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View Full Version : [ubuntu] BIOS error on ASUS A7TC



donk
May 4th, 2009, 06:58 AM
Yesterday afternoon I went over to my parents for a few hours as I had been given permission to install ubuntu on my Mum's computer - an ASUS A7TC.

When I installed 9.04 i386 I got a bios error - MP-BIOS bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC. I ignored the error and then proceeded to install ubuntu, however it took a long time to boot from the live cd but I proceeded anyway. Most things were recognised so we decided to dual boot and I went about the installation. This proceeded well (I went and had lunch!) came back and the pc was running out of hdd space even though I had 50GB to spare. But everthing that we need seemed to work - nvidia graphics card, sound and wifi which is a biggy because this is how she connects to the internet.

The long and short of my problem is that I searched the internet and found that some people put acpi=off or noapic in the sources.list file - this didn't help me on the installed version or on the live cd. What I really wanted to do was disable the ACPI HPET Support in the advanced bios or at least try this. However I could only get into a very basic bios by pressing F2. I tried every other key combination I could think of, but to no avail. I spent most of my time at her house researching how to get into the advanced bios - Asus website, forums, etc with no luck.

So does anyone know how to get into the advanced bios on an ASUS A7TC? I even flashed an updated bios onto her laptop-desktop replacement but no luck. I have tried all the key combinations I could find on the internet but perhaps you guys know better? I am not seeing my Mum for about a month - this is really galling because I really wanted to free her from MS Windows and the hassle of anti-virus software, etc. The thing I am really sad about is that I can't ssh into her box in order to help her.

Sorry for such a long rant!

If there is anything else anyone can think of to smooth the installation the next time I see my mum - thanks.

donk
May 9th, 2009, 10:49 PM
Anyone got any ideas?

Elfy
June 7th, 2009, 08:22 AM
some people put acpi=off or noapic in the sources.list fileHave you tried it using the menu.lst - add it to the kernel line


kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=25035697-3e97-4899-a5e0-2b724556f6dd ro quiet splash noapic for example

donk
June 7th, 2009, 08:30 AM
Thanks for your reply I will try this when I get my hands on my Mum's laptop in a couple of weeks time.

Do you know how to get into the advanced bios on this system?

Thanks once again.

Elfy
June 7th, 2009, 08:48 AM
Afraid not - but usually you can get to the other bits by using enter. You might be better served by trying to find the mobo manual. It must be out there somewhere I would hope.

Good luck

donk
June 9th, 2009, 06:49 AM
I tried that - I searched the internet but haven't found the mobo manual. I know the manual my mother has doesn't contain the info #?!? because that was my first port of call when I was at her house.

I'll keep looking - I would have thought it would have been easy :-) I have got until 21 June 2009 when she is bringing her laptop to my house (we're about 50 miles apart).

It has been suggested at my LUG that I try mint or pclinuxos which I'll try but I would have thought that mint is a ubuntu based distro and so wouldn't be any different - but I'll try them both.

Thanks again...