My Dell mini 9 crashed last night please help me!

D

demon angel

Expert Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2006
Messages
1,930
Reaction score
1
Location
Kreupelbosch, Cape Town
SOB:cry:

I bought my mini 9 second hand and never reinstalled xp since i got it around a year ago.

It got a little slow from peerblock and avast not to mention the OS's age of it once belonging to somebody else.

Still it was perfectly usable and i thought i did a pretty good job of cleaning the registry and getting it close to optimal without any need to reinstall XP.

But OH NO!

Not me i could not just let it be, no i decided i needed to give my faithful little 24/7 torrent slave a reinstall via usb to get that extra boost that i felt it deserved.

Everything went smooth even with my limited knowledge on all things solid state and having no external DVD which i was to lazy to mod myself if i really wanted to.

Anyhoo everything was fine until last night i decided to boot up the mini and i got this little message:

For Realtek RTL8101E/810ZE PC1-E Ethernet Controller v1.08 (080408)
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.
Operating System not found.

I though it was a load of bull so i got into bios only to discover my HD read 0MB.

It really is a pain and a time consuming process to install an OS onto the mini, so my question is

would a fresh re-installation of XP have caused this problem?
Is this pathetic excuse for an 8gb SSHD really dead?
Would this specific netbook need this specific SSHD?

Please be gentle and thanks for any nugget of info you might have to enlighten my situation.

Regards Demon.
 
labratza said:
well try reinstalling windows or even better try booting with ubuntu from a flash drive and see what happens
Click to expand...

Window says the hd has no space to install, but your ubuntu idea sounds very good.
Will start to download from 384 so may take awhile.
Thanks will start now.

EDIT:That Ubuntu for netbooks looks perfect for this machine.
If this works i make a promise to everybody that it will stay on my mini, provided that it functions similar or better on this Atom based Netbook.

I love my windows 7, but XP in general has now wasted enough of my time!

After doing extra research whilst waiting its seems this problem is very common and Labratza might just be my saviour......
 
Last edited:
Get hirens boot cd. There are plenty of tools on there that might help you. If I have to guess I would say your FAT is messed up and something like Norton disk doctor will be able to fix it.
 
Have you tried reseating it yet? It is after all a gloryfied RAM chip.
Take the back off, take it out and put it back in.
It is this one http://bit.ly/avS3mi

Otherwise i think it's - sorry boet.
 
Last edited:
Ivork said:
Have you tried reseating it yet? It is after all a gloryfied RAM chip.
Take the back off, take it out and put it back in.
It is this one http://bit.ly/avS3mi

Otherwise i think it's - sorry boet.
Click to expand...

I did that and downloaded ubuntu.

I got the ol' i/o error on trying to format the little bugger.:cry:

I am 99.9% certain the HD has failed, and the worst part is i cannot find a cheap 8gb replacement anywhere!
Also i do not wanna fork out R1400 on a pathetic 32gb HDD.

Can i not buy a 32gb SDHC card and install ubuntu on there?

I know its possible but will it prove reliable as a torrent slave?

Why the F@## did Dell make the Dell mini 9's Hard drive slot so tiny that nothing except a mini pci express slot at the dimensions of an old nokia battery?:mad:
My one day off was an absolute nightmare starting with hope and ending with absolute frustration and time wasted.:sick:

Thanks for the help though guys.
 
At least if you get a good brand 32gb SSD it will be way fast compared to the old SSD. And that counts for a lot. Sorry to hear!
 
Just realised something that could have caused this entire incident!!!!

When i first received the machine the hard drive partion had around 2gb unallocated.

I then decided to take that space back and use partition magic to gain that space.

Not even 2 days later im left in this pickle.

I reckon that Hard drive was faulty initially as the back cover had been removed previously due to the screws black paint showing silver and they partitioned the bad sectors off and left XP on the drive.

Now add this to my intense damage of seeing 8 failed ubuntu partitions and a windows MBR, not to mention the hidden allocated sector for Dell diagnosics which was wiped when i received this machine leaves me to believe that i could also just partition off the front and back end of the SSD and allow myself 4gigs just in the meantime.

What program could possibly do that as i have time to kill during the time its gonna take for me to await a response from universe direct for the replacement drive they will order for me from Dell?
 
Well Partition Magic could make "custom" partitions for you.

But I don't think the drive will function again. Perhaps I am to skeptical.
 
McGuywer said:
Well Partition Magic could make "custom" partitions for you.

But I don't think the drive will function again. Perhaps I am to skeptical.
Click to expand...

Im booting into ubuntu usb and am able to see and modify the drive.

I just read that GRUB has a nasty bug for SSD based netbooks and they tend to hang when the installation gets to 93%.

Thats exactly what happened to me.

Sure the drive is faulty but as a reference to any other DEll mini 9 owner in a pinch, i might be able to do something that gives it life for a few more weeks...
 
demon angel said:
What program could possibly do that as i have time to kill during the time its gonna take for me to await a response from universe direct for the replacement drive they will order for me from Dell?
Click to expand...

Any partitioning utility should be able to do that. If you already have Ubuntu live cd/flash disk you can use GParted or the command line utils like fdisk & parted.
 
CONCLUSION.......

I wasted a good 27 hours getting up to speed about SSD technology, Ubuntu and Gparted live running from ram, and making a variety of boot-able O.S's FROM XP to Chrome, to recover and work around the damage done.

Although the knowledge gained was great, my outcome was the same as everybody else's who ever dared to go so deep down that rabbit hole that they couldn't climb out.

I though i was Einstein when i figured that a 2.5 inch notebook HDD mounted below an isonic netbook cooler would make an uber cool modded mini 9 running the O.S from it, but this not up to task for a lowly single core ATOM, not to mention the ram which im too cheap to upgrade at this point.

Its FU**ed and any Dell mini 9 owner in SA is in for a hell of a ride when the SSD packs up, and by doing extensive research i can say there is a hell of alot of people globally, sharing a similar failure rate due to the VERY BAD design of this version(the only version) of the netbooks SSD.

Yes you can source mini PCI SSD's anywhere but only the Dell mini 9 uses an identical mini PCI slot as rivals ACER do EXCEPT, utilising PATA and only sharing similarity in cosmetics.( and with the exact dimensions to fit into that very tiny SSD slot.).

I think it was a way to make a hell of alot of extra money from these particular customers, but maybe its this flaw that makes me love this little machine even more.

Perhaps i was a fool to use the machine 24/7 as a torrent slave and should have rather purchased the cheaper Acer Aspire with its lovely little magnetic HD.

That would have been a far cheaper and better choice....

Im still a fool though, i love this Dell mini 9 as much as Apple lovers are fond their Macbooks, and will source 1X STEC SSD out of SA.

Although it will never again be a torrent slave.

I GIVE UP, YOU WIN SSD!!!!:sick:
 
demon angel said:
Yes you can source mini PCI SSD's anywhere but only the Dell mini 9 uses an identical mini PCI slot as rivals ACER do EXCEPT, utilising PATA and only sharing similarity in cosmetics.( and with the exact dimensions to fit into that very tiny SSD slot.).
Click to expand...

I'm not following.
 
What i mean is that the mini PCI slot is identical the others but since its PATA(IDE) based, another generic will not work unless its made for the Dell mini 9.Since is specialised its really expensive.
 
I'm asuming a standard netbook drive (generic magnetic type) will not fit into your baby?
 
Nah, the slot is the size of a nokia old Nokia BLC5 battery.Even if i cut the case for space and bought the adaptor for R420, it will.not boot using a different pata interface instead of SATA.
 
demon angel said:
What i mean is that the mini PCI slot is identical the others but since its PATA(IDE) based, another generic will not work unless its made for the Dell mini 9.Since is specialised its really expensive.
Click to expand...

But there are many manufacturers doing the PATA based SSDs?
AMP, OCZ(50mm?), Runcore, STEC, Super Talent etc.
http://www.activemp.com/SSD/solid-state-drives.htm
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/solid_state_drives/ocz_minipci_express_ssd-pata_
http://www.runcore.com/content/prod..._images/RCP-IV-M5000-Cth.jpg&GBSize=16GB-64GB
http://www.stec-inc.com/product/umssd.php
http://www.supertalent.com/products/ssd_detail.php?type=Half mini 2 PCIe

Install a 70mm SSD with a bit of hacking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGCMNxXtzhc&feature=player_embedded This is the route I would go as it gives you more purchasing options ;)
http://www.jkkmobile.com/search/label/SSD hack

The above mod is really easy to do. I'll just add some padding tape in the grinded area with insulation tape on top of it.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X