[GRLUG] IBM NetVista not booting graphical environment - UPDATE

[Raymond McLaughlin]

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