Subj : Re: Computer Broken
To   : apam
From : tenser
Date : Thu Sep 11 2025 01:42 am

On 09 Sep 2025 at 09:11p, apam pondered and said...
 
 ap>   Re: Re: Computer Broken
 ap>   By: tenser to apam on Wed Sep 10 2025 06:48 am
 ap> 
 ap>  te> Can you hook up a UART?  Throwing some debug prints out of the serial
 ap>  te> is usually a pretty good place to start.
 ap> 
 ap> Unfortunatly not, there's no serial port, and I don't have anything to
 ap> plug in that would give it a serial port.

Oh, that's unfortunate; meaning there's no UART header on the
mainboard?  Sometimes, one is lined out but runs at TTL levels,
but if there's truly no interface, then obviously it won't
help.  :-(

 ap> I didn't try looking for a jumper, but I did remove the CMOS battery and
 ap> replace it.
 ap> 
 ap> I did find a second computer and it did the same thing (which you would
 ap> think would narrow it down..) however I removed some of the memory and
 ap> it started working. At least I got grub to load - my OS didn't but that
 ap> could be a software problem.

Huh, that's very strange.  Presumably, just loading the firmware
(BIOS or UEFI or whatever) should be totally independent of your
OS, as your OS hasn't loaded yet.  This sounds very much like a
hardware problem, but that similar symptoms are present on two
separate machines is very weird.

Once GRUB has started handing off to your OS, I'd think that
further problems would be software.
 ap> Anyway, I've packed it up for now and will continue with QEMU.
 ap> Interestingly (though off topic) Virtual box no longer works - it wont
 ap> even boot grub, I guess it no longer supports setting vesa modes?
 ap> 
 ap> Oh well QEMU works, and last time I checked VMWare works too, so that
 ap> will have to do for now until I can motivate myself to attempt to fix
 ap> things.
 ap> 
 ap> I have gotten my telnet program to work properly with Synchronet (it
 ap> required a bit more telnet protocol stuff) so I can connect to
 ap> Constructive Chaos and have it detect ansi and telnet and work
 ap> correctly. I've also gotten TinyCC to work, so I can enter programs and
 ap> compile them and the output runs.

Hey, that's all pretty cool!  Dunno about the VirtualBox stuff,
but good luck and have fun playing around with it!

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