Dell 8200 HD problems:

I'm on pass 69 test 4 and still OK with
no errors,.

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I'm on pass 69 test 4 and still OK with
no errors,.

Robert

Test 5 is the best test.

If the test is slow, you can use the interface
to force it to Test 5. But by the time you receive
this message, you'll probably be on Test 5 anyway.

Paul

On Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 3:56:22 AM UTC-8, Paul wrote:
Mark Twain wrote:
I'm on pass 69 test 4 and still OK with
no errors,.

Robert

Test 5 is the best test.

If the test is slow, you can use the interface
to force it to Test 5. But by the time you receive
this message, you'll probably be on Test 5 anyway.

Paul

Yes,, on test 18 pass 71

so how long does this last? just curious

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
On Saturday, February 27, 2016 at 3:56:22 AM UTC-8, Paul wrote:
Mark Twain wrote:
I'm on pass 69 test 4 and still OK with
no errors,.

Robert
Test 5 is the best test.

If the test is slow, you can use the interface
to force it to Test 5. But by the time you receive
this message, you'll probably be on Test 5 anyway.

Paul

Yes,, on test 18 pass 71

so how long does this last? just curious

Robert

It runs forever. Or until you press escape, after
which it would reboot.

A complete pass (pass counter = 1) is probably enough
to verify no stuck-at faults.

And the purpose of this test at the moment, is to see
if the BIOS-type memory operations, have any reason to
be upset or not. My guess is, it's not a memory problem,
and more of a "BIOS discovery DMI/ESCD" type problem.

*******

That still leaves the issue of why it is hanging,
after booting your "recovery" IDE drive. Even if the
original drive was suffering from drive-related problems,
the second drive should be able to boot OK. Something
else is wrong. I hope it's not a Windows activation
issue, because OEM OSes shouldn't get "tipped over" like
this. They're SLIC (ACPI BIOS table) based. So you've
still got some sort of hardware issue, but I don't have
any hints as to what it might be.

*******

If you have Seagate brand hard drives, you could run
"Seatools for DOS" from Seagate (download from Seagate.com
site).

That doesn't work on either of my new computers, and it's
probably that the tool hasn't been kept up to date for all
chipsets. But it might work for the 8200. Even at the best
of times, it's a rather "cranky" application, so it's not
high on my list.

"Seatools for DOS" is a CD (ISO9660) with a copy of FreeDOS
or similar, included. The CD boots, and should then list
the drives connected to the Southbridge. It's actually
a clever little CD, in that during the booting process,
it creates a RAMdrive in memory, and extracts Seatools
into the RAMdrive.

One of the Seagate Seatools versions, probably the
Seatools for Windows, it erased the config information
on my Cypress-based USB disk enclosure, which is yet
another reason why the Seagate tools bothers me. I was
able to put the config information back, using another
(repair) tool. Which is basically a factory tool
for programming a Cypress controller. Other brands of
controllers are probably not affected. (And this would
be the IC on the printed circuit board inside a USB
enclosure.) I didn't know I had a Cypress chip, until
the instant it got erased. And then I checked :-(

So during the time I'm using the Seagate Seatools,
I tend to *disconnect* my USB external drive. Just
in case, to be safe while testing an internal drive.

http://www.seagate.com/ca/en/support...oads/seatools/

Paul

Of course its always moving since its
scanning but this is whats on the 8200
screen:


- Meme86 + V2,01 (green box) pass 77
Pentium 4 (0.18) 1795 MHz : Test 85%
L1 Cache 8K 14709 MB/s Test #7 (Random Number Sequence)
L2 Cache 256K 12549 MB/s Testing 140K-511M 511M
Memory 511M 1168 MB/s Pattern:
Chipset Intel i850 (ECC Disabled)/FSB: 99MHz


wall time cached RsvdMem MemMap Cache ECC Test Pass Errors
511M 740K e820-Std on off Std 8 0


Robert

I don't know if I told you or not
but I took out the 320HD since it
'seemed' it wasn't working and put
the 160GB DH back in. So that's the
present HD.

I rebooted out of the Linux MemTest
as I thought maybe I could do a System
Restore if not a Mrimg but it froze again.
Then tried to go into Safe Mode with
Networking and again it froze.

Thoughts/Suggestions?
Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I don't know if I told you or not
but I took out the 320HD since it
'seemed' it wasn't working and put
the 160GB DH back in. So that's the
present HD.

I rebooted out of the Linux MemTest
as I thought maybe I could do a System
Restore if not a Mrimg but it froze again.
Then tried to go into Safe Mode with
Networking and again it froze.

Thoughts/Suggestions?
Robert

I don't know what kind of Linux CD you have.

If it's a LiveCD, you can boot to the Linux OS without
installing to the hard drive.

If the computer is unstable, the first thing to
happen, is applications "disappear". Say you boot
Linux and run Firefox. The Firefox window would be
there, and maybe ten seconds later it would disappear.

I've tested a system here while overclocked and unstable,
and that's how it behaved. Rather than just rolling
over (whole OS dies), you would see started applications
disappear. Eventually, the OS will tip over too. But
first you see some applications disappear.

Whereas with Windows, freezing or giving a BSOD are
possible symptoms. We can't really tell what is going
on during a freeze - there are many possible explanations.
While a BSOD is a more conventional error, like a memory
error, unstable processor, bad voltage on the Northbridge
(Vnb), all sorts of conventional explanations. Whereas
a freeze could be a power management issue, a driver
issue (frozen in kernel), stuff that it's impossible
to see or guess at.

Since you've used two different hard drives with the OS
on it, and they're likely not exactly the same, it
suggests the problem is relatively independent of the
OS. They probably don't have exactly the same issue,
on the hard drive itself. So it's some other hardware
at fault.

When you boot an entirely different OS, and see the
same "spectrum of faults", that's how you narrow down
that it's a hardware issue.

Paul

This is whats on the 8200 screen with
the Linux CD"

Ubuntu

Install Ubuntu Server
Chech CD for defects
Test Memory
Boot from first hard disk
Rescue a broken system

f1 Help f2 Language f3 Keymap f4 Modes f5 Accesibility f6 Other Options (string commend)

Mark Twain wrote:
This is whats on the 8200 screen with
the Linux CD"

Ubuntu

Install Ubuntu Server
Chech CD for defects
Test Memory
Boot from first hard disk
Rescue a broken system

f1 Help f2 Language f3 Keymap f4 Modes f5 Accesibility f6 Other Options (string commend)

OK, you *don't* want that one.

That's Ubuntu Server, which installs an OS
on the hard drive it finds, but is not a LiveCD.

I picked this one, as it fits on a 700MB CD. At least,
when I burned it here, it did. This is a 32 bit OS,
with a conventional interface. I picked a CD-sized one,
in case your 8200 drive doesn't handle DVDs.

http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/11.04/

http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/relea...sktop-i386.iso
718,583,808 bytes = 685.3MB

There are MD5SUM and SHA256 checksums at the bottom of the web page.

That one boots as a LiveCD.

*******

This one is larger than a CD, and would need a blank DVD.
My oldest computer cannot read a DVD.

http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/li...//stable/17.3/

linuxmint-17.3-mate-32bit.iso 30-Nov-2015 10:31 1G

There are checksums at the bottom of the web page. I have the
64 bit version, but not the 32 bit version.

Your CPU is 32 bit only, so you'd need the 32 bit one.

(The 8500 could run a 32 bit or a 64 bit version.)

Paul

I created a CD using the first
link you gave and this is what
it gave me:

An error occurred during a connection to groups.google.com:443

SSL received a record with an incorrect Message Authentication Code.

(Error code ssl_error_bad_mac_read)

I'm able to go onto FF and type
Google on the command line but
when I tried to login this site
or any other it says

Unable to connect FF can't establish
a connection to the server at www.goggle.com

Thoughts/Suggetions?
Robert

I looked up the connection information:

Auto eth0 (default)

Interface: Ethernet (eth0)
Hardware address xxxxxx (I wasn't sure I should publish this)
driver xxxxxx (the same)
driver speed 11 Mb/s
security none

IPV4

IP Address (I didn't think you needed these)
Subnet
Default Route
Primary DNS

IPV6
Ignored



Robert

I don't know how but my previous message
to you was deleted and I didn't do it!

Anyways,. I download the file from the
first link you gave. It did go to FF but
was unable to open anything because it
was unable to find the servers.

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I don't know how but my previous message
to you was deleted and I didn't do it!

Anyways,. I download the file from the
first link you gave. It did go to FF but
was unable to open anything because it
was unable to find the servers.

Robert

I have a vague idea what is happening.

Google groups "wraps" the URLS in USENET messages,
with their own URL.

https://www.google.com/.../http://ol...sktop-i386.iso

If you have any active malware on the computer, it
can further modify the links. It's spelled
"www.google.com" not "www.goggle.com". The
links on the page you read, which are wrapped,
should be connecting to google.

To beat this son of a bitch, I will have
to resort to coded transmission. Remove
the excess space characters, in the section up to
the .com part. With some luck, this won't get wrapped
by the google or guggle or whatever, wrapper.

This is a CD-sized release.

h t t p : / / o l d - r e l e a s e s . u b u n t u . c o m /releases/11.04/ubuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso

The link of a DVD-sized release would be here. Remove the
excess spaces up to the .ca/ part.

h t t p : / / m i r r o r . c s c l u b . u w a t e r l o o . c a /linuxmint//stable/17.3/linuxmint-17.3-mate-32bit.iso

The purpose of inserting spaces, is so the Google Groups
wrapper re-write feature, cannot take hold. So this is
an experiment on my part, to see whether it can recognize
what I've done or not.

You can copy the line of text, into a fresh Firefox browser
page, remove the spaces, then hit return and start the download.

I hope this works,
Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
This is whats on the 8200 screen with
the Linux CD

It's possible your Google Groups account is
compromised. And by now, you probably can't
read this... It occurs to me, I replied to your
deleted message, and Google Groups won't then
show it.

If you entered your Google Groups account details
into a phishing site, they now own your account.

********

I have a vague idea what is happening.

Google groups "wraps" the URLS in USENET messages,
with their own URL.

https://www.google.com/.../http://ol...sktop-i386.iso

If you have any active malware on the computer, it
can further modify the links. It's spelled
"www.google.com" not "www.goggle.com". The
links on the page you read, which are wrapped,
should be connecting to google.

To beat this son of a bitch, I will have
to resort to coded transmission. Remove
the excess space characters, in the section up to
the .com part. With some luck, this won't get wrapped
by the google or guggle or whatever, wrapper.

This is a CD-sized release.

h t t p : / / o l d - r e l e a s e s . u b u n t u . c o m /releases/11.04/ubuntu-11.04-desktop-i386.iso

The link of a DVD-sized release would be here. Remove the
excess spaces up to the .ca/ part.

h t t p : / / m i r r o r . c s c l u b . u w a t e r l o o . c a /linuxmint//stable/17.3/linuxmint-17.3-mate-32bit.iso

The purpose of inserting spaces, is so the Google Groups
wrapper re-write feature, cannot take hold. So this is
an experiment on my part, to see whether it can recognize
what I've done or not.

You can copy the line of text, into a fresh Firefox browser
page, remove the spaces, then hit return and start the download.

I hope this works,
Paul

Paul,

Did you respond? Because on my screen it
now shows 2 messages have been deleted
whereas yesterday there was only 1.
Something is going on here either on the
site or the 8500.

Robert