nerdzyboy Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 I was installing mandrake 9 (my comp was running mdk 8.1) and the install froze... I restarted the comp and grub loaded but froze I tried to restart the installation but the cd do not boot (I also tried my mdk8.1 cd, slackware cd, knoppix cd, Redhat, ... but nothing works) I checked the bios but everything seems right My comp is: -500 mhz pentum III -128 megs of ram -nvidia tnt2 -quantum fireball hd -Creative cd drive Could someone help me to get my comp working? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalee Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Hi, It sounds like you have a hardware problem. Possibly a dead cdrom. Try to boot the cd's on another box. If they work there, then try a different cdrom in your machine. HTH, dalee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted March 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 My cdrom is not dead... I already tried other cds... ... I even tried my windoze cd!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzatch Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Just to knock off the usual list of questions. Do you have plug and play turned off in the bios? Did you do a md5sum check on the disks? Is you system overclocked? Do the mandrake disks work in another computer? At what point in the install did it stop and what error messages did you get? Did you get the same errors from all the distro's? If not then check your memory chips, sometimes if they are bad(even just a little)they can stop the install at different times.Windows is far more forgiving than linux is concerning hard ware. If the mem chips are definately good them run a check on the hard drive for the same reasons. Make sure the jumper pins are set correctly on the back of the drives. Windows sometimes works with the pins set wrong but linux will not. Never have them set to' cable select' always try to use the 'master/slave' settings. If you got all the way to installing grub then it froze then just try using the install disk to do a recovery and reinstall the boot loader. Post back with any errors your finding and the results of your efforts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted March 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 list of answers: Do you have plug and play turned off in the bios? -Nope Did you do a md5sum check on the disks? -Yup Is you system overclocked? -Nope Do the mandrake disks work in another computer? -Yup At what point in the install did it stop and what error messages did you get? -At first it was when installing packages, Now nothing happens (The cds do not boot)... Did you get the same errors from all the distro's? If not then check your memory chips, sometimes if they are bad(even just a little)they can stop the install at different times.Windows is far more forgiving than linux is concerning hard ware. If the mem chips are definately good them run a check on the hard drive for the same reasons. -The cds do not boot Make sure the jumper pins are set correctly on the back of the drives. Windows sometimes works with the pins set wrong but linux will not. Never have them set to' cable select' always try to use the 'master/slave' settings. -Already checked If you got all the way to installing grub then it froze then just try using the install disk to do a recovery and reinstall the boot loader. -The cd doesn't boot... I thing that grub is from the last install Post back with any errors your finding and the results of your efforts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 More questions! :lol: Does the computer boot with anything, like a (shudder) msdos boot floppy? When you say the bios is ok, what does it say you have on your ide ports? Will it auto detect correctly? How much ram does it think you have? Did you flash it recently? Did you have any unusual problems prior to upgrading, like programs suddenly acting wierd, or the system slowing down over time? Will your computer now, or has it ever, scrammbled your eggs for breakfast? OK forget the last question! :lol: I am seraching for hradware possibilities, because it also seems like a hardware issue to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted March 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 More answers! Does the computer boot with anything, like a (shudder) msdos boot floppy? -nope When you say the bios is ok, what does it say you have on your ide ports? Will it auto detect correctly? How much ram does it think you have? Did you flash it recently? -It auto-detects correctly, 128 megs, and no never flashed it Did you have any unusual problems prior to upgrading, like programs suddenly acting wierd, or the system slowing down over time? -No, I don't think so... I don't think it's hardware because It's been long since I made modifications to my comp (swapping hd or anything) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onurb Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 What else is on the harddrive ? Any way to format the drive or MBR ? (from previous win/dos/linux install ) Does it try to boot from HD ? If yes where does it stop ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 Maybe the floppy has an issue. Try to tell the bios to boot past all errors. You know, I need to know what motherboard you are using, I still think it seems like hardware. A southbridge problem could get the machine to post and then stop at normal boot, since the northbridge is running the video and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted March 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 My motherboard is an asus p2b-f It starts to boot from the hd and freezes after writing grub Also, I don't have any floppy drive and no other os installed... I formatted the partition but not the mbr... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronin Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 My motherboard is an asus p2b-fIt starts to boot from the hd and freezes after writing grub Also, I don't have any floppy drive and no other os installed... I formatted the partition but not the mbr... What happens if you fdisk /mbr then try the install again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted March 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 Dos would have to work... As I said there's nothing on the hard drive and no bootable cd want to boot... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onurb Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 Has to be your cd-rom drive, get someone to lent you another one just for testing, or get a cheap 2nd hand one. Or install a floppy drive, make a bootdisk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nerdzyboy Posted March 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 I tried the cdrom drive on another comp and it works... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoopy Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 Sounds like a puzzler to me. Not that I am any good at solving these problems anyway. Do you have plug and play turned off in the bios? -Nope This was a bit confusing to me (the way I am reading this), and I wanted to be sure we were straight on this one. The bios normally has a line asking: PnP OS installed You need to select the no option here. This would make the bios BIOS initialize any plug'n'play devices instead of the OS. "That can help GNU/Linux recognize some devices in your machine, which it would not be able to initialize otherwise." - from www.mandrakelinux.com/en/doc/90c/en/Quick_Startup.html/before-installation.html#id2862077 I would beg, borrow, or steal (well actually I would buy a new one, they're less than $20) a floppy drive so you will be able to boot some kind of boot disk for troubleshooting purposes. I would triple-check your setup, all connections, jumpers, and ribbon cables, etc, again, just to be sure Also, if there was anything needed to be saved from this drive, I would look at hooking it up as a slave to another and making a copy at this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.