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

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Darlene Wallach (freepalestin at dslextreme.com):

> JHT0X

Darlene, you can use a Web browser for searching just as well as I can, 
so I'm sure you have already done the obvious and searched on that
string.  Which suggests that the unit is either a Compal Electronics
model JHT0X or a Chem USA ChemBook model JHT0X.  If interested, you can
go find photographs (or detailed descriptions) of those, compare them
with what you have, and thus determine which, if any, is a match.

Compal JHT0X might be the same as Compal JHL9x.  Here is the service
manual for the latter:
ftp://download.spartanco.com/Notebooks/SCM150(JHL91)/Manuals/SCM150%20JHL91%20service%20manual-Final-0725.pdf

For all I know, Compal JHT0X/JHL9x might also be exactly the same as
Chem USA ChemBook JHT0X/JHL9x:  
http://www.chemusa.com/JHL90_05.htm

That might be something you want to research.

> I also realized after I start it up - I can hear a sound when I hit
> "enter" like when you you type and get sound effect for a mistake.

You can also check to see if the Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock
key functions cause their respective LEDs to toggle.  Also, listen
carefully to hear whether the hard drive is whirring.  (If everything is
fine except video, then you should also hear a great deal of quiet HD
chattering while it is doing head-seeking, mostly during startup but
also intermittently after startup when, e.g., crond runs.

If you are able to hear those sorts of things, you should logically be
more inclined to conclude that something has gone wrong with video
(only), e.g., failure of the video circuitry.

> I'm hoping it is a stupid user error and not a problem with the
> laptop. Though I'm definitely having second thoughts about buying
> another computer from Linux Certified.

If I had to guess, I'd say failed video circuitry, and the fact that it
did this during package updating was entirely coincidental. 

I wouldn't blame Chander Kent's company for that:  These things happen.

Personally, I like knowing which Taiwanese company made my laptop, and
what each of its component subassemblies is, but even major companies
like Dell Computer buy from OEM suppliers.  E.g., my non-antique Dell
Inspiron 7000 was a standard generic unit manufactured by Compal
Electronics and rebranded by Dell, as I found out when I researched it 
to help Linux users who might acquire the same hardware:
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/inspiron7000.html