[ltp] A21P CPU Soft Error Fixed - But How?? (A Bit OT)

[ted frater]

Donald B. Altman wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I'm submitting this because it seems so weird and because I haven't seen anything
>about it in the archives.  Since it's not completely about Linux, I apologize for
>the OT part of it ....
>
>
>An acquaintance has an A21p/512M/60G and had trouble installing SuSE 10.1.  He already had XP installed.
>
>Some short time after the failed install, his XP would only boot into safe mode.  Any attempt to 
>boot into full XP hung the machine at the XP graphic.
>
>When he tried to boot into Knoppix 5.1, via CD or DVD, using all the cheat codes he could think of
>(noapic, acpi=off, fb800x600, etc), it hung when trying to reach run level 5.  The error was
>a "CPU Soft Error" with a stack traceback.  Since it was after run level 3, I began to suspect a
>graphics hardware problem.  Changing the cheat codes had no effect.  There were never any
>beep codes or other problems at POST.
>
>I tried to run Partition Magic 8 from CD, which indicated a problem with the partition table, but I've seen
>spurious errors from it before.
>
>BUT!!  The system booted into Knoppix 3.9 with no problem, even at 1280X1024.  I then thought
>that the difference between xfree and xorg might account for bypassing the graphics problem.  
>
>This behavior was repeatable.
>
>I booted into Knoppix 3.9 and started QTParted.  I saw a FAT32 partition containing the notebook's
>original W98 software marked as hidden.  The XP partition was marked as active.  The two partitions
>from the SuSE install had been deleted.
>
>I marked the W98 partition as active thinking I would boot into W98 and run PC doctor.  Instead, the machine
>booted XP with no problems....  repeatedly.  It also now boots Knoppix 5.1 with no problems.  It never did boot
>into the W98 partition.  The machine now seems completely fixed.
>
>What happened?  Has anyone ever seen anything similar?
>
>TIA
>
>Don A
>
>  
>
 I run an A21P every day, its one of the most reliable thinkpads made.
 your problem is MS  software related. Dump MS unless you have to use it 
for something.
Try another hard drive in it. With a fresh installation of which ever 
distro you want.
 Mine came with 98 on it 
I use a Lilo boot manager  and have slackware 10 0n it.as well.
 Both work  perfectly .
I use 98 to run 16 bit programmes just to experiment.
 for example Netscape 3 on adsl
youve never seen anything so fast!!.
 Fastest browser in this setup.