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Re: Dead Packard Bell -Linux blamed (a tad long)
hey dan ,
I was called to install some design software for a home improvement
company....no problem(i thought)went there to find that the owner of the
company had been using the computer at home games and stuff on it
well i didn't have my uninstaller on me and instead of spending all day
trying to clean up everything manually I thought I would just
re-install win95 .... I cant remember why i didn't do so from master
pb-cd possibly because i didn't have the floppy to go with it , i don't
remember , but after installing from win95-oem-cd it no longer detected
cd i called tech-assistance spent hours HOURS with them trying to get it
back running last thing did was open case reset jumpers for cd and it
worked .... but it wasn't permanent and i would end up resetting them
again .... they sent me an updated cd and floppy
which fixed the problem and they said it was a pb bug .... so see if pb
will send you an updated masterdisk for that specific system and this
may fix the problem, i dont know , but i don't think that company will
be calling me anytime soon to do any computer work.... pb's should not
be called pc's because they barely follow the open system standard that
goes for compaqs too. :)
>From klug-request@klug.armintl.com Wed Oct 14 20:33:31 1998
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>From: "dmann" <dmann@battlecreek.net>
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>Subject: Dead Packard Bell -Linux blamed (a tad long)
>Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 22:15:46 -0400
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> I just recently went over to a friends house who was running win95
on
>his 133 PBell. he got the machine used, isn't real familiar with
computers,
>yada yada yada, and he started having some probs with the registry . I
told
>him to see if he could restore the registry. He tried and couldn't.
>needless to say, he had the packard bell master restore disk and
decided to
>just do a restore. Well, I don't think he realized that he was going
to
>lose everything in the process. any how, he did the master restore, and
>called me up and told me that he was still getting errors, but this
time
>different ones. He has seen linux running on my machine, and said he
wanted
>to try it on his. I told him that since he had already lost all of the
>stuff he had, he might as well just partition the drive for linux and
win,
>reinstall win and install linux, two birds with one stone, you know?
So I
>go over to his place with my recent version of BS ware, and install
>absolutely no probs. he says "don't even bother with putting windows
back
>on man... I wanna learn this" but the guy goes online through aol and I
>don't know how that goes with linux. So I told him that we would just
>reinstall win also. So we do. and we got the same errors as before.
>packard bell can't just make it easy to do the install, they have to
have
>all this proprietary software, which you have very little control over,
so I
>tell him lets just install 95 off of a microsoft disk. well, he says
he'll
>get one...but in the mean time, lets try the master restore from his
sisters
>PBell, a bit newer machine, maybe it'll work. so off he goes, putting
this
>new pb stuff on, and when it gets to the windows part it hangs. I hit
the
>reset button, and wait for the machine to boot off of the floppy, which
it
>does, but now it says it can't find a cdrom device. So, I get dropped
to a
>dos prompt, and try to see how much got loaded on the harddrive before
it
>quit. Invalid drive is what I get. I know that the PBell software
just
>formatted the thing, I watched it. So I go to do a dos fdisk, and I
get the
>response "no fixed disks present" and I think 'Oh CRAP!'.
>so I put in the linux install bootable, because linux found all the
hardware
>the first time just fine. Linux gets to the point where it normally
tells
>you to insert the cdrom but instead says 'scsi or other cdrom ?'. It
was
>just there like 1 hour ago. we never took the case off! I go into bios
and
>I get 'not installed' for the primary and secondary IDE bus.
Hmmmm....any
>clues on this part anyone? bios was set on auto configure...
>
>So, we take the computer to school, and talk to the guys taking the A+
cert
>class and our instructors. The first thing they said was
>"what are you doing installing linux on a packard bell?!" "that
probably
>messed it up". I said NO WAY linux was working fine, infact I had
xwindows
>running and the modem configured and dialing in half the time it took
to get
>windows on in the first place.
>
>next step, they say "packard bells have a serial number on the disk and
if
>you partitioned it you erased it" and "you probably need to do a low
level
>format". To which I respond "how are you going to do a low level format
on a
>drive that the computer can't find?". I know that the hardware has to
have
>some kind of built in identification, because when linux boots it even
tells
>you what brand and model # you stuff is. We're not even getting this
out of
>the machine now.
>
>Well, we pulled the drive out and put it in another machine, and there
was
>the windows partion, with a mostly installed system, I think even
bootable,
>just missing some drivers.
>
>Now, everyone want's to just blame linux. Any ideas here? Was this a
>coincidental hardware failure? or possibly software induced? the
system
>will still boot, but has no ide devices working. Could this be a bios
>problem, even though the computer boots and It'll go into bios
configure?
>
>My whole point all along was that linux installed on this system with
no
>snags whatsoever. windows was absolutley plagued. I need a witch
doctor to
>get windows installed.
>
>sorry so long, but I am getting tired of folks ragging on linux-
>(credit where credit is due, you know?)
>
>
>Dan
>
>
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