FC 1 freeze after bootup

[T. 'Nifty New Hat' Mitchell]

On Sat, Jun 12, 2004 at 04:05:28PM +0200, Alexander Dalloz wrote:
> Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 16:05:28 +0200
> From: Alexander Dalloz <alexander.dalloz at uni-bielefeld.de>
> To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> Subject: Re: FC 1 freeze after bootup
> Reply-To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> 
> Am Sa, den 12.06.2004 schrieb shatam bhattacharya um 15:15:
> 
> >           I have an unique problem. when I try to
> > start FC 1, the box freezes after bootup and a blank
> > screen appears. The interesting part is when I hard
> > boot a second time it works fine. Any ideas as to what
> > may be wrong ?? 
> > thanks
> > shatam
> 
> Update your motherboard BIOS to the latest version. Seems your system is
> not proper initialized. From your description I assume you mean a cold
> start will end in freeze but a warm start will succeed.

BIOS updates have risks so read all the instructions and double check
models and revisions.

For what it is worth in addition to a BIOS update make sure that all
the BIOS flags are initialized and stable. 

This might best be accomplished by setting in turn the optimized BIOS
values then the safe BIOS values.  This can ensure that all the values
are 'set' and not some random bits left over when the RAM was
initialized.  Some motherboards have a reset procedure that applies.
This procedure is often documented in the installation notes.

Also check the small battery that is used to maintain the PROM data
structures and realtime clock between boot cycles.  If you change one
setting from default a NVRAM volatility problem can be discovered if
after a hard power cycle it is not obvious.

If the realtime clock or the BIOS/PROM settings change, the battery
could be ill.  Look for a coin size battery on the motherboard.  The
life of these batteries varies from 4 years to ten years.  The life is
MUCH, Much, much shorter if someone placed the motherboard on a home
made anti-static guard made of aluminum foil or on a metal work bench.
If you cannot find the battery with a bright light inspection check
the user guide for the location.

If you understand what the problem is you might elect to live with
the problem once you learn how to work with it.

This smells like a battery thing to me.

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