[Discuss] delete windows user data from dead laptop

John Hall johnhall2.0 at gmail.com
Sat Mar 2 23:59:02 EST 2024 

>4) Did I mention that you should do the smartctl disk tests on all your
> drives? Submit to this list your results after doing the short and
>long tests on each, so that the list's experts can interpret your
>results.
4) It's moot for this drive since I've sent it in without the smart data. I
will watch a tear down or something for the M2 drive enclosure to figure
out the chipset for USB to SATA. smartctl was not able to send commands to
the ssd though the provided bridge chip. What a useless enclosure for
diagnostics. They said they have a dedicated open pc for checking ssds in
their shop. I ran out of time messing with it and dropped the laptop off
for service. I did not have time to do a secure wipe. I let them check it
out at the store before sending it in since that  is free with the geeks
quad protection plan and maybe it's a reset short of some sort or something
they can solve by flashing bios and ssd.

>5)  ... And if so, might a mid-tower desktop give you the
>repairability so that next time troubleshooting will be simpler and
>repair will simply be an easy parts replacement. For gaming, imagine
>yourself with a 105 watt 14 core, 28 thread processor running above
>4Ghz, 64 or 128GB RAM, and a nice fast NVMe to serve as your hard
>drive. And of course, the non-nVidia graphics card of your choice.
>Be sure to have lots of fans and do a clean build for good air flow.

I went with a new desktop pc. I will make a new post because I need to make
some choices setting it up.




On Mon, Feb 26, 2024 at 8:50 PM Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com>
wrote:

> 0) If you're overclocking, reset the bios to factory, and see if the
>    intermittent ceases to happen. Test for several days of hard use
>    before drawing a conclusion. Overclocking is tricky and invites
>    intermittents.
>
>
> 1) Not nVidia, not a problem. Radeon = good.
>
>
> 2) Run the memtests. The latest System Rescue CD has a boot-up
>    memtest86 especially for UEFI.
>    https://www.system-rescue.org/Download/ . By definition, bad RAM
>    causes intermittents of various rarity.
>
>
> 3) As you mention, if it's a laptop, the risks of messing with the
>    start button outweigh the rewards of ruling out the start button.
>
>
> 4) Did I mention that you should do the smartctl disk tests on all your
>    drives? Submit to this list your results after doing the short and
>    long tests on each, so that the list's experts can interpret your
>    results.
>
>
> 5) Intermittents are a bitch. Intermittents in a system with
>    inaccessible test points, limited physical accessibility, and
>    expensive proprietary replacement parts is the ultimate time sink.
>    If you can't fix your laptop, might it be time to buy a new gaming
>    computer? And if so, might a mid-tower desktop give you the
>    repairability so that next time troubleshooting will be simpler and
>    repair will simply be an easy parts replacement. For gaming, imagine
>    yourself with a 105 watt 14 core, 28 thread processor running above
>    4Ghz, 64 or 128GB RAM, and a nice fast NVMe to serve as your hard
>    drive. And of course, the non-nVidia graphics card of your choice.
>    Be sure to have lots of fans and do a clean build for good air flow.
>
>
> As always, if replying via top-post, please refer to the numbers.
>
> HTH,
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
>
> Autumn 2023 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21
>
>
> John Hall said on Mon, 26 Feb 2024 04:57:46 -0500
>
> >Steve good ideas even though it's a bit different than imagined.
> >1) Not nvidia. It's AMD Ryzen 9 and AMD Raedon. Both have GPUs and the
> >Raedon has separate RAM. I believe getting these to dance together
> >causes timing issues and the MB falw is related to some frackery here.
> >It's long been a problem to run the overclocking / tweaking app that
> >came with the laptop. I am using Windows with ubuntu in WSLv2.
> >But yes scores of proprietary drivers, and helper processes with
> >multiple versions. It's a minor miracle every minute that windows
> >systems don't self-destruct.
> >2) No I have not run memtests. It's a laptop with no CD but USB key or
> >rescue partitions could have the same options. I wonder if uefi bios
> >might have mem test. hum.
> >3) It's a laptop and that is an interesting idea but without the same
> >access I'm reluctant to do it. It quits with a windows stop code of 21x
> >which is a crash in the startup process. I should research if this is
> >the same as pressing the reset button. Getting to the power button
> >would require extensive disassembly of the laptop. I'm not prepared to
> >do that but since Geeksquad is a send off for just about any service
> >*it may be worth paying a local repair shop before going to bestbuy*
> >if that is what the code is for the reset (holding power button down).
> >If I could get Debian to boot from the key, maybe I could see a signal
> >or even maybe it is a soft reset in windows.... or bios/ufei that
> >could be disabled.
> >Imaging update:
> >I have increased throughput from 11MiB to 80MiB ! Whoo Hoo! and I am
> >pretty confident in my command to continue my dd image where I left
> >off but with a larger block size. I also got the usb hard drive
> >attached to the 3.0 bus but still not getting maximum usb2.0 speed.
> >There is a 3.2 hub added that is shared by both drives and is attached
> >to the linux 3.0 bus. There may be two 3.0 buses. I have not tried one
> >other usb port. I should have tested that before restarting the dd.
> >It's fast enough to go to sleep.
> >
> >
> >On Mon, Feb 26, 2024 at 1:40 AM Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com>
> >wrote:
> >
> >> John Hall said on Mon, 26 Feb 2024 01:18:51 -0500
> >>
> >> >Update:
> >> >I believe the best thing I can do from linux is to just format C as
> >> >ntfs then booting will fail and go to recovery. Seeing the system
> >> >reboot randomly in recovery or factory reset mode seems convincing
> >> >to me. Maybe I could print my windows error log from linux if i
> >> >figure out how to hack that.
> >>
> >> I think I came in in the middle of this and don't understand the
> >> symptom, but it sounds to me like your computer is intermittently
> >> rebooting itself. I'm going to ask you some questions. If you top
> >> post your answers, please include the question numbers.
> >>
> >> 1) Do you have nVidea video? This is known to do stuff like you
> >>    describe. This is because nVidea won't share their API. There's a
> >>    reason Linus gave nVidea the finger. I've cured problems like this
> >>    by replacing nVidea with Radeon, most of whose drivers are already
> >>    in the Kernel.
> >>
> >> 2) Have you performed the memtest86+ memory tester that's a boot
> >> option of System Rescue CD? If you have bad RAM, all bets are off.
> >>
> >> 3) Dirty reboot switches and power switches are known to cause
> >>    spontaneous reboots and hangs. As a diagnostic test, remove the
> >>    leads for these switches from the motherboard, and turn the
> >> machine on and off using a screwdriver to (carefully) short the
> >> power switch pins. If it works for several days without rebooting,
> >> it was probably those switches. In that case, replace the power
> >> switch with a no-light, no-frills $1.99 doorbell switch, and leave
> >> the reboot switch disconnected.
> >>
> >>
> >> I've had intermittent problems caused by all three of the preceding.
> >>
> >>
> >> SteveT
> >>
> >> Steve Litt
> >>
> >> Autumn 2023 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
> >> http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
>
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