Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 23:45:12 -0500 (CDT) From: John Utz <john@utzweb.net> To: George Orr <scholar@hal-pc.org> Cc: <freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: oh bugger. i ate my bios Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0109272341450.9074-100000@jupiter.linuxengine.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.10.10109220118400.175-100000@crush>
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my replacement unit came from the ebay guy (us$105.00). i swapped in my ram, drive and battery and it booted right up. of course, the first thing that i checked was the bios rev :-) v2.01, the last rev, the one i was trying to flash on the other one when i killed it! now, onto 4.4 and seeing if it panics when i boot the install disk. but we'll save that for another day. after a good nite's sleep! On Sat, 22 Sep 2001, George Orr wrote: > I work in a repair shop and "dead" machines come in all the time. Take it > in steps > 1. Will the machine get to a boot floppy at all? If so you can use a BIOS > breaker . Email me for details or binaries. I have a nice collection. > 2. can you open it and remove the BIOS battery. Do so. It may > reinitialize BIOS to a previous state. > 3. rarely, a laptop actually has a bios reset jumper. try it. > 4. send the machine to manufacturer > 5. replace the motherboard. This last option may or may not be cheaper > than sending the whole unit in. Spend some time on the phone and factor in > the shipping costs. > > Be advised that it is hard to get through to "parts" department for laptop > manufacturers. They tend to assume no one would want to get anythng but > batteries. Consider ordering replacement keyboard while you are doing > surgery anyway. It will cost about $30. > > PS. I have a dead ISDN that died during rom flash. never did get it to > work afterwards. > > Good luck > George Orr > scholar@hal-pc.org > > > > On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, John Utz wrote: > > > so, wishing to ascertain if cardbus was gonna work on my hp800ct, i > > decided to flash the bios to the version that hp reccommended. > > > > dire warnings where listed about not interrupting the process, which is > > eminently reasonable.... > > > > so, i rebooted my desktop box to windows and wrote out the floppy and > > hooked up the floppy drive to the laptop and rebooted and started process. > > > > it chugged merrily along. > > > > having had no further need to spend time in dosland, i rebooted the > > desktop box back to freebsd so that i could get back to fiddling with it > > via laplink cable ( cause i have no other net because cardbus isnt > > supported i 4.3, remember :-) ) > > > > well. by crikey, as my desktop box rebooted itself it sent happy > > electronic facts down the laplink cable and that was enuf to hang the > > reflashing. 'bout midway thru. > > > > wish i had disconnected it. wish those systemsoft people (the folks that > > did the bios for the 800ct) had considered that as a possible problem and > > either coded around it. > > > > so, now i can here the hd spinning away quietly. it doesnt ever stop, and > > of course, there is no keyboard response or display or even > > dasblinkinlichts. > > > > it's lost all higher functions. > > > > so, has anybody recovered from this sort of screwup previously? > > > > anybody have any suggestions whatsoever? > > > > at least i wasnt into it for too much..... > > > > -- > > > > John L. Utz III > > john@utzweb.net > > > > Idiocy is the Impulse Function in the Convolution of Life > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message > > > > > -- John L. Utz III john@utzweb.net Idiocy is the Impulse Function in the Convolution of Life To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message
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