Trouble loading Ubuntu 10.10

[Monsterminty]

there's no problem leaving it plugged it, if there is no power to the unit.
when i'm in the repair shop, and i have 5 machines on the table, its easier to have the power cables removed during work inside. It just gives me 100% piece of mind.

 

[Monkeh]

its always safer to remove the chance of power to the machine. When i worked with an electrician, we tested everything before working on it even if we were sure it didn't have power going to it, just in case, because you can never be sure until you have tested it. Now on a smaller scale, lets say you forget to switch off the power at the back of the computer, now that wouldn't matter if you had removed the power lead now would it?

Upscale it, remove power to your tumble dryer. Now remove cases and touch the capacitor. There's a number of places to achieve this.

I don't recommend you do this btw as I worked out the hard way what capacitors do in a "no power" scenario

415v at 8uf is enough of a poke thanks

I had an unfortunate encounter with the filter cap in a monitor PSU once. That cost me a laptop keyboard.

 

[krisdorey]

there's no problem leaving it plugged it, if there is no power to the unit.
I have worked in the repair shop, and i have 5 machines on the table, its easier to have the power cables removed during work inside. It just gives me 100% piece of mind.

Of what ? A potential 12v dc shock ?

I assume you are then earth strapped in which case my r.a. ( risk assessment) woul indicate there is a far greater danger of touching a live connection elsewhere and the earthing strap burning my wrist a least and killing me at most.

People under estimate BS standards and why they are in place. For lv stuff 230/415v I test for dead. For elv stuff unless im going to accidentally come into contact with the lv side then it's all about r.a.

 

[krisdorey]

Anyone coming the wrong side of a capacitor on a CRT/tv can count themselves lucky to be alive.

I never strip a CRT/tv down anymore. The cost of replacement LCD tech outweighs my cost of risk to life.

My shorting of the hv suction cups on crts us thankfully over.

 

[securespark]

Thanks guys.

I have got the PC running, although there are a few changes:

The processor is now listed as Athlon 1250Mhz, whereas before it read Athlon XP 2000+.

The BIOS seems to take longer to run through.

There is now a fault on the Slave HDD (PRESS F1 to continue).

I have changed back the BIOS settings I altered when I installed the RAM from ebay.

It will now run the BIOS (albeit slower) and I have attempted a boot from CDROM with Ubuntu in the drawer. It got so far, then the screen lit up with a monuitor warning, "ATTENTION OUT OF RANGE"....

The values (if important) are:

H: 35.4KHz

V: 43.3Hz

Is it possible to get the BIOS to recognise the processor?

Can I make any alterations to the BIOS settings so I can use the ebay-sourced RAM or is it wrong?

Thanks peeps.

The slave HDD is no problem as it is not being used for anything crucial.

EDIT: I have decided (remember that I swapped a nuked HDD for a spare one with an old OS & guff on it) to nuke the 2nd drive a few times (just to be sure- this one has Me on it too!) and try loading Ubuntu again once DBAN's done a few passes.

 

[krisdorey]

In the bios make sure the FSB is set to 133 and the multiplier to Auto (should be 12.5x), if not change the settings to this

 

[securespark]

Thanks kris.

Have reset the FSB to 133. Things back to normal now. However, the OS installation is still hanging. Monkeh said it is common for this to happen, but I thought it might be worth putting in more RAM to see if this would improve things. Generally, when booting up this PC is VERY slow.

Is the new RAM I bought useless in this PC, or can I tinker with the settings so it will work?

If not, what RAM do I need, please?

Cheers.

 

[krisdorey]

Your ram module should be ok with a fsb set at 133.

I assume youre not getting the synch error on boot anymore?

At which point does the install freeze? Is it a hard lockup? Do you get a kernel panic message?

 

[securespark]

No, none of that....Just very slow and a couple of screens in to the install when you click to continue, you get the circular icon Ubuntu uses like MS's egg timer and if you leave the PC and come back half an hour later, it's still the same...

That's why I think maybe the machine is slow & might benefit from a RAM boost.

Monkeh: Can I do as I suggest by altering BIOS settings to suit the RAM I've bought or do I need something different?

Thanks, guys.

 

[Monkeh]

Monkeh: Can I do as I suggest by altering BIOS settings to suit the RAM I've bought or do I need something different?

You do not need to alter any BIOS settings at all. Leave them all default and simply install the new RAM. If it does not work it is faulty.

 

[securespark]

OK. I got two of these ( http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/512-mb-512mb-...tem2eb5b594f3&clk_rvr_id=241881132379&afsrc=1 )to boost the RAM up to 1MB.

I'll stuff them in now and see what happens. Oooh, just a quick thought...they don't need to be paired cards, do they?

OK. Put them both in and the warning beeps sounded on boot-up.

Put Card A in Slot 1, beeps. Put card A in Slot 2, beeps.

Put card B in Slot 1, booted up OK with 512MB.

Am currently installing Ubuntu & updates. When it has finished, I shall try the remaining combinations to see what happens. But it looks like Card B is kaput, unless they are slot-fussy?

Thanks again PC guys for all your help.

Another successful fix and I've learnt another load of useful hints & tips.

Cheers!

 

[securespark]

Tut, Apple boys. Stop wearing knickers.

Missed this post before. Why should I stop? And, more to the point, how did you know I was wearing any?

 

[securespark]

Righto. Have finished setting up the PC with Ubuntu.

In fact, I'm posting this from it right now.

I have discovered that one of the memory cards is duff. Will email the seller shortly.

But everything is up & running. Seems like it wanted more memory before it would load up.

Again, thanks guys for everything.

 

[securespark]

Fired up this machine & it would not boot up.

So, I tried reinstalling Ubuntu. No go.

So, I went back to Sq.1 and DBAN'd the HDD in order to do a fresh install.

So, I'm back to the boot up hanging. So I move the jumper and get back into the BIOS.

Same old issue with the start up screen showing Athlon 1250Mhz, so changed the FSB to 133, can't find the multiplier setting, but most other settings on that list are auto anyway. Reboot and still no change. Still showing Athlon 1250 and still the boot up hangs. It shows the first screen of boot up then either it goes blank or shows one character in the top left hand corner. Sometimes a cursor, sometimes ∑ , sometimes a heart character.

The only difference between before and now is that there are now 3 memory cards (all the same type, size and brand) in the machine whereas before there were two. Should this really make a difference?

I have given up for today, but tomorrow I will remove the third and see if that makes a difference.

Has anybody experienced this before?

 

[djrock]

Have you checked the motherboard for bad capacitors? Some signs to look out for are a bulging top, brown crusty stuff on the top or the capacitor is sitting squint.