Wel that's really odd. OS not found usually means the BIOS can't find the MBR or the bootloader can't find the partition, the directory of executables including the OS kernel as described in the boot.ini file of a Windows OS. I'll have to do some research and find out just what chips are uploaded code from this 'service' partition just to satisfy my curiosity.
Fun, isn't it :)
A lot of these machines had/have simple controllers. Many of them really don't function much, or not at all. The firmware is uploaded from that partition or service boot that redirects the boot process, which is a hard one to fix if you're trying to upgrade.. The devices come alive when the firmware is uploaded and executed. This is kind of a neat way of doing things because, you can control the firmware release depending on the region, regulations etc... For example, lets say we program the CD rom controller to not allow you to read some security CD's or regions that don't match yours, Network access depending on where you are, this way, they don't need different hardware PC's. All they need to do is put in the correct HD that fits the location of where it's going.
It's also a good way I guess to perform firmware updates by simply updating the service section and doing a cold boot. That's when the fun starts if the update didn't go well :)
Acers off the top of my head. Maybe not the current ones.. But I had to correct an older one that did this. The owner installed a newer OS, The process reported that the current partition was not the primary one and asked if he wish to make the install the primary one etc... etc.. And he did..................... etc All was going just fine until it was time to reboot, when he did, windows could not find the CD rom, any longer.
To fix it, we move the HD to a USB external drive cable I have on another PC and used the recover CD that restored the HD back to original. Put it back in the laptop and then install the new OS over the existing one. That worked out fine..
Take it for what you want, if you have been around long enough, this isn't a new technique, things like this was done back in the hay day to configure your HD, the device settings were on the HD platter.
Hi!
As far as I know, Compaq never produced a system that *required* the system partition to be in place. There was a set of bootable disks-- and I think you could even make them when booted from the system partition--that would let you run system setup if you didn't have the partion. Likewise, you could manage the partition from those diskettes.
Perhaps it's possible that the system BIOS would become "annoyed" if the partition wasn't removed in just the right way. I do know that I ran a few systems without the partition and it always worked fine. (It was a tremendous boon when dealing with users who could not leave anything alone.)
Two such machines that I handled a lot of had this feature: The Compaq Contura 410C and the Presario CDS526 both shipped with the setup partition.
IBM took this idea a little further with what they called IML. This was used in a few different models of the IBM PS/2 computers. In these systems, there was just enough microcode present in a ROM on the mainboard to let the system find its working BIOS from either a floppy diskette or hard drive. In particular, the Models 56, 57, 76, 77 and some configurations of the Model 90 and 95 used IML. I think it was intended as an easier way to update the BIOS in these machines, the working BIOS could be updated just by upgrading the system programs to the latest release--a quick, easy and low risk thing to do. It was a flashable BIOS before there really was such a thing.
The last of the PS/2s did use true flash BIOS technology with IBM's SurePath. (There were only a very few machines to have that, however.)
William
First PC built back in 1990. I don't understand why a seprate partition would be needed to load drivers, that's all.
Well I hope this firmware had unlimited writes and not like the flash firmware found today. I'd love to have a specific model of a laptop to do a little research on. So far no one has been able to produce one.
do you use the same power outlet , try to use another one in another room , check if there is a lamp or flurecent that keeps flickering in the room that you use the computer in , if they fed from the same power node with flickring flurecent the laptop will keep acting crazy , its something i noticed ,it may help you determining what is the real problem is , best wishes .
i noticed from sometime that when you connect a laptop to power outlet that is fed from a node connected to a flickery flurecent lamp the laptop will go crazy , so try to connect it to another power outlet in another room , and see if it works hope thats help :-)
thank you, anyway I tryed in two different houses, so this is not the case
fluorescent, please.
IIRC IBM did something similiar with certain PS/2 models which loaded the ABIOS (advanced BIOS) from disk.
Jerry
:)
don't know what more to check!
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d ethe laptop is still apart, had little time to experiment, the two fuses are ok will have to test capacitors, in the while I took away the cmos battery and soldered two wires to use a standard cr2032 but nothing changes
my idea now, is that if I am not able to find the faulty component, that may well be a custom one, I will try to cut the connections to the battery poles and connect using a 2-way deviator, so that in one position the lapton can work like now, charging the battery when switched off, or running on battery only, or trun the deviator/switch and give voltage directly to the cutted terminals, excluding the battery, with an external power supply, the pc should still detect the battery charge level from other contacts of battery in place
should this work?
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