Linux Format forums

[duke.nottingham]

Hello!

I have got a friend who is using a Toshiba Satellite widescreen laptop - has only had it 18 months. It is a P4 - not sure what speed with 512MB RAM. It runs WinXP Media Centre or something like that.

Problem he has is that it keeps hanging on boot and dropping programs once booted. He has had various "experts" look at this and has had the hard disk replaced. Still has the same problem. I suspect it may be a memory issue but I am a novice so am probably wrong.

I have suggested that he tries using a Linux bootable distro to a) see if it boots ok and b) run some diagnostics. I have used Mepis in the past and recall it having some kind of memory test available.

I have never used any diagnostic programs in Linux before so would appreciate guidance as to this and the best bootable distro for this.

Many thanks.

Gordon

[towy71]

http://www.knoppix.org/ is very good and you can run memtest from boot which is excellent, or there is the ultimate boot disk which has lots of diagnostics too http://www.docsdownloads.com/Tier1/ubd.htm

HTH
Dick
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still looking for that door into summer

[skecs]

Don't forget LinuxDefender Live! isn't just for virus scans -
http://www.bitdefender.com/bd/site/products.php?p_id=40
It has all the normal testing tools as well as read & write to NTFS partitions.
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Regards from
Downunder!
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