Arch Linux

fader

Member

Registered: 2008-03-13

Posts: 10

Weird Startup Error on Toughbook CF-71

Hi guys,

This may be a software problem, but I probably hadn't configured something correctly.

Everything was well on the Toughbook CF-71 running the latest Arch.

But then, one night, I didn't realize I left the computer on letting the battery discharge. I wake up the next morning and I found it was unplugged. After cursing, I proceeded to reconnect the power plug. But to my amazement, the BIOS screen comes and then it blanks on me indefinitely. This is a weird battery/apm/something problem.

I know I installed apm and I had to recreate the hibernate partition for the toughbook, but hadn't really configured it in arch yet. I know the last thing that was running was xscreensaver, but with no power management options when I closed the laptop before sleeping.

I don't imagine it would have hibernated. Standby, maybe? But grub should show up and all when I boot up. Nope, just the BIOS screen and then darkness.

Clearly, the battery has drained. Maybe I'm just be impatient. This is an old laptop. But why can't I even enter the BIOS setup utility now? It turns on, the HDD led flickers for a sec and then total darkness. It's really weird.

Currently, I have taken out the laptop battery and unplugged the power. I don't how to take out the CMOS battery and I won't bother with that. Hoping that someone here could troubleshoot this. Maybe, I have to fully charge the battery now and wait to turn it on then.

I don't know. Please someone help me. Thanks a bunch!!

fader

Member

Registered: 2008-03-13

Posts: 10

Re: Weird Startup Error on Toughbook CF-71

UPDATE

So I took the hard drive out and started it up. I had it setup so that it would boot straight to the hard drive. Taking it out, it updated the BIOS and now I could access the setup menu. Whew!!

So, clearly, something went wrong with the hard drive and grub with that too. My guess is that the BIOS gave instructions to apm to hibernate or something and then that somehow corrupted the MBR.

But, there's a twist!! I put the hard drive back in and it now booted arch just fine, like before.

I'm not really sure how hibernation/apm works with these old laptops; these laptops require a separate partition for hibernation, which I already setup through tphdisk, but if someone here knows how to set up hibernation in general for old laptops in arch, I'd love to know!!! Thanks again!!