[ltp] Warning -- Windows can hose your machine!

Thu, 15 Mar 2001 23:54:03 -0500

Hi.

I've had similar experience with CD-ROMS, each time it turns out to be bad
hardware.  Usually the CD-ROM, sometimes a cable.  (It'll spin a few revs
and stop, you can't read the disk at all.  Some externals even emit a sad
little "beep" when this happens)

 - devlyn76

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Grydeland" <Tom.Grydeland@phys.uit.no>
To: <linux-thinkpad@www.bm-soft.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 11:30 PM
Subject: [ltp] Warning -- Windows can hose your machine!

>
> No kidding.
>
> I've had absolutely no trouble with either the IR, the serial port or
> the built-in modem since my last flurry of messages to the list.
>
>
> Lately, the DVD-player has started to act up, though.  It has been
> behaving slightly odd over maybe the last half year or so -- chugging
> away when trying to read CD-ROMs and placing a ton of error messages in
> the syslog:
>
> kernel: hdc: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete
Error }
> kernel: hdc: packet command error: error=0x50
> kernel: ATAPI device hdc:
> kernel:   Error: Illegal request -- (Sense key=0x05)
> kernel:   Invalid field in command packet -- (asc=0x24, ascq=0x00)
> kernel:   The failed "Start/Stop Unit" packet command was:
> kernel:   "1b 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 "
> kernel: cdrom: open failed.
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete
Error }
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x30
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete
Error }
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x30
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete
Error }
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x30
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete
Error }
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x30
> kernel: hdc: ATAPI reset complete
> kernel: hdc: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
> kernel: hdc: ATAPI reset complete
> kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev 16:00 (hdc),
>
> kernel: hdc: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
> kernel: hdc: ATAPI reset complete
> kernel: hdc: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
> kernel: hdc: ATAPI reset complete
> kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev 16:00 (hdc), sector 1320820
> kernel: hdc: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
> kernel: hdc: ATAPI reset complete
> kernel: hdc: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
> kernel: hdc: ATAPI reset complete
> kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev 16:00 (hdc), sector 1320816
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete
Error }
> kernel: hdc: cdrom_decode_status: error=0x30
>
> I could go on for megabytes...
>
> So far, that's only happened for data CDs, but today it also happened for
> an audio CD, so for the first time it occured to me that there might be
> something wrong with the drive itself.
>
> So, in my naīve trust in the value of tech support, I decided to call
> IBM tech support.  Here is a summary of what happened:
>
> 1) Unless proven otherwise, this was a software problem.
> 2) Only Win98 is supported on my machine
>
> so, to try to satisfy mr. tech support person, I tried booting my
> wintendo partition -- and much to my surprise it booted just fine.
> (surprise, since the last few times I let that bootblock virus out, it
> was in vmware, and I didn't expect it to still recognise a true machine
> when it saw one).
>
> In windows, I opened a data CD, selected a bunch of files with the
> intention of feeding them to some data-eating program to demonstrate to
> mr. tech support that the problem was with the drive, not Linux.
>
>     The machine promptly crashed.
>
> I had to bring out the ol' paperclip to get the attention of the machine.
>
> While rebooting, I stopped by the BIOS hardware tests and ran the test for
> the DVD drive.  It reported OK, but as far as I could tell from the sounds
> it made, it didn't actually try to *read* anything from a CD during the
> test.
>
> Next time around, I booted into "safe" mode in windows.  Mr. tech support
> told me to remove the drivers for the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM using the device
> manager, so I did, and rebooted again.
>
>     When I now booted into windows, the screen was black.
>     The backlight was on, but every pixel was black.
>
> Ctrl-alt-del rebooted the machine, and I could bring it back into "safe"
> mode.  Here, I tried removing "unknown display" screen drivers (installed
> by vmware, perhaps), thinking that they might have something to do with
> the problem.
>
> At this point, tech support expressed his regret that my screen was now
> unusable, insisted that dual boot was not supported, and the only way they
> could help me was by having me restore the machine to factory default
> condition and run a "PC doctor" on it, so he offered to send me a
> "recovery" CD (what a misnomer -- "disaster CD" would be more
> appropriate), gave me a contact number and we parted.
>
> I then booted back into linux, indending to get back to getting some work
> done.  I use runlevel 3, so I logged in on one of the consoles, and
> brought up X.
>
>     Imagine my surprise when the screen was just as black in X as it had
>     been in Windows.
>
> Besides being completely blind, I seemed not to be able to talk to the
> keyboard either.  Ctrl-alt-backspace failed to kill X, and ctrl-alt-fx
> didn't take me out to the consoles.  What a complete bummer.
>
>     "Good morning, Mr. Thinkpad.  I believe you and Mr. Paperclip have met
>     already?"
>
> I went back into the BIOS self-test, ran the screen test (twice) which
> reported everything OK, and when I booted Linux again, (fsck time) X did
> come up as before.  Big sigh of relief here.
>
> However, I am now unable to talk to my IR port again.  The serial port and
> the MWave modem still work, but no IR.  I have all my notes from last
> time, all the settings appear OK, I enable the port with setpnp, reboot,
> verify that it's still enabled and that the settings reported by
> 'lspnp -v', tpctl and setserial all match, run irattach to the serial
> port, but no activity visible to the Palm appears on the port.  irdadump
> also fails to notice anything happening.
>
> This is so depressing.  I finally had IR working.  When I was trying last
> time, I was working blind, not really knowing what things were supposed to
> look like or how to make sure they got that way.  I believe I know what
> the settings are supposed to be and how to set and test them now, and to
> me, everything looks OK, but it still doesn't work.  I've tried disabling,
> re-enabling and rebooting I don't know how many times.
>
> And that's the story this time.  I'm hitting myself for even thinking
> about keeping that windoze partition.  When the recovery CD arrives, I'll
> ship off all my data to somewhere safe, "recover" the TP to call IBM tech
> support a final time to see if I can get a replacement DVD drive, and then
> I'm reformatting my drive -- I'll keep just enough of a DOS partition to
> store a hibernation file.  Consider this 'pad molested for the last time.
>
> Anyway -- I believe a word of warning is appropriate.
>
>     Windows can hose your machine.  Just say NO.
>
> (and if anybody's got any suggestions, I'm keen to hear them.)
>
> Thanks for your attention, and good night.
>
>
> --
> //Tom Grydeland <Tom.Grydeland@phys.uit.no>
>
>
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