[NTLUG:Discuss] Dell Latitude Boot Problems

[Melody & Andrew Dennis]

Stephen Davidson wrote:

> Melody & Andrew Dennis wrote:
>
>> Hello Everyone,
>> I've been "lurking" on this list for quite a while, and finally 
>> decided to join in.
>>
>> Here's my problem:
>> I have two Dell Latitude CPI Laptops, one 366MHz PII and one 400MHz PII,
>> other than the CPU speeds & hard drive sizes, they are configured 
>> with exactly the same hardware.  My problem is that after 
>> installation of Slack 9.2 with the default kernel, no special configs 
>> or anything else, both computers boot just fine the first time.  
>> After that, when I reboot for one reason or another, they just freeze 
>> at exactly the same point.  If this was an incompatibility problem, I 
>> can see neither computer booting at all, but it only occurs after I 
>> have installed, rebooted, worked a little bit, and then attempted to 
>> boot again.........
>>
>> I believe the problem lies with the NeoMagic 256 Video cards (kernel 
>> message output is as follows)
>>
>> PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 01:00.
>> nm256: Found card signature in video RAM: 0x3fec00
>> nm256: Mapping port 1 from 0x3f09a0 - 0x3fec00
>>
>> At this point, boot progresses no further.  If I start the install 
>> process all over, everything is fine until that magical second 
>> reboot.  I've reflashed both bios's to the latest available, yet the 
>> problem still remains, although some sound config problems I had are 
>> now gone.......
>>
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated
>>
>> Thanks
>> Andrew Dennis
>>
>
> Greetings.
>
> Don't know anything about Slackware.
>
> On my third Dell (first one was 200Mhz).  Running SuSE (7.0 & 7.2 on 
> first one, 8.0 on second one, 8.2 on third one), only once had a 
> problem, which was releated to acpi.
>
> Regards,
> Steve
>
I tried a few different "fixes" before coming up with the correct one... 
the problem does lie in the acpi packages...... not sure exactly where, 
but I've been booting and rebooting all day with acpi removed and had no 
problems.  If I figure out exactly where the problem lies, I'll post it 
here.
Once again,
thanks everyone
Andrew