Non booting Samsung R70 laptop

This topic has 12 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 7 months ago by Wheels-Of-Fire.

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August 10, 2018 at 8:20 pm #24554
Les.
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@oldles
Forumite Points: 42
A pal without a PC (never had one) brought this laptop to me and said he did not know if it worked, he had no power supply.

I found a cable, fitted it in a spare 19v PSU and tried it all. The battery appears to be kaput, so I removed it. At switch on, initial screen has gobbledygook, then a perfect “Samsung” banner screen, followed by the accompanying screen view.

It is not booting, no HDD present. The lines of “text shown” follow each press of ENTER.

If I load a linux DVD, it will display the full “DOS” screen menu (load mint, test RAM etc), but pressing enter instigates some action, but it leads nowhere.

I have had the two 2GB sticks out and tried individually in each slot, but no change.

Suggestions please.

Les.

Edit: Pressing F2 gives a perfect BIOS screen. I loaded defaults just in case anything I could not spot was wrong.
August 10, 2018 at 8:47 pm #24557
Dave Rice
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@ricedg
Forumite Points: 7
I had a Lenovo with a similar issue and it is the graphics hardware not coping with certain modes.
August 13, 2018 at 8:26 pm #24666
Les.
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@oldles
Forumite Points: 42
Today we stripped this right down, concluded nothing was possible (hoping there might be plug in chips), knocked it a few times and reassembled it, (A real b***er to put back together).

Needless to say, exactly as before, so it will be returned with a “junk it” message. Pity.

Les.
August 14, 2018 at 11:11 am #24680
Ed P
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@edps
Forumite Points: 39
Could well have been ‘age’ that was the problem. Once upon a time Linux could be relied on to support old hardware. Those days are now long gone. You may have been able to use an old version of Windows XP or an old version of Linux that contains the required graphics/mobo drivers. If you get that problem again try running Crunchbang or Puppy Linux distros. You can also get old Ubuntu distros here. Obviously such old distros come with a major security issue as does an old Windows.
August 14, 2018 at 2:05 pm #24686
Les.
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@oldles
Forumite Points: 42
Ed, not a linux problem, but graphical. It will display a normal Samsung slash screen, and a normal bios screen, but the gobbledegook appears as the very first text appearance, well before any OS loading takes place.

I did get a perfect Mint pre-boot screen, an at any rate, another attempt yesterday before we pulled it apart was with an Ubuntu 10.04 on CD rather than DVD which I think was flagging a bit. That would not load either, and it obviously would not be too new for the machine. Some things just need to be scrapped, in the absence of a replacement mother board.

Les.
August 14, 2018 at 5:39 pm #24693
Ed P
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@edps
Forumite Points: 39
The Live CD uses a very generic vesa driver that is not found in the normal operation of the distro. This tends to give people a misleading impression of what will run.

Linux dropped support on a large swathe of ‘obsolete’ hardware. As a sweeping generalisation you will have problems running on anything pre-2010. This link gives you the hardware supported by Ubuntu. Wayland graphics are however even more limiting requiring graphics acceleration etc. and are probably the first constraint with a 2007 Samsung R70
August 15, 2018 at 8:54 am #24712
Dave Rice
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@ricedg
Forumite Points: 7
Ed, it happens on the boot screens, no o/s is involved. When I’ve seen this before it’s a particular mode the chipset can’t handle any more. Last one I had was 2d OK, 3d not. It was only 15 months old.
August 15, 2018 at 10:01 am #24713
Ed P
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@edps
Forumite Points: 39
OK – Googling on THAT particular issue yields that the nVidia chip in the R70 had a problem.

link
August 15, 2018 at 9:54 pm #24725
Les.
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@oldles
Forumite Points: 42
Very interesting. Probably too late to “claim off somebody”, but is it worth trying the re-flow route. That went thro my mind as a possible route on Monday, but no evidence to do more than think about it. Now it might be worth trying as an exercise, but certainly not because the laptop is really worth nothing. Scrap yard still beckons it.

Les
August 18, 2018 at 2:23 pm #24814
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
Forumite Points: 4
Interesting Les.

That early in the boot process you will be running off standard VGA drivers held in rom somewhere. With a separate graphics card the rom is on the card but with built in graphics it is often part of the BIOS. Maybe worth reflashing that.
August 18, 2018 at 6:23 pm #24820
Les.
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@oldles
Forumite Points: 42
Many years since I did a bios flash, used floppies back then, so I guess a “floppy CD” would be OK. It will boot thro to the start screen of a 8.04 Ubuntu CD.

However, I am pretty well persuaded by Edp’s link regarding the nvidea graphics chip. The point made seemed to be that it was a combination of location allowing overheating, and the graphics chip and CPU + one other are fairly close together under the same heat sink (copper thermal connectors).

It will stay on the back burner for a few days, digging, MGP, damsons to pick and jam to make, other things must wait.

Les.
August 19, 2018 at 10:15 pm #24871
Les.
Participant
@oldles
Forumite Points: 42
My pal emailed me with this link today.

An old guy (I know that feeling) does the very reflow on the graphics chip of a Samsung R70.

If I had a single adverse comment, I would suggest he was too liberal with his heat sink compound before re-assembly.

Les.
August 19, 2018 at 10:51 pm #24873
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
Forumite Points: 4
I have been thinking…

Could it be something as simple as a stuck key, say Tab ? Something that stops the system from optimizing whatever its trying to optimize but means nothing in the BIOS setup ?

It just doesn’t feel like a graphics chip fault. All the people online with the chip fault seem to have vertical bars followed by a pixelated grey screen.

Anyway, just a thought ?
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