[conspire] new laptop Fedora 13 with NVIDIA graphics card - yum update - now only blank screen

[Darlene Wallach]

Rick,

On Sun, Sep 19, 2010 at 5:15 PM, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
> Quoting Darlene Wallach (freepalestin at dslextreme.com):
>
>> I purchased a new laptop from Linux Certified with Fedora 13
>> installed.
>
> Your postings on this subject have not included what make/model of
> laptop this is.  That data could be vital.  Unfortunately, even though
> Linux Certified sells rebranded gear from major OEMs, the company isn't
> very good at telling you what upstream Taiwanese equipment it is selling
> you under the Linux Certified house brand (with the exception of the
> firm's 'LCTP' series, which are rebranded particular models of Lenovo
> ThinkPads).
>

LC2210SN

> For example, given the manufacturer make/model, I might be able to look
> up for you what key combination toggles between external video only and
> internal video only.  Fixing your problem might be as simple as hitting,
> e.g., Alt-F7.
>
> Suggestion:  Insist on having that information ASAP, plus an electronic
> copy of the product manual.

Thank you. I will do that Monday.

>
> Given that data, you would also be able to determine how to force a boot
> from default BIOS settings, which is often also extremely useful for
> diagnostic purposes.
>
>> I'm not seeing any bios or boot messages. I do not have a VGA cable so
>> I can't connect to another screen. I am hesitant to do that though as
>> the last time I tried that I think I damaged an old Sony VIAO.
>
> Sorry, but that does not make sense, that you would ever damage a laptop
> merely by connecting an external monitor to it.  That's not even a
> significant amount of power draw.
>
> It's a shame you don't have access to a regular ol' VGA monitor with
> regular ol' VGA cable attached.  Given that, it _might_ be the case that
> you'd attach it and say 'Oh, I must have toggled my laptop to external
> video only.  Whew!  That's good news.'

Argh! - I was thinking VGA cable for a projector - duh!

Nothing when I plugged the VGA from the monitor to my desktop into my
new laptop.

I see some blinking lights like the hard drive is being accessed. I
hear no sounds - go beeps nothing.
>
> It's always handy to have access to known-good equipment, exactly for
> situations like this.
>
> One other thing that comes immediately to mind:  In all of your several
> messages to this thread, you haven't yet mentioned whether you are
> seeing other signs of life from the laptop at all.  When seeking help on
> a mailing list, you need to remember that you are our eyes and ears.  If
> you don't tell us what's going on, we simply won't know.
>
> So, for example, when turning on a laptop, normally several observable
> things happen in sequence, during the early stages of boot-up, by no
> means all of them involving displaying of video onto the screen.  You
> turn on the power, and you will most often see some LEDs flash, as those
> components are initialised.  Then, sometimes you will hear a beep.
> Then, depending on the boot order set in the BIOS, you might hear the
> optical drive seeking, to see if there's a readable disc.  Then, you
> will hear the hard drive spinning up and seeking.  At the same time as
> the HD activity, you will generally see the HD LED showing irregular
> blinking patterns characteristic of HD reading.  And typically, just
> before then, the motherboard starts sending video out to whatever video
> port has been selected in the BIOS.

I see three blue leds - power, battery, hard drive(?). The hard
drive(?) blinks then goes out.

I hear the fan.

I hear no beeps, no sounds, a totally black blank screen.

>
> It is extremely handy to get to know these characteristics during
> ordinary operation of the machine, so that you can better perform basic
> debugging when things go wrong.
>
>
>

I hoping I can get some help from Linux Certified! I can't figure out
what I could have done!

Darlene Wallach

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