[ILUG] Advice on laptop BIOS failure

[Timothy Murphy]

On Fri 09 Dec 2005 18:30, Niall O Broin wrote:

> >>> The hard disk on this recently went wrong,
> >>> but after replacing it I no longer get the SONY logo -
> >>> the screen lights up when the powert-button is pressed,
> >>> but nothing else happens.
...
> > but shouldn't the logo come on if there is no hard disk installed?
>
> Yes, it should, and you still haven't told us what happens if the HDD
> is not installed, despite being asked at least twice. But from the
> tenor of this question, I expect that it is equally dead, with or
> without HDD. If that's the case, it sounds terminal. Do you still have
> the old HDD? Does anything different happen with that installed?

The response is exactly the same with or without a hard disk in.
The screen lightens when the power-button is pressed,
but no SONY logo appears.

I tried taking out the internal battery;
without it, nothing at all happens.

I haven't actually tried re-installing the old, bad, hard disk,
but I will.
Actually, this disk wasn't too bad.
I was able to mount most partitions on it on a desktop machine
(with a 2.5in to 3.5in adaptor).
What had been the root partition seemed pretty sick.
The disk had been emitting a clicking sound
when checking the disk during boot-up.

Did I mention that I have a second identical machine,
which I bought cheaply on eBay?
This works fine, except that USB and sound are inoperative
(and always were).
I'm wondering if I could mix the two machines to get one good one.

In any case, thank you all for your suggestions.
But I suspect that "william" may have reached the end
of a long, productive, life.

I'm thinking of getting a Sony S-series,
which looks almost as classy.
What is the best laptop for Linux today?
(Ian Dowse, who introduced me to the Sony Picturebook,
suggested the JVC XP731 MiniNote,
as being more or less the same size.)


-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland