Tag Archives: IBM

HP Media centre PC (and Yellow pages)

Computer Aid Posted on by
Client calls wanting some help setting up a HP media centre PC into his home theatre. My number was given to him indirectly via my yellow pages listing.
I won’t say exactly how, because:
  • a “competitor” might be reading
  • this might lead to an increase in high income customers being directed towards Computer Aid.
The yellow pages were distributed only a few weeks ago, & I chose just the minimum free ad, since the category is swamped with large colour ads.
But I will purchase a larger image ad in the local area Yellow pages (due out in about 4 months time).
Anyway, I setup the Media centre software. The client is computer savvy, & learns enough that he is happy to “play” with the system over the weekend & learn its full capabilities.
He also wants me to help with a printer problem on another PC upstairs: He has 2 PC networked (an IBM, and a Dell laptop with a printer), but the IBM cannot print… I do the usual ping tests (all fine), do a windows “find computer” but the laptop doesn’t show up when the IBM searches….but the IBM shows up when the laptop searches…. hmmm.
I look at the laptop more closely, & notice that its quite slow… I check the background processes & see a lot of spyware running… Given that it has Norton running, I assume that 1 or 2 malware infections have slipped through, so I disable most from starting, but after a reboot, there are still some popups & printer doesn’t work.
Client agrees I can take the laptop for a careful cleanup & tuneup.

Toshiba laptop won’t boot

Computer Aid Posted on by

I got a funny toshiba laptop to fix…

Its only 1 year old, but has spent most of its life in “storage” (police evidence). Client has only just got the laptop back.

Client doesn’t have anything important & doesn’t mind a reformat.

First I boot a knoppix CD & it works fine & sees the HD

So I repartition, reformat, reinstall XP, & all seems to work fine.

Next day, the laptop is back… won’t boot again.

I try installing knoppix to the HD, & it also works fine

But client says it still doesn’t boot… the bios doesn’t seem to detect the HD.

I look at it & sure enough, it tries to boot from floppy, & the CD, but the HD doesn’t even show during the POST screen… I go into the bios & it doesn’t show the HD either… curious.

After a reboot, the HD is detected & it tries to boot… So I give it another reboot & then re-install win XP.

A few reboots later, & I notice that the HD doesn’t show up again…

The web gives no hint of a cause.

I flash the latest Toshiba bios (its no help)

I decide to swap HD with the one in my ibm laptop.

Wow! Taking the HD out of the Toshiba is not for the faint hearted! I have to almost dismantle the entire laptop, just to get to the HD… take the screen off, the keyboard, a bit of plastic above the keyboard (which makes load cracking & snapping noises… very unnerving).

Anyway, the IBM detects the toshiba HD every time (after 11 reboots).
The toshiba detects the ibm hd every time also…

So, put everything back (snap, crackle, pop, crunch!), & then I’m back to square one.

I suspect it could be a bootup timing problem (bios checks for HD, but HD isn’t ready to (or is too slow to) respond… by the time the HD is ready, the bios has moved on to other things…

I’ve go nothing better to do, so I boot the laptop about 100 times… I notice it detects the HD about 4 or 5 times, and the “detections” seem “clustered” ie 2 detections in a row.

I give the client his options:

1) keep the laptop always running… if it switches off, you need to reboot until it detects the HD.
2) Get a new HD, but no guarantee that the new HD will work any better (I suspect a non-toshiba HD has a good chance of working)

He decides to go with option 1)

Update 01/10/2005: Client eventually got a flat battery & was unable to boot again. He went & bought a new hdd & an external usb enclosure & is now happy.