etch:t43:keyboard problems

On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:26:50 +0000
Zach wrote:

> Hello,
>
> Two day ago I suddenly got lots of I/O and read errors which went to
> all consoles on my laptop (Latitude C600 running Debian testing
> release with Linux kernel 2.6.18) followed by loud clicking noises
> coming from the area where the HD is then the kernel panicked and the
> screen froze and I then heard several high pitched beeps and loud
> chirping noises like a cricket. This is the small ATA/IDE HD that came
> with the laptop (~8 years old, Hitachi Travelstar 08K0851, 20GB). I
> tried rebooting and it said it could not load the root filesystem and
> complained about error reading disk and input/output error and I
> heard beeping noises again - 2 quick very sharp beeps ~90 seconds
> after it tried loading the / filesystem. I booted into my Ubuntu Live
> CD and tried mounting the disk but it gave read error. So I went to a
> local computer shop and bought another HD and installed it in the
> laptop; I made sure the laptop had no power (battery is dead and I
> unplugged power cord) and I used latex gloves and had the laptop on a
> wen table when inserting the new drive into the side of the laptop.
> It's a Toshiba ATA disk, MK6026 GAX, 60GB, another $60 sigh. That
> drive also gave similar read, I/O problems so I suspect it is a bad
> hardware controller or maybe even the interface connection. Two drives
> both cannot be read. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this
> happening before (the HD is god but cannot be read due to fault in the
> system's hardware)? I hope whatever is wrong didn't damage the data on
> my drives.

This sound quite similar to what just happened to one of my older
Thinkpads, except mine didn't quit suddenly, it actually usually still
works, and every now and then throws a fit with all kinds of sound
effects (mostly clunking and thumping) until the OS finally locks up.
Sometimes when I boot after this it can't find the hard drive. So I
bought another old but slightly newer laptop, stuck the hard drive from
the old machine in, and it works just fine.

What you probably need is a good man with a soldering iron to get
inside that laptop and fix a loose connection or two. This is very
cheap where I live in Beijing (on the order of a US$20-30) but probably
very expensive in a lot of other places.

My favorite-guy-with-a-soldering iron gave me a bit of free advice one
day: never pick up your open laptop with one hand, fingers underneath
and thumb hooked over top. Especially the small ones (like the two
Thinkpads I think I have already damaged this way) because not only are
they light and easy to pick up this way, their frame is often not stiff
enough and flexes under this kind of treatment. If that flexing makes
it all the way to the mother board, problems will eventually follow.
Twice already, for me.

> Do you know something I could buy that would connect to my small
> laptop hard drive and allow me to mount it as an external hard disk? I
> found enclosures that come with an interface for IDE 3.5" sized HDs
> and connect via USB but nothing for these small laptop HDs - they're
> about the size of the palm on the hand and only 0.20" thick.

Sounds like you need a 2.5" drive enclosure. They can be had all over
the place where I live.

> I was able to install Ubuntu 7.04 onto my external SCSI disk (ATA/IDE
> interface enclosure connected to laptop via USB) but my system's BIOS
> doesn't seem to recognize/be aware of it and I tried using the Ubuntu
> Live CD to do "root=/dev/sda5" but it only seems to be aware of hda
> disks and not SCSI disks (or at least not ones connected via USB). I
> am wondering if there is anyway I can boot into the Ubuntu
> installation on the external disk. That way I'd at least be able to
> save files and it would be a lot faster than running from the Live
> CD's ramdisk.

I *think* only relatively new machines have BIOSes capable of booting
over USB. I have a half dozen or so Thinkpads kicking around, none newer
then Pentium III, and not a one is capable of booting from USB as far
as I can tell.

Clayton

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On Wed, 27 Feb 2008, Zach wrote:

> Do you know something I could buy that would connect to my small
> laptop hard drive and allow me to mount it as an external hard disk? I
> found enclosures that come with an interface for IDE 3.5" sized HDs
> and connect via USB but nothing for these small laptop HDs - they're
> about the size of the palm on the hand and only 0.20" thick.

yes there are adapters

there are 2.5inch and 1.8inch drives.. so make sure you have the right size.

http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Notebook-Drive-Adaptor/dp/B000I963AO/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1204103072&sr=8-19
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Components-F2N511-Mounting-Notebook/dp/B00006HN05/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1204103072&sr=8-21
http://www.amazon.com/eSTAR-Hard-Drive-Converter-Adapter/dp/B000QECWPG/ref=sr_1_36?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1204103145&sr=8-36
http://www.amazon.com/HDD-ADAPTER-Compatible-2-5-harddrive-adapt/dp/B000YA9G7Y/ref=sr_1_47?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1204103145&sr=8-47

--
Florian Reitmeir

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On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 06:26:50AM +0000, Zach wrote:
...
> both cannot be read. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this
> happening before (the HD is god but cannot be read due to fault in the
> system's hardware)? I hope whatever is wrong didn't damage the data on

yes, chipset/controllers/power-supply can fail just like any other hw.
On the data-loss side, depends on the kind of failure. Your's sounds like
a failure on the 'power' side, so perhaps the HD could not get enough
power to do the right - and then hopely nor the wrong - things.

> Do you know something I could buy that would connect to my small
> laptop hard drive and allow me to mount it as an external hard disk? I

look for pcmcia adapters - check if your nb can boot from a pccard drive,
but that's not essential as long as your nb have a CDD (does it have it?).

On a very old 586 nb I could manage to boot from an external HDD which
replaced the CDD of the external PCMCIA kit.
Of course, YMMV (a lot).

--
paolo

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