Hello,

I have an older computer (Dell Optiplex GX240) that has only an
internal CDROM. After I boot this system using the OpenSuSE v11
LiveCD, navigate through the installation menu choices, and reboot
the
system, the system displays a blank screen after the standard POST
messages. I've left the system sitting in this state for as much as
30 minutes without anything being displayed on the screen.


The only activity that I see on the system is a steady HD light. The
numlock and caplock lights to change when I press the numlock and
caplock keys which would suggest that the system isn't locked up.
The
hard drive is healthy and I'm using the entire disk for the Open SuSE
OS; nothing special partition wise.


Any thoughts on what's going on?


Thanks,


Rob Ramsey
Colorado Springs

Rob wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have an older computer (Dell Optiplex GX240) that has only an
> internal CDROM. After I boot this system using the OpenSuSE v11
> LiveCD, navigate through the installation menu choices, and reboot
> the
> system, the system displays a blank screen after the standard POST
> messages. I've left the system sitting in this state for as much as
> 30 minutes without anything being displayed on the screen.

Does it reboot? If not, force it to reboot. If there is some activety
(e.g. you see something) then try to boot in CLI.


houghi
--
>>>> Run the following from the bashprompt if you have the kernel sources
for I in `find /usr/src/linux/ -name *.c`; \
do A=`grep -i -A 1 -B 1 fuck $I`;if [ "$A" != "" ]; \
then printf "$I \n$A \n\n"; fi ;done|less

On Jul 7, 3:13*pm, houghi <hou...@houghi.org.invalid> wrote:
> Rob wrote:
> > Hello,
>
> > I have an older computer (Dell Optiplex GX240) that has only an
> > internal CDROM. *After I boot this system using the OpenSuSE v11
> > LiveCD, navigate through the installation menu choices, and reboot
> > the
> > system, the system displays a blank screen after the standard POST
> > messages. *I've left the system sitting in this state for as much as
> > 30 minutes without anything being displayed on the screen.
>
> Does it reboot? If not, force it to reboot. If there is some activety
> (e.g. you see something) then try to boot in CLI.
>
> houghi
> -->>>> Run the following from the bashprompt if you have the kernel sources
>
> for I in `find /usr/src/linux/ -name *.c`; \
> do A=`grep -i -A 1 -B 1 fuck $I`;if [ "$A" != "" ]; \
> then printf "$I \n$A \n\n"; fi ;done|less

Hello,

The system does not reboot after POST. It simply sites there with a
black screen and a blinking cursor. There is HD activity indicated by
the HD LED on the front of the box. However, after 30 minutes of this
there is no additional activity. Since I am immediately presented
with a blank screen after POST I'm not sure how you'd access any CLI.
The keyboard does respond to numlock and caplock but typing stuff
doesn't display characters on the screen.

Any additional thoughts?

Thanks,

Rob

Rob wrote:
> On Jul 7, 3:13 pm, houghi <hou...@houghi.org.invalid> wrote:
>> Rob wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> I have an older computer (Dell Optiplex GX240) that has only an
>>> internal CDROM. After I boot this system using the OpenSuSE v11
>>> LiveCD, navigate through the installation menu choices, and reboot
>>> the
>>> system, the system displays a blank screen after the standard POST
>>> messages. I've left the system sitting in this state for as much as
>>> 30 minutes without anything being displayed on the screen.
>> Does it reboot? If not, force it to reboot. If there is some activety
>> (e.g. you see something) then try to boot in CLI.
>>
>> houghi
>> -->>>> Run the following from the bashprompt if you have the kernel sources
>>
>> for I in `find /usr/src/linux/ -name *.c`; \
>> do A=`grep -i -A 1 -B 1 fuck $I`;if [ "$A" != "" ]; \
>> then printf "$I \n$A \n\n"; fi ;done|less
>
> Hello,
>
> The system does not reboot after POST. It simply sites there with a
> black screen and a blinking cursor. There is HD activity indicated by
> the HD LED on the front of the box. However, after 30 minutes of this
> there is no additional activity. Since I am immediately presented
> with a blank screen after POST I'm not sure how you'd access any CLI.
> The keyboard does respond to numlock and caplock but typing stuff
> doesn't display characters on the screen.
>
> Any additional thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rob
Had a similar experience with the 11.0 32-bit version on an old server.
It seems that the graphics card is not properly recognized, ending with
a messed up screen (nice colours though). Have to check out the CLI.
On a much older laptop (Compaq Armada 6500) the Net install CD didn't
want to boot. Have to sort that out too.

Joost

Rob wrote:
> The system does not reboot after POST.

So absolutely nothing zero zilch happens? Not even when you do a hard
reboot? That indicates to me that the machine is broke. I at least see
my BIOS coming up.

> It simply sites there with a black screen and a blinking cursor.
> There is HD activity indicated by the HD LED on the front of the box.
> However, after 30 minutes of this there is no additional activity.

Time is of no interest.

> Since I am immediately presented with a blank screen after POST I'm
> not sure how you'd access any CLI.

So let me get this straight. You do the install and it tell you it wil
reboot and then you get the blank screen?

> The keyboard does respond to numlock and caplock but typing stuff
> doesn't display characters on the screen.
>
> Any additional thoughts?

Yes, be much more specific on what happens. Why I am guessing is
happening is the following. It also shows how much detail we need.
1) You do the installation
2) The PC tells you it will reboot
3) The screen goes blank
4) Nothing else happens

To me this means that there was no reboot, but the system hangs in
shutdown.

The following is also a possibilaty
1) You do the installation
2) The PC tells you it will reboot
3) The screen goes blank
4) You see the BIOS settings
5) The screen goes blank

Both of these mean a different problem and thus a different solution.
When explaing something, do not take anything for granted, please
indicate anything you see happening on your screen as explaining it to
a blind person.

houghi
--
Personally, I think most sports fans are a little "gay". They'd
rather watch a bunch of sweaty guys jumping all over eachother,
than, say fashion TV - where hot models walk down the runway.