CF-27 Rebooting

Hi,

I have a CF-27 that keeps rebooting, no matter what OS I put on it. I have tried XP and Ubuntu 10.10. It has 192MB Ram, 266Mhz CPU, and a 100Gb HDD. I had a 40Gb in it and that HDD was doing the same thing. I also have a 300MHz board that seems to work great, however, the power switch is broken on it. That board seemed to be the best one so far.

Is there anything else I can do to stop this notebook from rebooting? I have not flashed the BIOS yet, so not sure what version it is running. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to post.

Thanks,

Chris

 

You may try going into the BIOS and resetting to factory specs.

Or you may have a bad motherboard.

 

Will give that a shot. I hope I don't have another bad board. This is the 3rd board I have tried. By now, I could have bought a used CF-29, LOL.

Thanks,

Chris

 

My humble opinion is that you have a bad ram module that causes the rebooting

 

Bad ram module? When you say bad ram module, are you talking about the 64Mb onboard or the 128Mb stick that I added?

I had the 128Mb stick on a MK2 board and it never rebooted. I have since found out that the board I am working with now is a MK1. I will try to boot it without the 128Mb stick to see if that helps.

Thanks,

Chris

 

Good idea

These old models are fussy with add-on ram modules
Different MK#'s have different compatability issues

 

I tried to boot it without the 128Mb memory module and it still kept rebooting.

 

Try to remove all unnecessary accessory (mediabay cd or floppy, modem ....)
reset bios and boot up.

btw. did you try another hard disk yet ?

 

Will it go to the bios without rebooting?
What was wrong with the other 2 MB's?
Maybe try a Linux live cd. I have a puppy Linux cd that I use to diagnose and repair machines. It may not have all of the drivers, but it boots and gives me access to the hard drive. Try booting to the cd without the hard drive in the machine.
I am curious if you have a virus or a bad block in the boot sector. I have seen machines that are very stubborn in rewriting or repairing the boot sector.
Sometimes a good old fashioned DOS boot floppy is great to try. No drivers or other crap to give you issues.
I reread the first post. You have already tried another drive.

I have never owned a cf 27 so this may be a dumb question, but is the power switch attached directly to the mb on a cf 27?
Did you check to see if everything is installed in the case correctly? I have pulled many a hair out on a reboot issue only to find the power or reset switch was jammed in the case.

 

The only device in the notebook is the floppy drive. I have tried another hard disk.

The first MB I tried was the 300MHz MK2 board. That was the original TB that I bought and everything was working fine until one day, the little tab on the power switch broke. After that, the display went out on that board.

The second MB I tried was another 300MHz MK2 board as well. The display wouldn't even work on that one. It never would boot up.

Today, I started tinkering around with the first MK2 board, which is the one that the power switch broke. I took the switch off another board and soldiered it onto this board. I turned it on and I get lines across the screen, so I think the display is messed up on that board.

I will continue to tinker with the MK1 board and try to get it to work. My guess is that Win XP or Ubuntu 10.10 is too new of a program for the CF-27 and thus the TB doesn't know how to handle it and starts rebooting.

When I first got the MK2, I had a HD with Ubuntu 9.10 on it from another laptop and when I installed it, it booted up fine.

I guess at this point, I am going to look for another MK2 board. I would love to get a MK4 with the PIII 500MHz, as I know that would definately work.

 

If you want to try a Linux made more for your level of hardware there is a Linux called ConnochaetOS. It's a revival of one called Deli Linux. Made for older hardware. If interested, it can be found *HERE* . I think you are correct i that Ubuntu is causing your rebooting... JohnP

 

I will try the ConnochaetOS Linux. My concern is that the laptop is for my dad. He is a truck driver and wanted a laptop that would stand up to the abuse while traveling in the truck. My mom, on the other hand isn't computer savvy. As long as she can access games and such, she is happy. Does ConnochaetOS have some kind of WINE program? I would like to install a couple of Card/Slots games that run in the Windows Environment on it for her.

Thanks,

Chris

 

Cdawley,
I myself have not tried it yet. I had tried it back when it was Deli and put it on my list of ones to watch. I'll have to go out and find one of my older laptops to try it on.
But then again, getting something like a CF-29 might be a better option, just a thought...

 

John,
I am going to try different flavors of linux until I find something that would be easy enough for my dad and mom to navigate around. I have Puppy Linux installed on it right now, but have not tried it. I have also downloaded DSL and Debian Lenny. If puppy works well, I may stick with that one. I think in the long run, Lenny may be the better option, as from the screenshots, it looks similar to Ubuntu and Fedora.

 

That's a good idea! There is no 'one size fits all' Linux. You can also check *DistroWatch* for other Linux Distro's. Have Fun! JohnP

 

One other question. Being that the BIOS is out of date, is there somewhere I can download an updated BIOS version to recognize the hardware / software?

The BIOS version I have is PhoenixBios 4.0 Release 6, Version 1.00L14

I noticed while poking around in the BIOS that the 100GB HDD that I just installed in there, BIOS sees it as 8455MB. I am now thinking that the 100GB HDD may have a little to do with it rebooting.

Also, the last I checked, the BIOS isn't supposed to recognize a 100GB HDD as an 84GB. Seems like a waste of 16GB. I don't know about you, but that is enough space for a good bit of pics / music.

I think I will throw the 6GB HDD that it originally came with and give that a shot at running one of these "Lite" versions of Linux.

 

8.4 GB Capacity Barrier
You are missing over 90GB

 

My bad Tom. Thanks for pointing that out. As I said before, I will try the 6GB HDD and see if that will stop the rebooting and such.

 

You know, that might have been the cause of the problem. As I recall, one of the drive makers had a utility that would boot first into memory and allow the full access of the drive, that was way back when they were breaking the 6 Gig limit!
And as memory serves, I'm not sure there is a BIOS update that allows you to read the full drive, check with the maker of your 100 Gig drive to see if that utility still exists... JohnP

 

On my old cf-25 I used a dynamic drive overlay to use the huge 20GB hard drive that I installed
Partitioning is another option

I am worried that the smaller old hard drive will be loosing bits and bytes at this point and fail

Remembering all the crap I went through with the oldest 120,133,166 processor toughbooks, and what I have learned since ,
I recommend a CF-28 mk-1 at minimum

 

Way back when, I remember using disk manager's drive overlay to allow access to large drives.
If I could get it to fly without spending any more money then I would go ahead. But I wouldn't spend anymore on it. I would start looking for a CF28.

Just my 2 scents

 

Yep, That's what I was thinking of, thanks Tomcat and Deere!
If possible, now would be the best time to cut losses and upgrade some. But it's Cdawleys call....