Geek pop quiz.
Jul. 14th, 2011 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingA weird-assed one today.
Acer Aspire 5100 laptop, originally running XP Media Centre. Needed a wipe and rebuild, so I booted to the system restore partition, told it to restore to factory defaults, and it started copying files.... and then shut itself off. Hard. Wouldn't respond to *anything* for almost 30 seconds.
Reboot, the system obviously hasn't completed the restore, so I try it again: same thing, same spot or close enough.
I boot to a Ubuntu LiveCD, and it works just fine. I can see the disk, and the Windows folder, and where it got to in copying files.
Reboot and restore from system partition, same problem.
Okay, I think, the disk image is bad.
Boot from XP Media Centre OEM CD (I have one of those in my toolkit), re-format the destination partition, try installing from there.... boom, shuts down hard, same symptoms, while copying system files.
Huh.
Try the OTHER partition: Same deal. Wipe both partitions and try XP Pro: Same deal. XP Home: Same deal. I'm not going to install 7 on an Aspire 5100, and I'm not going to install Vista *anywhere*, so I try installing Ubuntu 10.4: Works perfectly.
At this point I'm thinking there's SOMETHING wrong with the hard disk, so I tell Ubuntu to run a detailed in-depth scan of the disk for errors and flaws. Nothing.
Ubuntu Hardware Test: Uh, everything shows good.
Boot CentOS LiveCD just to test: Works.
So, I have a machine that shuts off, HARD, while installing Windows XP. Installing Linux? No problem.
Where do I even start *looking* for this one? Bad HDD that hates NTFS? How does that work? How do I test that without a spare laptop HDD?
EDIT: Apparently "only overheats when installing Windows, not when working the machine hard on anything else, but overheating". Crack the case, blow out the dust, put it back together, and Windows installs. I hate computers.
Acer Aspire 5100 laptop, originally running XP Media Centre. Needed a wipe and rebuild, so I booted to the system restore partition, told it to restore to factory defaults, and it started copying files.... and then shut itself off. Hard. Wouldn't respond to *anything* for almost 30 seconds.
Reboot, the system obviously hasn't completed the restore, so I try it again: same thing, same spot or close enough.
I boot to a Ubuntu LiveCD, and it works just fine. I can see the disk, and the Windows folder, and where it got to in copying files.
Reboot and restore from system partition, same problem.
Okay, I think, the disk image is bad.
Boot from XP Media Centre OEM CD (I have one of those in my toolkit), re-format the destination partition, try installing from there.... boom, shuts down hard, same symptoms, while copying system files.
Huh.
Try the OTHER partition: Same deal. Wipe both partitions and try XP Pro: Same deal. XP Home: Same deal. I'm not going to install 7 on an Aspire 5100, and I'm not going to install Vista *anywhere*, so I try installing Ubuntu 10.4: Works perfectly.
At this point I'm thinking there's SOMETHING wrong with the hard disk, so I tell Ubuntu to run a detailed in-depth scan of the disk for errors and flaws. Nothing.
Ubuntu Hardware Test: Uh, everything shows good.
Boot CentOS LiveCD just to test: Works.
So, I have a machine that shuts off, HARD, while installing Windows XP. Installing Linux? No problem.
Where do I even start *looking* for this one? Bad HDD that hates NTFS? How does that work? How do I test that without a spare laptop HDD?
EDIT: Apparently "only overheats when installing Windows, not when working the machine hard on anything else, but overheating". Crack the case, blow out the dust, put it back together, and Windows installs. I hate computers.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-14 07:51 pm (UTC)Still, it's worth pulling it open and checking the fans.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-14 07:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-07-14 08:08 pm (UTC)(Of course, by now it's harder to reinstall since the default image no longer matches the disk configuration and Acer's restore thing is stupid.)