Re: Computer hangs on boot/reboot.

From: Carolyn Beckman (beckman_at_clone.concordia.ca)
Date: 03/29/05 

Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 15:44:41 +0000 (UTC)

Doug Laidlaw <laidlaws@myaccess.com.au> wrote:
> This may not be a specifically Linux problem, but anyway . . .

> I have a 2600 MHz Athlon computer with 2 hard disks. /dev/hda is a 10 GB
> Seagate, and carries Win98, my Mandrake Linux root partition, and a Linux
> partition to hold backups.

> /dev/hdb, a 20 GB Maxtor, holds all the rest of my Linux system (Mandrake
> 10.1) My bootloader is lilo, the Mandrake default, in the MBR of /dev/hda.

> When I reboot, the whole process often hangs just at the point of rebooting,
> after shutting down and before going into the initial bootup screen with
> BIOS details, etc. The status light on the monitor is alternating amber
> and off. If I switch off the monitor for a minute or so, the light comes
> on steady green, but the screen is still completely black. The power
> switch is an instantaneous "bell-push" type, as opposed to the older
> push-on/push-off, and cannot operate at this point. If I press Reset, the
> computer reboots and returns to the same point, each time.

> Given these symptoms, where should i start looking for the problem, please?

I had a problem which was identical in symptoms with slackware
10. It was due to an unused video card on the mother board
which was turned off in the bios. The kernel found it and hung.
The cure was to recompile the kernel without support for the
video card. It now reboots without a hang but with an error
message that says I have no support for the card. I do not
know why this problem only affected the reboot rather than
being a problem with a boot from a switch off. 

-- 
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	beckman@clone.concordia.ca
	Carolyn Beckman
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