Boot stops at blank screen

[cmjb13]

Have a Proliant 1850R that was shipped to our office. The motherboard died and we had to move the drives to another Proliant 1850R. The server had Windows NT 4.0 on it. When booted, I get a "non-system or disk error".

I decided to try to get the data off using Knoppix. I get a blank screen after it says it's trying to load X window. I also get the error "You passed an undefined mode number"

I've tried the following with no success.

vga=normal
knoppix vga=771
knoppix vga=773
knoppix vga=788
knoppix vga=ask
knoppix xmodule=vesa
knoppix screen=800x600
knoppix screen=640x480

Tried 3 different monitors.

I spent all day on this thing with nothing to show for it. I appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[rusty]

Could you post a little more info - what version of knoppix, how much ram on the mobo, what video chipset/card. Did you verify the MD5 of the cd/dvd.

A couplle of things you can try , vga=normal as a cheatcode. Alternatively, if you can operate from the command line, knoppix 2 at boot should get you there.

[krishna.murphy]

Could you post a little more info - what version of knoppix, how much ram on the mobo, what video chipset/card. Did you verify the MD5 of the cd/dvd.

A couple of things you can try , vga=normal as a cheatcode. Alternatively, if you can operate from the command line, knoppix 2 at boot should get you there.

I agree, this would be good information, and knoppix 2 is a valid way to get more information (perhaps some log files may be there from the earlier boots.) In the past, when I got this error it always went on to a normal bootup. I think I might have hit Enter or the escape key, or ???

Cheers!
Krishna

[peter.hentrich]

Incomplete downloads and bad CD burns are common and possible causes of failed booting.

Background: I downloaded Knoppix CD v6.0.1 via uTorrent which initially said 100% download (complete).
Problem: The boot was failing with a 'blank screen' after 'Loading minirt.gz'
Solution: After doing a 'Force Re-check' of the download in uTorrent, it was proved to be only 83.5%. I then re-started the download and completed it. Re-burned onto high-quality CD and it worked fine.

Note: For most successful CD burn, use slowest speed, high-quality 700MB CD with maximum RAM buffer. This will minimize possibility of a bad burn, which had previously given me a 'input/output' error.

[Harry Kuhman]

Incomplete downloads and bad CD burns are common and possible causes of failed booting.

Background: I downloaded Knoppix CD v6.0.1 via uTorrent which initially said 100% download (complete).
Problem: The boot was failing with a 'blank screen' after 'Loading minirt.gz'
Solution: After doing a 'Force Re-check' of the download in uTorrent, it was proved to be only 83.5%. I then re-started the download and completed it. Re-burned onto high-quality CD and it worked fine.

Note: For most successful CD burn, use slowest speed, high-quality 700MB CD with maximum RAM buffer. This will minimize possibility of a bad burn, which had previously given me a 'input/output' error.

I have not used uTorent so have no good idea why it would act as described. I did work with someone who got to 100% in a different torrent program, only to have a problem. Turned out that he was waiting until he saw 100% and then stopped the thing instantly, rather than wait for the last bit to finish and the download to really be done. In any case the md5 would catch the problem, and is faster and cheaper than burning a coaster.

Not sure how one changes the RAM buffer, can you provide details? Is that a feature of particular burning software? Of course, any remotely modern burner will have "burn proof" or some similar feature, but it is always better to not rely on that. And burning at low speed helps a lot in preventing buffer under run.

[peter.hentrich]

Turned out that he was waiting until he saw 100% and then stopped the thing instantly, rather than wait for the last bit to finish and the download to really be done.

Harry, yes, for the 83.5% problem, this was most probably my mistake also.
However, on another occasion, I waited until it said 'download complete' and 'seeding only' but the 'md5' check proved to be erraneous. I had to 'force re-check' twice to restart the download. At that point, the 'md5sum' check was a successful 'OK'. The cause is unknown and could also be user error.

In any case the md5 would catch the problem, and is faster and cheaper than burning a coaster.

Well said.

Not sure how one changes the RAM buffer, can you provide details? Is that a feature of particular burning software? Of course, any remotely modern burner will have "burn proof" or some similar feature, but it is always better to not rely on that. And burning at low speed helps a lot in preventing buffer under run.

In Nero Express 7, go to Options>Ultrabuffer to check the size of the secondary buffer. In most cases, this check is not necessary, as the default should be set to 'Automatic', which is the highest value, 80MB.