is to remove the MB from the case, place it on a non-conductive material, reconnect all cables and try again.
I always have this problem on my 10 years old Athlon XP... when it refused to boot, I had this ritual: open the case, remove some cards, put back, loosen and tighten some screws, and put all back. It usually worked. When it didn't, I opened the case, grabbed it by one side, dragged it (not gently, it's the key) around, and put it back. And it works. Mauro http://mauro.limeiratem.com - registered Linux User: 294521 Scripture is both history, and a love letter from God. 2014-10-21 20:17 GMT-02:00 John Moniz <john.moniz@sympatico.ca>:
On 10/21/2014 10:49 AM, Peter King wrote:
I'm trying to revive an old computer.
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB of RAM. The internal connections are all PATA. It has both USB ports and a DVDRW drive installed. Up until a month or so ago, it ran as well as an old computer could, with Gentoo installed. Then a hard disc went bad, and that's when the fun began.
The BIOS, which dates from 2004, wouldn't let me boot from a USB stick (the only options are USB-FDD and USB-ZIP). So I started burning boot CDs, all of which fail: Gentoo current install disc; SysRescue CD; the Debian 7.0 live install disc; Archliinx; and OpenBSD. As I said, they all fail, quite early on in the process: the BIOS tells me "ATAPI CDROM: No Emulation" and then starts loading each disc, but fails one way or another, never getting through a kernel load as far as I can tell (which isn't very far). I have swapped the DVDRW drive out for another one, with no change in results; I have changed the PATA cable connected to the DVDRW twice, also with no change in results. MemTest seems quite happy with the installed RAM.
The boot failures are inconsistent, but, for what it's worth, here is how they each fail:
(1) Gentoo install disc: Gets as far as starting to load the kernel when the screen goes black. Sometimes that triggers a BIOS reboot, but at other times it just sits there. Tried several combinations of kernel modules: nofb, noacpi, no-hardware-detection, and so on, without any making a difference.
(2) Sysrecue CD: Latest version simply segfaults after the "ISOLinux" declaration.
(3) Debian 7.0 live install disc: Gets to the menu of choices, and will usually allow me to make a choice; picking "Install" in any form causes a black screen followed by a reboot. Under the "Advanced" menu I can run MemTest, though.
(4) Archlinux install disc: Once I got to the menu, with the motherboard wildly beeping in the background, but wasn't able to select any of the choices. Every other time it just triggers a reboot.
(5) OpenBSD 5.6 install disc: Starts loading the kernel but freezes after printing the UC copyright notice.
Google turns up lots of suggestions for the "no emulation" message, most of which are either "switch the cable" or "change the drive", both of which I've tried, as noted.
The next thing I'll try is to remove one hard disc, install it in some other functional computer, and install a bootable Gentoo (or whatever) on it there, then reinstalling the disc on the old computer to see if it will boot from it. I'm happy (enough) to do that, but I'm bothered by the brick wall I've hit in trying to do something ordinary, namely to boot from a CDR. Any ideas?
If you think the MB might be the problem, one thing I would try is to remove the MB from the case, place it on a non-conductive material, reconnect all cables and try again.
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On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 6:31 PM, Mauro Souza <thoriumbr@gmail.com> wrote:
I always have this problem on my 10 years old Athlon XP... when it refused to boot, I had this ritual: open the case, remove some cards, put back, loosen and tighten some screws, and put all back. It usually worked.
When it didn't, I opened the case, grabbed it by one side, dragged it (not gently, it's the key) around, and put it back. And it works.
^_^ I think you're confusing your computer for an old tv. "Just kick the side hard... works every time"
Percussive maintenance that's the ticket. Works for me. Really, I've done things to computers that would make an electronics engineer shake his head and wonder what it was I thought I was doing. Yet somehow I revived the dead/dormant device. One other thing to check in order to avoid going down a blind alley is, look for End Of Life characteristics on the MB components. Yellowing on the surface of the backplane and carbonization around components can be fairly good EOL indicators and depending on your need to revive the device, you can decide how much time to spend on it and whether any MB part replacement will solve the problem. Often you replace a faulty part and this causes a cascade failure of other worn parts. Thermodynamics and electronic entropy are considered irreversible in isolated systems but a little knowledge of the MB layout, you can make a best guess as to which parts are worn and increasing the thermal load. How does percussive maintenance fit in. When I worked in the field, in construction, every engineer had a little hammer to tap stuff with. Sometimes to loosen a bolt, sometimes just to hear the thing ring. It's a time honoured tradition to bash the stuff that gives us problems. Cheers Russell On 10/21/14, Mauro Souza <thoriumbr@gmail.com> wrote:
I always have this problem on my 10 years old Athlon XP... when it refused to boot, I had this ritual: open the case, remove some cards, put back, loosen and tighten some screws, and put all back. It usually worked.
When it didn't, I opened the case, grabbed it by one side, dragged it (not gently, it's the key) around, and put it back. And it works.
Mauro http://mauro.limeiratem.com - registered Linux User: 294521 Scripture is both history, and a love letter from God.
2014-10-21 20:17 GMT-02:00 John Moniz <john.moniz@sympatico.ca>:
On 10/21/2014 10:49 AM, Peter King wrote:
I'm trying to revive an old computer.
The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB of RAM. The internal connections are all PATA. It has both USB ports and a DVDRW drive installed. Up until a month or so ago, it ran as well as an old computer could, with Gentoo installed. Then a hard disc went bad, and that's when the fun began.
The BIOS, which dates from 2004, wouldn't let me boot from a USB stick (the only options are USB-FDD and USB-ZIP). So I started burning boot CDs, all of which fail: Gentoo current install disc; SysRescue CD; the Debian 7.0 live install disc; Archliinx; and OpenBSD. As I said, they all fail, quite early on in the process: the BIOS tells me "ATAPI CDROM: No Emulation" and then starts loading each disc, but fails one way or another, never getting through a kernel load as far as I can tell (which isn't very far). I have swapped the DVDRW drive out for another one, with no change in results; I have changed the PATA cable connected to the DVDRW twice, also with no change in results. MemTest seems quite happy with the installed RAM.
The boot failures are inconsistent, but, for what it's worth, here is how they each fail:
(1) Gentoo install disc: Gets as far as starting to load the kernel when the screen goes black. Sometimes that triggers a BIOS reboot, but at other times it just sits there. Tried several combinations of kernel modules: nofb, noacpi, no-hardware-detection, and so on, without any making a difference.
(2) Sysrecue CD: Latest version simply segfaults after the "ISOLinux" declaration.
(3) Debian 7.0 live install disc: Gets to the menu of choices, and will usually allow me to make a choice; picking "Install" in any form causes a black screen followed by a reboot. Under the "Advanced" menu I can run MemTest, though.
(4) Archlinux install disc: Once I got to the menu, with the motherboard wildly beeping in the background, but wasn't able to select any of the choices. Every other time it just triggers a reboot.
(5) OpenBSD 5.6 install disc: Starts loading the kernel but freezes after printing the UC copyright notice.
Google turns up lots of suggestions for the "no emulation" message, most of which are either "switch the cable" or "change the drive", both of which I've tried, as noted.
The next thing I'll try is to remove one hard disc, install it in some other functional computer, and install a bootable Gentoo (or whatever) on it there, then reinstalling the disc on the old computer to see if it will boot from it. I'm happy (enough) to do that, but I'm bothered by the brick wall I've hit in trying to do something ordinary, namely to boot from a CDR. Any ideas?
If you think the MB might be the problem, one thing I would try is to remove the MB from the case, place it on a non-conductive material, reconnect all cables and try again.
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Thanks for all the suggestions. Here's what I've found out so far. First, the computer simply won't boot with only RAM/videocard/CDR drive; it keeps saying there is a bootdisk error (presumably because there are no discs attached). Second, I finally located some jumpers, and have checked all the settings on the two hard drives and the CDRW drive; they all show up correctly in the BIOS POST screen, so that seems fine. Third, I tried to swap out the video card -- you never know -- only to find that I don't have a spare PCIe video card to put in its place, and the video cards I do have aren't PCI. But one good thing came of that. When I put the video card back in and reseated everything, then, for one brief shining moment, the Gentoo install disc booted all the way up into the framebuffer (hi Tux!) until freezing at the "loading drivers etc. into memory" message. An immediate cold reboot, however, did not get as far as the framebuffer, That makes it likely that some piece of hardware is just flaky. Probably not the CDR drive, since I've had the same behaviour out of two drives and three cables. So now I'm guessing either the video card itself, the motherboard, or the power supply. Fourth, tried Knoppix, and, like SysRescueCD, it fails to load with the message that the data is corrupt. Odd, since, like SysRescue, it boots just fine on other equipment. From here I could try to run down a Really Old install disc, to see what happens. Or haunt a few electronics stores to find an old video card to swap out the current one. As for a longer shot, see if there is a BIOS upgrade in case there is some deep problem there. But most likely what I'll do is stick one of the hard drives in another computer, install a distro there, and see if the $@#!% computer will boot from a regular if lightweight linux on its master hard drive. (At some point this will no longer be fun. But not yet.) -- Peter King peter.king@utoronto.ca Department of Philosophy 170 St. George Street #521 The University of Toronto (416)-978-4951 ofc Toronto, ON M5R 2M8 CANADA http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/ ========================================================================= GPG keyID 0x7587EC42 (2B14 A355 46BC 2A16 D0BC 36F5 1FE6 D32A 7587 EC42) gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 7587EC42
On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 10:20:17AM -0400, Peter King wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions. Here's what I've found out so far.
First, the computer simply won't boot with only RAM/videocard/CDR drive; it keeps saying there is a bootdisk error (presumably because there are no discs attached).
Second, I finally located some jumpers, and have checked all the settings on the two hard drives and the CDRW drive; they all show up correctly in the BIOS POST screen, so that seems fine.
Third, I tried to swap out the video card -- you never know -- only to find that I don't have a spare PCIe video card to put in its place, and the video cards I do have aren't PCI. But one good thing came of that. When I put the video card back in and reseated everything, then, for one brief shining moment, the Gentoo install disc booted all the way up into the framebuffer (hi Tux!) until freezing at the "loading drivers etc. into memory" message. An immediate cold reboot, however, did not get as far as the framebuffer, That makes it likely that some piece of hardware is just flaky. Probably not the CDR drive, since I've had the same behaviour out of two drives and three cables. So now I'm guessing either the video card itself, the motherboard, or the power supply.
Fourth, tried Knoppix, and, like SysRescueCD, it fails to load with the message that the data is corrupt. Odd, since, like SysRescue, it boots just fine on other equipment.
From here I could try to run down a Really Old install disc, to see what happens. Or haunt a few electronics stores to find an old video card to swap out the current one. As for a longer shot, see if there is a BIOS upgrade in case there is some deep problem there. But most likely what I'll do is stick one of the hard drives in another computer, install a distro there, and see if the $@#!% computer will boot from a regular if lightweight linux on its master hard drive.
(At some point this will no longer be fun. But not yet.)
Sounds like either your power supply or mainboard has some voltage issues then. Or you could have a bad IDE cable top the CD drive. Or a bad CD drive. -- Len Sorensen
On Thu, Oct 23, 2014 at 12:34:30PM -0400, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
Sounds like either your power supply or mainboard has some voltage issues then. Or you could have a bad IDE cable top the CD drive. Or a bad CD drive.
At least you have confirmed the motherboard can boot from CD and will boot from the CD you are trying to use, if only it could get to read the CD reliable. -- Len Sorensen
participants (11)
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Amos H. Weatherill -
Bill Heagy -
Bill Thanis -
Christopher Browne -
Giles Orr -
John Moniz -
Lennart Sorensen -
Mauro Souza -
Peter King -
Russell Reiter -
Tim Tisdall