Last week, my old (over 10 years!) but still good dual boot (Linux/Windows) Dell Vostro 3750 started to behave erratically.
The BIOS started and asked for the machine password, but after that the Grub didn't appear. The screen remained black. First the machine started every third power-on, but then it started only during the first power-up after a long switch-off period.
When started, the machine could work very long without any problems.
I suspected that the problem is associated with the temperature. Probably the BIOS FLASH memory cells lost the charge, and stopped to produce the correct data at higher temperature.
Finally I have decided to reflash the BIOS. After long cooling of the machine I managed to boot Windows and started the 3750A14.exe obtained from Dell as the still newest BIOS for my machine (the same was used for last 9 years).
The BIOS got reflashed with the "new" (in fact the same) BIOS. After reboot all the problems disappeared.
It looks like indeed the problem was caused by the FLASH gradually loosing information.
I post that in case if you experience the similar problems with old laptops (even from other vendors). Maybe refreshing of BIOS will solve also your problems? Maybe doing it every 5 years is siply a good practice?
On 6 Mar 2021 at 18:18:37, Wojciech Zabolotny <wza...@gmail.com> wrote:
Last week, my old (over 10 years!) but still good dual boot (Linux/Windows) Dell Vostro 3750 started to behave erratically.Change the battery.
The BIOS started and asked for the machine password, but after that the Grub didn't appear. The screen remained black. First the machine started every third power-on, but then it started only during the first power-up after a long switch-off period.
When started, the machine could work very long without any problems.
I suspected that the problem is associated with the temperature. Probably the BIOS FLASH memory cells lost the charge, and stopped to produce the correct data at higher temperature.
Finally I have decided to reflash the BIOS. After long cooling of the machine I managed to boot Windows and started the 3750A14.exe obtained from Dell as the still newest BIOS for my machine (the same was used for last 9 years).
The BIOS got reflashed with the "new" (in fact the same) BIOS. After reboot all the problems disappeared.
It looks like indeed the problem was caused by the FLASH gradually loosing information.
I post that in case if you experience the similar problems with old laptops (even from other vendors). Maybe refreshing of BIOS will solve also your problems? Maybe doing it every 5 years is siply a good practice?
niedziela, 7 marca 2021 o 08:37:22 UTC+1 Bob Martin napisał(a):
Change the battery.
The laptop battery was replaced 3 years ago, and has 91% of the original capacity. The BIOS does not loose settings.
If if it was the matter of battery, the reflashing itself wouldn't help,
but it did.
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 01:33:37 -0800, Wojciech Zabolotny wrote:
niedziela, 7 marca 2021 o 08:37:22 UTC+1 Bob Martin napisał(a):
Change the battery.
The laptop battery was replaced 3 years ago, and has 91% of the original
capacity. The BIOS does not loose settings.
If if it was the matter of battery, the reflashing itself wouldn't help,
but it did.
The CMOS settings probably has a battery of its own:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pile-CMOS-rtc-bios-Battery-DELL- Vostro-3750-/272713865926
regards Henrik
The symptoms were obvious but I was also not sure that a Laptop has a
CMOS battery, hopefully it is accessible enough that it can be replaced easily.
I have replaced one in a Desktop PC from Acer and it was almost
impossible to access, the recommendation was to take it back to the
dealer but that turned out not to be necessary.
Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 01:33:37 -0800, Wojciech Zabolotny wrote:
niedziela, 7 marca 2021 o 08:37:22 UTC+1 Bob Martin napisał(a):
Change the battery.
The laptop battery was replaced 3 years ago, and has 91% of the original >>> capacity. The BIOS does not loose settings.
If if it was the matter of battery, the reflashing itself wouldn't help, >>> but it did.
The CMOS settings probably has a battery of its own:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pile-CMOS-rtc-bios-Battery-DELL-
Vostro-3750-/272713865926
The symptoms were obvious but I was also not sure that a Laptop has a
CMOS battery, hopefully it is accessible enough that it can be replaced >easily.
niedziela, 7 marca 2021 o 22:41:18 UTC+1 Andrew napisał(a):
Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 01:33:37 -0800, Wojciech Zabolotny wrote:
niedziela, 7 marca 2021 o 08:37:22 UTC+1 Bob Martin napisał(a):
Change the battery.
The laptop battery was replaced 3 years ago, and has 91% of the original
capacity. The BIOS does not loose settings.
If if it was the matter of battery, the reflashing itself wouldn't help,
but it did.
The CMOS settings probably has a battery of its own:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pile-CMOS-rtc-bios-Battery-DELL- Vostro-3750-/272713865926
regards Henrik
The symptoms were obvious but I was also not sure that a Laptop has aI have replaced the CMOS battery. The procedure was not trivial, but was quite good documented in the Vostro 3750 owner's manual https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_vostro_notebook/vostro-3750_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf
CMOS battery, hopefully it is accessible enough that it can be replaced easily.
I have replaced one in a Desktop PC from Acer and it was almost
impossible to access, the recommendation was to take it back to the
dealer but that turned out not to be necessary.
Many thanks to Dell for providing such a nice documentation.
Unfortunately, the problem with laptop not booting still returns.
The memory is working correctly, the disk also.
I have noticed that the problem is time-correlated with Windows updates.
I have found an interesting material about Windows trashing the GRUB-based multiboot configuration: https://www.windowsphoneinfo.com/threads/now-mswin-will-trash-your-grub-just-by-booting.314139/
Now the question is, how I can prevent it.
For sure I want an open-source bootloader as a main bootloader in my system. In the worst case, I can deinstall Windows.
Regards,
Wojtek
Henrik Carlqvist wrote:
On Sun, 07 Mar 2021 01:33:37 -0800, Wojciech Zabolotny wrote:
niedziela, 7 marca 2021 o 08:37:22 UTC+1 Bob Martin napisał(a):
Change the battery.
The laptop battery was replaced 3 years ago, and has 91% of the original >> capacity. The BIOS does not loose settings.
If if it was the matter of battery, the reflashing itself wouldn't help, >> but it did.
The CMOS settings probably has a battery of its own:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pile-CMOS-rtc-bios-Battery-DELL- Vostro-3750-/272713865926
regards Henrik
The symptoms were obvious but I was also not sure that a Laptop has a
CMOS battery, hopefully it is accessible enough that it can be replaced easily.
I have replaced one in a Desktop PC from Acer and it was almost
impossible to access, the recommendation was to take it back to the
dealer but that turned out not to be necessary.
I have noticed that the problem is time-correlated with Windows updates.just-by-booting.314139/
I have found an interesting material about Windows trashing the
GRUB-based multiboot configuration: https://www.windowsphoneinfo.com/threads/now-mswin-will-trash-your-grub-
Now the question is, how I can prevent it.
On Mon, 31 May 2021 14:39:21 -0700, Wojciech Zabolotny wrote:https://www.windowsphoneinfo.com/threads/now-mswin-will-trash-your-grub-
I have noticed that the problem is time-correlated with Windows
updates. I have found an interesting material about Windows trashing
the GRUB-based multiboot configuration:
just-by-booting.314139/
Now the question is, how I can prevent it.
The easiest way to prevent Windows from doing stupid stuff with your
hardware is to avoid booting Windows on your hardware. Instead of dual
boot, you can boot Windows in a virtual environment like qemu or
virtualbox. On the other hand, if you really want to give Windows
access to your hardware (like the graphics card if you need gaming performance in Windows), you can instead boot Linux in a virtual
environment and hope that future Windows upgrades will not mess upp
your virtual installations.
On Mon, 31 May 2021 14:39:21 -0700, Wojciech Zabolotny wrote:
I have noticed that the problem is time-correlated with Windows updates.just-by-booting.314139/
I have found an interesting material about Windows trashing the
GRUB-based multiboot configuration:
https://www.windowsphoneinfo.com/threads/now-mswin-will-trash-your-grub-
Now the question is, how I can prevent it.
The easiest way to prevent Windows from doing stupid stuff with your
hardware is to avoid booting Windows on your hardware. Instead of dual
boot, you can boot Windows in a virtual environment like qemu or
virtualbox. On the other hand, if you really want to give Windows access
to your hardware (like the graphics card if you need gaming performance
in Windows), you can instead boot Linux in a virtual environment and hope that future Windows upgrades will not mess upp your virtual installations.
regards Henrik
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