New HP dv6 laptop and Knoppix

[Bill Freeman]

> 
> 
> --- On Sun, 12/13/09, Michael Nolin <michaelnolin at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> > The laptop I bought the kids for Christmas arrived and it
> > did not boot windoz 7. After an hour and a half on the phone
> > with HP tech support I got a case# and an order number for a
> > new hard drive due to arrive on the 17. HP's diagnostics
> > test 'hard drive:failed'. 
> > 
> > The BIOS on this laptop seems pretty weak: F2 'run system
> > diagnostics' RETURN run windows normally. I had to remove
> > the hard drive from the laptop to get the knoppix CD to run,
> > I tried 5.0, 5.1 and finally 6.01 which worked.
> > 
> > Perhaps I can upgrade the BIOS when I get a working hard
> > drive? can I find a similar discussion in the archives? I
> > checked last months but cannot remember any particular
> > discussion.
> > 
> > I did not originally intend to dual boot this laptop but
> > now I fear this weak BIOS (if it is actually the BIOS I'm
> > looking at) will lead to certain data loss or removing the
> > hard drive to recover any data which will have to be done on
> > another machine. 
> 
> reviewing (for the 4th time) hp.com/go/techcenter/startup and additional
frantic F9 F10 pressing I was able to get to the BIOS configuration and change
the boot order, to CD/DVD driver first and bad hard drive 2nd. The previous
screen with 'F2 diagnostic' RETURN continue startup was effectively masking the
BIOS I was expecting which can be accessed after pressing RETURN and pressing
F10 quickly and frequently. 
> 
> Mike

I'm glad that's working for you.  On the Toshiba that I used to have I could get
into the BIOS (the hard drive wasn't failing) easily enough, and set the boot
order.  But it ignored the boot order thus set.  Having read past conflicting
documentation, it was determined that I had to hit the C key at a critical point
in the boot process, which presented a menu of devices to boot from.  I'm sure
that whoever wrote that thought that they were enhancing my user experience.

Bill