white screen when install is run

[icemale75]

First off, I'm a newbie at this so thanks for the patience.

I've looked through most of the forum here to see if I can find a solution to my problem but couldn't. That's when I decided to register and ask my question.

When I boot off the first CD for Red Hat 9.0, it works fine and brings me to a boot: prompt. when I press ENTER to start a graphical installation, it seems to load the kernel fine (i think. i see hardware being found and stuff but it's kinda fast), but then it runs INSTALL and the screen on the laptop just goes dark and fades to white (or really bright). I've tried to do a text install, but the exact same things happen. I've tried to use the RESCUE option to see what would happen then, but the same thing there too. I've tried using the VGA=2 and VGA=ASK options but same thing there. The screen goes dark, then fades to a really bright screen.

Any help or suggestions are GREATLY appreciated.

 

[thedaver]

You have a hardware incompatibility that is hanging the GUI loader or is hanging the hardware detection. I have seen RH9 freeze with some text at the bottom of the 'anaconda probes' that gives you a little help in figuring out what is foobar.

I would do this... remove every peripheral connected to the laptop and try dumbing down some of the settings in the BIOS to remove power management, advanced hard drive (DMA) settings, and anything you can disable from the onboard devices (NIC, serial, Parport, etc) just to see if you can get the Installer to move beyond the point you're stuck at.

If it moves ahead, kill it in the middle and start adding back settings and peripherals, eventually you'll find the culprit.

If the graphics card itself is the problem, take a look at the BIOS settings for AGP memory. You may want to try adding more to a lower setting or reducing the allocation from a larger setting. You could try setting the default resolution of the card to something ordinary like 1024X768.

Once you've got the culprit isolated, google is your friend.

Good luck.

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[icemale75]

thanks for the response. I have now tried going through the BIOS to disable all that I could (which was pretty much nothing; damn BIOS). I've tried every video memory size option available. The install still stops at a blank/white screen as soon as the installer is run.

I'm wondering if the laptop should go back to best buy.

I didn't mention this before, but it's a SOTEC 3120X laptop.

 

[flugh]

Back when I was doing some MUD coding, I found an unchecked integer that, if you said 'buy 10000000000 <something>', the MUD would go down in flames. CPU would go up to 100%, and my screen would fade from grey-on-black console to greyish (not quite 'white' though). It could be some hardware or configuration option is exploiting the same kind of error in the installation program, and the CPU is being thrown for a loop.

thedaver's suggestion of pulling any peripherals and tweaking the bios is good. I'd suggest maybe changing the 'Plug-n-Play Operating System' option. Even though you've probably got it set to 'no', try 'yes', as it may push something into a recognizable state for the installer (shot in the dark though).

Or you could drop off a 3 to 4 foot high counter, and hope the impact shakes something loose ;-)

----
JBR

 

[icemale75]

Well, I give up. It's going back to best buy and maybe i'll get a different one. thanks for any input.