Any hope for this old machine

[Zeppelin]

Is this the end of my ol faithfull? :(

I have an old Toshiba satellite lap top (xp) that has worked fine until the other day when it wouldn't load up. Instead of xp there were a couple of lines about intel boot agent and copyright then:

PXE-E61 media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F exiting intel PXE ROM
Operating system not found.

Now, by opening the empty cd tray and starting the machine everything loaded up and ran fine, however after a few minutes/seconds the computer goes blank and is totally dead- the only light on is the power light.

When I turn it on again there is a blue screen saying it will do a disk check.
Here there seems to be a lot of errors being corrected by being 'truncated' or 'file copied....' Then it says alls well.... but it aint cos its still going blank!

So bin it or fiddle with it?
Thanks

[Bushfiva]

It seems your hard drive has gone to the great bit bucket in the sky. On most Toshibas of that era it's easily replaceable. The main concern is whether you have backups for your data, and an install disk for your OS.

If you have another computer handy, it might be possible to remove the Toshiba drive, attach it as, say, an external USB drive to the other computer, and have that run diagnostics and/or repairs. Or, you could boot the Toshiba from a Linux-based rescue disk (or XP rescue disk if you ever chose to create one) and go from there.

If you're not comfortable farting around, the best bet is a new disk, reinstall the OS and restore the data. XP disk images are freely available and your XP license is probably stuck to the computer somewhere. Note, Toshiba used heat-sensitive stickers for a long time so it's possible the sticker number has gone.

Quick edit: Also, sometimes random stuff happens. So if the drive on your machine is readily removable, simply removing it and reinserting it once or twice to break up any cack on the connector may resolve the issue.

And if not, connecting the drive

[vulcanised]

I also have one of those but mine has died for a different reason - both the backup and main batteries have died and the replacement prices are beyond sense.

I sometimes connect it to the psu in an idle moment but it's really a potential doorstop now.

[aditya104]

Operating system not found

The above error was also encountered by me recently. The hard drive had gone bad. I confirmed it by running SeaTools for DOS (http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/). Failed the long test. The data was recoverable still, by attaching it to another working system.

Hope you find another working hdd for your laptop.

[mixture]

XP is end of life and unsupported. Take the hint and move onto something more modern.

[Lancelot37]

XP is not unsupported yet, but to be so, soon. I'm amazed that people don't change their computers on a regular basis as they do with their cars. I've got 4 and change them every 3 to 4 years as they are so cheap these days. I'm a poor pensioner and I can afford it! You prof. pilots should be able to manage it with the money that you earn. :rolleyes:

[Zeppelin]

Well, took the hard disk out and it seemed to start up all ok, but then about 10 mins later 'phut' totally dead again.

Was going to let my young un use it for watching bob sponge on youtube, oh well. Plan b required.

Lancelot.... 4 cars, you pensioners have it so easy ;)

[aditya104]

Zeppelin

If you want your laptop to run youtube to watch sponge bob, it is possible. Not only that, it is easy and inexpensive.

You can run Linux from a bootable USB flash drive. That flash drive will act as a HDD from which you can boot an OS. You will need to set boot priority in bios to boot from usb. If you have a spare USB of 2GB capacity, that will do for this purpose.

Linux is an OS just like windows. Linux is free and open-source. And it will let you watch Youtube on Firefox browser without a problem. Linux comes in many flavors - such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Linux Mint (http://linuxmint.com/) is said to be easier to use and similar to windows.

There are many tools available that help you create a bootable USB running Linux such as LinuxLive USB Creator (http://www.linuxliveusb.com/), RMPrepUSB (http://www.rmprepusb.com/RMPrepUSB).

[seacue]

I find it really curious when experts assure us that XP is dead (or nearly so). Just because Microsoft chooses not to issue updates doesn't mean that XP will shrivel up and go away. Of course Microsoft *hopes* people will abandon XP ... but one-third of all personal computers still use XP.

DOS-based software runs on XP. One has to use DOSbox or equivalent on Win 7 or newer to run these legacy DOS-based applications which are very important to some users, commercial users. It is all well and good to tell these people to switch to "modern" application software, but porting a perfectly-good trouble-free application to quite-dissimilar application software is a hard and expensive process. There continue to be press stories of commercial systems that have crashed after "upgrades".

But Microsoft would go bankrupt if they didn't bring out new, NEW versions fairly frequently.


The Linux-USB suggestion from aditya104 sounds like a good answer to the OP's problem.

[BlankBox]

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUqAHvndxf6MC3oaCiWnLoDLd-fGBxMUv68FxAz3uzyKJM2xtL

:E

[Gulfstreamaviator]

I also have an old machine.

Also have an all singing and dancing machine, but this old horse was sitting in the junk room, and I was bored.
So tried to boot up, not happy.
Battery was dead, so mains use only, Power supply was dead too, but had spare of similar ilk in same location.
Then the OS would not load up, and my fear was the dard drive was also dead. Correct assumption.
In same location was a hard drive of reasonable capacity, 10 gbs.
WOW. Previous was 6gbs.
So changed out hard drive. Then found original CD. Much playing around and I had an operating machine.

BUT

Very very slow, and still crashing.
Found memory in local shop, ( expensive for old machines ). I had some memory, but suspected it was older junk than my new junk.
Now it is in daily use for E Mails, and Pprune.

If XP is dead LONG live XP: a low overhead OS, I also have Open office, and a very old version of Office 1980 or similar.

So all the rubbish that i have kept over the years has paid off.

I think my 20x20 junk room is fully justified.

Glf

[Fly-by-Wife]

I think it's being used for circumcision - although I may be wrong, and it's cracking nuts - not that far apart, really.

FBW

[Feline]

FBW - Well, after careful consideration of the geometry of the picture, I have to respond to your first assertion (soto voce of course): "Wow, impressive chopper!"

Ooops, coat, hat - Meouw! I'm outa here!

[mixture]

I find it really curious when experts assure us that XP is dead (or nearly so). Just because Microsoft chooses not to issue updates doesn't mean that XP will shrivel up and go away. Of course Microsoft *hopes* people will abandon XP ... but one-third of all personal computers still use XP.

Get your head out of the sand and smell the coffee.

Anyone who continues to use an obsolete Microsoft operating system after Microsoft cease to release patches is an idiot. End of story.

Its NOT about Microsoft wanting to make money. Its about the security of your system, your personal information, and doing your bit for the good of the internet by not becoming a zombie or spamming proxy.

And please, don't waste your keyboard coming back here telling me "oh, I run this anti-virus and that other thing, so I'll be ok".... because that's bull. Without a solid OS, any software (AV or otherwise) is vunlerable because the APIs are vulnerable.

[Milo Minderbinder]

" doesn't mean that XP will shrivel up and go away. "

It will
just like DOS, Windows 9X, Windows 2000, Windows NT4.....

you don't see any of those nowadays except very rarely you may come across an old Win2K server that someone's forgotten about

[Saab Dastard]

just like DOS, Windows 9X, Windows 2000, Windows NT4.....

you don't see any of those nowadays except very rarely you may come across an old Win2K server that someone's forgotten about

I agree with the general thrust, but the rate of shrivelling is slower than you might imagine.

I have come across 3 NT4 installations in the last couple of years. And as for Win2K, well there's a surprisingly large amount still out there, believe me.

The sad thing is that some projects are going on right now to upgrade 2000 to 2003, because of the incompatibility of the applications with Server 2008.

SD

[vulcanised]

Some things in life are so predictable.........

Mention XP and mixture is sure to appear with dire warnings, Bet he had a ball when the millennium bug was supposedly imminent.

[Feline]

Yeah! I kind of wonder what mixture Mixture is smokin' (I'd like some too!) And make no mistake, as far as Microsoft goes it is all about money - a huge percentage of their revenue comes from Windows and Office, and they have not been too successful in creating new revenue streams.

But I agree with SD - the dwindle rate for XP is going to be far slower than any previous MS OS - simply because they were so successful and sold so many copies of it.

And there are some practical implications as well - for example, I have a couple of Asus Netbooks running XP Home which I take to meetings. They are small and light and run all the productivity software I need. There's no way they will run any later OS's - and why should I throw away a device which still does what I need it to (and gives me up to 5 hours battery life)?

Even it was possible, to update the software would cost me far more than the machines cost me in the first place. I also have a tablet - but even though it gives me more than 10 hours battery life, it tends to stay at home because I simply haven't been able to find productivity software that comes anywhere near what I have running on XP.

And just a BTW for Zeppelin - Once upon a time, Toshiba made very good notebooks indeed: I still have a Toshiba T1000 Notebook from the early 80's - Boots from into DOS from a 720Kb stiffy, 1Mb memory, mono character based screen (80 columns X 25 lines). Popped in some new ni-cads - and it still works! So go forth with hope in your heart!

[Ancient Observer]

Cos I was allegedly doing an "important" job back in 86, the Co gave me an AT 3270 to use.
I primarily used it to connect to the mainframe over the Co's VPN...........so the pc bit was wasted on me. (The VPN was handy).

Eventually, all great machines die a death. Otherwise I for one would still be on 2.1 with a 386.

[Blacksheep]

XP still doing sterling service on many company networks. Too expensive to change out a whole network. On the other hand big companies have much better hardware firewalls than a typical home system.

[Milo Minderbinder]

not just the firewalls - they are usually locked down in many ways with tight system policies.
still vulnerable though
all it takes is one e-mail
or one hijacked web page