Slackware Live "killing" a laptop? Please help.

[SagxaZefiro]

Hey guys. I just sent this message to the developer of the Slackware-Live CD. Please help me. I'm going to be dead otherwise. Thanks a lot.

Just going to put up a poll.



"Hey there,

I recently was using SL CD on an array of computers. Two desktops with XP and one laptop with ME. Good news is, it worked on all of the desktops and the laptop. Bad news is, the laptop died after about the fifth time I used it. Now, my friend (who owned the laptop) is blaming it on me, and is making me pay for repair costs ($75 an hour.) Here's what happened:

I used it constantly on the laptop, and everytime after I used it I restarted to make sure Windows ME booted fine. WinME booted each time. One day I had to go on a trip to Canada, so I booted it in WinME just to double check, and it booted fine. I come back after the 4-day trip and boot into WinME, but it claims Windows is corrupted. (Some help file. If you'd like I can obtain the exact file.) My friend gets pissed, and blames it on me (as we know). He apparently asks some friend of his who is a software engineer who says that WinME and Linux don't get along, and he's had trouble with the same help file. But my friend doesn't understand that installation and a Live CD are two completely different things.

Now, I'm going to be asking many people on different computing and Linux forums so I can get enough "He didn't do it" on paper, that is, if I'm correct and my friend is wrong. A speedy responce would be nice because I know that I'm gonna be screwed tomorrow if I don't get enough proof. Thanks!

PS, Man I gotta tell you, I love Slackware Live. The hardware support is mindblowing. Good job. :-)"

[slackware]

Without being able to directly test the laptop I would have to say Windows ME is the problem since Slackware Live uses ramdisk instead of actual hard drive space.

It would be a good time for your friend to upgrade to Windows 2000 if he must use Windows, considering how ME is well known to be buggy and unstable.

[psi42]

I would say it is EXTREMELY unlikely, but there is always a possibility.

I would also say that it is much more likely that windoze me just went and broke itself. :)

[mdwatts]

If you insist on including a poll then it's off to /dev/random as I see no reason for using a poll for a question posted in the Technical forum.

[YorkshireYank]

The problem has absolutrely nothing to do with the Slackware CD - the message you're getting is a very common windows ME problem... i deal with simlar messages on a daily basis at work (tech support) so first of all stop worrying because you didn't cause the message, ME did...

I have 1 question > this is obviously a software issue so why would he pay someone (or have you pay someone) $75 per hour when they'll probably just reload ME anyway?

you have a few options, you can try to find the file on another system and copy it to a floppy so you can transfer it to the laptop...

have you tried to get into safe mode? if you can get to safe mode, there's a chance you can do a system restore to take the OS back a few days and hopefully restore the missing file

you can do a "repair install" of windows which is supposed to just check for missing files and replace those - altho i have seen this process basically format the drive which obviously loses all the data

in summary, your friend has listened to way too much FUD about what linux can do to windows... the worst case scenario to this problem would be a complete format and reload of windows

[projekt2]

You didn't do it

Tell you friend to read this. It is from the slackware live website here (http://www.slackware-live.org/features.php)
I also quoted it below

"All your available partitions and data storage devices (CDroms, USB flash disks, etc.) should be recognized at the boot time and should be mounted to /mnt/xxx. The "xxx" could be for example "hda1" for your first partition on your primary master disk, "sda1" for your USB flashdisk datastorage, or "hdc" for your CDrom drive connected as secondary master, etc. Slackware-Live CD will never write anything to your mounted devices itself. Mounting is safe, it doesn't change your disks."

[Artimus]

Tell me, what file does it say is missing or whatever? I've got a copy of Windows ME installed on this computer. I could probably e-mail it or something.

I agree, Slackware wouldn't have done this by itself. Unless YOU wrote something to the harddrive, it wouldn't have done anything. Some file probably just became corrupt after use.

-Jared

[joelc]

Don't pay the $75/hr! If it comes to that, buy him a copy of win2k upgrade and spend an hour installing that. It'll save you money, and he'll have a better machine for it. Windows may be expensive, but $75 is ridiculus. Also, can I have the address of the company he's using? I want to send them a resume :D

[SagxaZefiro]

joelc "I want to send them a resume"

lol, I would too.

YorkshireYank: " I have 1 question > this is obviously a software issue so why would he pay someone (or have you pay someone) $75 per hour when they'll probably just reload ME anyway? "

Because they are filthy rich, biased, and stupid. Well, he is, but his father isn't lol. I'll probably reason with his father throughout this whole thing. Who knows.

Thanks a lot guys. I just needed some backing up from other people, because this kid never listens to me. (And he's a total newB)

[Kaligraphic]

IFSHLP.SYS or something like that?

I run into that intermittently. Funny thing is, it's typically only a problem when I turn on the computer before I turn on the monitor. Go figure. Anyway, I just power-cycle the machine, and it usually boots just fine. (Occasionally it may require two power-cycles.)