re visited Green Screen

Hello all

Back online again in a fashion.

pmj...

Great!
:-)

To give a summary.

pmj...

The Medion packed up at same time as original TFT screen took a green
cast.

Peirrepoint...

Jeff,

Not sure how 'tech' you are but, one thing that may be worth a try, open up
case, locate on-board battery. Very close to battery should be a 3 pin
jumper with a 'jumper' linking 2 pins. Remove 'jumper' from the 2 pins and
connect to alternate 2 pins. It should flush the NVRAM, and reset the CMOS
settings, forcing it to give you an option to set them up or load defaults.

pmj...

Hey!
That's a good idea!
Hopefully ReSetting the CMIOS BIOS Settings *might* get it going
again?

It's got to be worth a try, anyway?

After everything that has been suggested, it is only 'last resort' option I

pmj...

I just had a look on the Motherboard in my Medion PC...
(I *think* that Jeff's one is actually the same Model of Medion PC
as I have got)?
Mine's a "Medion MD 8383 XL Titanium Connect" & it's got an
MSI MS-7091 Motherboard in it.

There don't appear to actually be any Jumpers near the Battery, [*1]
which is near the (Phoenix/Award) BIOS Chip at the front left Corner
of the Motherboard, by the SATA Disk Connectors & the USB Headers/
Cables for all the Card Readers, X10 Remote Control & Bluetooth/
Wireless LAN & stuff on the Front Panel.

But the Battery is held in just by a Clip (it's not Soldered in).

So it might be worth just taking the Battery out (& leaving it out
for a while?), to ReSet the CMOS RAM?

[*1] There *are* some things which look like "Test Points" - Solder
Pads - on the Circuit Board, but no actual Jumpers, by the Battery.

I still haven't yet managed to find a full (properly labelled)
Circuit/Layout Diagram for the actual MSI MS-7091 Motherboard in
these Medion MD 8383XL PCs, so I don't know exactly what all the
various Headers are & there are *some* Jumpers, but again, I don't
know what they are, without a full Manual & Circuit/Layout Diagram

Joe, I think you did find a mention of the MS-7091 Motherboard on
the PCServiceCall Site, a while ago?

Yep!
:-)

I just did a web-search & found the Post where you gave a
"MakeAShorterLink.com" Link to it - that goes here...

Which is a Page in a Section on the Site about the Advent T12 PC,
which is very similar (though not identical) to the Medion MD 8383 XL

That's got a basic layout Diagram of the MSI MS-7091 Board.

Ah...
Is the Jumper to ReSet the CMOS RAM, the one right at the very corner,
labelled "JBAT1"?

Hey!
They've even got a Page with a "Virtual BIOS" .SWF ShockWave Flash
thingy, where it shows you the various Screens of the BIOS Setup
Utility!
:-)

& here's the actual .SWF, so it loads into the whole Browser Window...

can think off :-(

The old win98/me Panrix carried on working normally

CTX was superb, they were notified of problem on Monday evening last,
and delivered a replacement TFT on Wed. at 2.30pm.

I decided to give it an immediate test and attached it to the Panrix.
WinME immediately failed boot and carried on to boot Linux with normal
colours.

Nothing would get windows to load. I can only presume - no doubt
wrongly - that I have imported a virus that gets at the MBR or
something that is triggered by ?screen connections.

Took the HD disks out of the Panrix and fitted a spare and booted up
to dos with the emergency start disk. But still could not get into
the replacement disk which is the old original 6gb that has been
kicking about on the desk for some years.

Got a new 40GB fitted and away we went, reinstalled win98 then updated
to Me.

Now busy reinstalling and updating everything.

The Medion remains up the creak. cannot get anything. Is there a way
to boot up into dos? I have a cd - Medion Bootable - but that does

pmj...

Yep.

not work, and with no A: drive cannot use the various emergency disks
I have kicking around.

Jeff Gaines...

Is your BIOS set to boot from a CD (sorry about the obvious question!)?

jeff...

Doubt it, but cannot get into the BIOS

pmj...

Unless you've changed the BIOS Settings, it (the Medion PC)
*is* Set to Boot from CD OK

There is an article on making a bootable CD here:

problem is they all need a bootable image to work, and that usually
needs a floppy or working, bootable, HD to create.

pmj...

& you can Boot up off the built-in Memory Card Reader as well,
but that needs you to have already Created a Bootable Memory Card
(the Medions do come with a Utility to Create one & you can get one
from HP (Hewlett Packard) to Create one, p'raps make one on another
PC?)

Do you have a Windows NT branch CD (NT, W2K, XP) that you could try to

pmj...

Or use BartPe - that gives you a WinXp PE (Pre-Installed Environment)
to use, to Access the Hard Disk etc.

Or use the WinXP Install CD to Boot up into the WinXP Recovery Console.

Or use a w98 Install CD 9they work as an MSDOS Boot Disk), but they
won't Read NTFS Partitions without 3rd Part Software, such as the
(Free) NTFSDOS Utility from SysInternals.com

boot from? Most Linux CD's/DVD's are bootable as well - a live distro
would enable you to get at the HD.

jeff...

Have tried my Mandrake Linux disk - no result. see below also

pmj...

Oh dear!!!
:-(

I can post you a copy of my bootable rescue CD, it has FDISK and
several other utilities but it won't read NTFS discs (it's based on DOS
7). Drop me an email if you would like a copy.

If the working W98 PC has a floppy and burner then you could use Nero
(or similar) to make a bootable CD on that to use on the Medion.

jeff...

Thanks for the bootable rescue CD offer, but doubt if that would help.
I have my Medion Bootable CD also the Medion Operating System
Installation CD, but the drives can be heard running but she does not
read them.

In fact nothing happens at switch on just the cooling fan going full

pmj...

The Fan Runs (during teh POST Power On Self Test) until the Power
Saving Settings kick in.

blast, no pips squeaks, nothing.

So I think she is well knackered. and cannot think of anything but

pmj...

Can yo unot even access the BIOS at all?
Press (& Release) the [DEL] Key, while the POST is Running.

What do you actually see on the Screen, when you turn it on?
& have you tried actually Turning the Mains Power off (at the Back)
& or UnPlugging the Power Lead from it?

When you just use the Button at the front, it doesn't actually Cut
the Mains Power.
It just Sends a Start/Shutdown Signal to the Motherboard.

If the PC is in Warranty (Medions have a 3 Year RTB - Return To Base
Warranty), then Sending it back may Help, but yo uhave to be prepared to
lose stuff that is on the Hard Disk.

back to base.

Hoping I have taken my email address off, that's what happens when
reinstalling and not looking what your doing! Should be EJM in
future.

pmj...

The "From: " Header of this Post of yours says just...

From: jeff <>

That's novel!
:-)

pmj...

You can also Boot into MSDOS (or Linux or whatever) from the
*Card* Reader on the front of the Medion.

But that obviously requires you to have *previousl* made a Bootable
Flash Memory Card.
Medion supply a Utility to make a Bootable Flash Memory Card.
& you ccan also get a Utility to do it from HP.

Both CDs that Medion Supply are actually Bootable.
One of them is a WinXP Install CD, Labelled something like
"Operating System Installation CD" which you can use to Boot into
the (WinXP) Recovery Console.

& the other one is a "Factory Recovery" CD, labelled something like
"Application & Support CD" which gives several Options...

You can Run a hard Disk Checking Utility from it, do a Factory
Recovery (picking to restore either just the Drivers or the whole
Operating System & Applications) or just choose to Open an MSDOS
Command prompt.

Or you can use a normal w9x Install CD - that will work as
a Bootable CD.

Obviously, the BIOS does need to be Set to Boot off the CD, but that
is how they come Set anyway.

The only solution I can see is a new HD and start again same as with
the Win98/me machine.

pmj...

See above.

Which CDs are you using to try to Boot off it?
& what exactly happens?
What do you see on the Screen?

Yo ucould go into the BIOS & check that it *is* actually (still)
Set to Boot from CD

Could then fit the original as a slave and see if it was readable.
Could also get a caddy and look at it that way. Before the Panrix
went up the spout I had found a dual IDEE/SATA caddy which could
always be put to use afterwards.

pmj...

Any of those may be an idea to do, but bear in mind that when Booted
up into MSDOS, you won't be able to Read the C: (BOOT) & D: (Backup)
Partitions anyway, cos they are Formatted using NTFS, so you'll need
a 3rd Party Utility (such as NTFSDOS, from SysInternals.com) to Read
them.

You can Read the E: (Recover) Partition OK, cos that's Formatted
using FAT32