[GLLUG] hardware problems....anyone seen this?

[C. Ulrich]

Timothy Schmidt wrote:
> Have you tried w/ or w/o ACPI?  Also, try [dis,en]abling 'Power
> management controlled by [ACPI,APM]' in the BIOS.

Not sure about ACPI, but all power management is turned off in the BIOS, and
enabling or disabling APM in the kernel made no difference...

> One combination of those settings might help, if not, take a look when
> you compile your next kernel to see if it includes an option like
> 'Include support for <insert laptop manufacturer here> laptops'.  If so,
> compile it in and give it a try -- some motherboard manufacturers have
> poorly written BIOSs that the kernel includes work-arounds for, but you
> generally have to enable them yourself.
> 
> If all else fails, try visiting your manufacturer's site and getting an
> updated BIOS.  Manufacturers often catch these kind of problems after
> the machine has been sold and fix them in a later revision.

The laptop in question is by a company called ProGen... they went out of
business a few months after I bought the machine. (I've been assured that this
is merely coincedence. :P) So manufacturer support is out the window. The last
time I went looking for information it, all I managed to find were lots of
complaints on message boards about people having their memory and hard disks
go bad, neither of which have happened to me. (Yet.)

It's been a decent little machine, especially for the price, but it is on its
last legs and my problem is mostly fixed by modifying the inittab to halt the
machine instead of restart on the three-finger salute.

Saving up for a powerbook as we speak. :)

--Charles Ulrich
-- 
http://bityard.net