[GRLUG] IBM NetVista not booting graphical environment - UPDATE

[Steve Romanow]

Raymond McLaughlin wrote:
> john-thomas richards wrote:
>   
>> On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 03:18:01PM -0500, john-thomas richards wrote:
>>     
>>> I am helping a friend with his non-profit's computer (he runs an inner-city
>>> ministry that helps with job placement, tutoring for students, leadership
>>> development, etc.).  The machine is an IBM NetVista, Pentium III processor,
>>> and an nVidia card.  I attempted to install XP (he *needs* Quickbooks) for
>>> him.  The install works fine until the machine reboots and attempts to load
>>> the GUI.  When it does so, the monitor goes into sleep mode and requires a
>>> hard reboot (the keyboard becomes unresponsive).  I thought this was odd
>>> behavior so I got another *identical* machine (literally; he received a
>>> donation of several identical machines from a local business) and tried
>>> installing XP onto that blank drive (after formatting, of course).  Again the
>>> monitor went into sleep mode.  I then booted the machine with a Knoppix CD.
>>>       
>> [snip]
>>
>> After pouring much time into this, it has been determined that this
>> (and the other two) motherboard has a very special and very specific
>> failure that keeps it from booting a GUI.  (Mad props to Greg F. for
>> all his help.  He is a Very. Smart. Guy.  Thank you!)  So my friend
>> with the non-profit ministry has some nice hardware but no
>> motherboards.  He was recently offered some more computers by another
>> donor so I thought, hey, why not make a nice server out of the
>> hardware?  To cut this short, dual-Pentium III motherboards are a rare
>> find these days (nada on eBay).  Any of you guys have one (I have the
>> processors :-) for sale?
>>     
>
> Please forgive me if you've already "been there and done that", but have
> you tried installing Linux on these things? I know you need Windows
> eventually, but if you can get a light enough weight Linux up and into
> graphical mode, a VMWare Player session could provide you with the
> Windows functionality you need. Pentium IIIs are kind of at the low end
> of what will run XP in a VM. But, as I said, a light weight (i.e. low
> resource demanding) Linux should be able to leave plenty for office work
>  in an XP VM. In this case more RAM is really better than a second CPU.
> Pentium IIIs start at (I think) 500MHz. I hope you  have at least 750's.
>
> I hope this helps
> Raymond McLaughlin
>
>
>
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>   
I almost question more that he "needs quickbooks" on such an old 
machine.  I wouldn't keep my offices important financial docs on a shaky 
machine.  There has got to be another way.