Laundry list of problems/annoyances. [Dell Inspiron 1501]

[creativename]

1. My system has no sound. This isn't just the flash or anything, but the speakers cannot output sound, and headphones don't work either. I do recall seeing some pop-up errors, but I told them to not display again. Right now I have to flee to Windows to watch videos or listen to music.

2. The system hangs on shut-down. Right after the shutdown informs me of the uptime, it freezes. I have left it at that stage for 7 hours, so it's most definitely frozen.

3. The boot-loader makes the system beep very loudly. I find this quite annoying.

4. PC-BSD messed up my partitioning. GParted reads the entire 70GB as being unpartitioned space. Seeing as how I can boot to both Windows and PC-BSD, this is obviously not the case. However, this prevents me from ever resizing the partitions, adding another distro, or removing PC-BSD.

5. I never could get Microsoft fonts to work. - Fixed

Some of these may seem minor or easy to fix, but put all together they're quite frustrating. Especially 1 and 4. [/vent]

[Tiuri]

2. The system hangs on shut-down. Right after the shutdown informs me of the uptime, it freezes. I have left it at that stage for 7 hours, so it's most definitely frozen.

Yes... And have ACPI error:

SearchNode 0xc4c2d480 StartNode 0xc4c2d480 ReturnNode 0
ACPI-1304: *** Error: Method execution failed [\\_SB_.BAT1._BST] (Node 0xc4c2d360), AE_NOT_FOUND
ACPI-0438: *** Error: Looking up [Z00C] in namespace, AE_NOT_FOUND


(I have Dell Inspiron 1501 (AMD Turion 64x2 / ATI Radeon xPress 1150 chipset). PC-BSD 1.4.1...

[TerryP]

3. The boot-loader makes the system beep very loudly. I find this quite annoying.

4. PC-BSD messed up my partitioning. GParted reads the entire 70GB as being unpartitioned space. Seeing as how I can boot to both Windows and PC-BSD, this is obviously not the case. However, this prevents me from ever resizing the partitions, adding another distro, or removing PC-BSD.


3 -> I agree, my mom also shouts at the system bell beeping periodically when I'm using less and nvi. You can adjust the volume within FreeBSD but I have no idea how it is handled from the boot loader.


4 -> QTParted on one of my Knoppix disks has always called my UFS partitions 'unknown' so I dunno about GParted, there are limitations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GParted) of what GParted can do with UFS, and I wouldn't trust it to manipulate FreeBSD partitions either.

I also hope that you did not install PC-BSD into a logical drive inside a ~70GB Extended Partition.

[pheet]

1. My system has no sound.

A quick google suggests you may need to use the hda (http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=+snd_hda&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+6.3-RELEASE&format=html) driver. What sound card/chipset do you have??? (try pciconf -lv from a console to get a list of possible devices)


2. The system hangs on shut-down. Right after the shutdown informs me of the uptime, it freezes. I have left it at that stage for 7 hours, so it's most definitely frozen.


This is probably due to a buggy or non-standard(common in laptops :roll: ) ACPI implementation in the laptop's BIOS. You need to speak to Mr Dell about this... ;) You can safely switch the power off manuely though.

[Skyzer33]

My g4rand0pa4r3ents j7ust b9o7ught th8is 8ins0p8i4r9on 1q50p1q f9o4r my b8i4rthday and as y9o7u can s3e3e 8it ty0p3es n7umb3e4rs and l3ett3e4rs at the3 sam3e t8im3e. (1q2w3e4rty7u8i9o0p)

My n7um l9ock 8isn't 9on s9o d9on't ask...l9ol..

My grandparents just bought this inspiron 1501 for my birthday(3 months ago)and as you can see it types numbers and letters at the same time. (1q2w3e4rty7u8i9o0p)

My num lock isn't on so don't ask...lol..

This is really pising me off because i have a seven page report that i need to get done by monday(pretty much screwed) and this is my only computer, any suggestions on what the probelm is or how i could fix it... im not sure if there is a warrenty or not.

[TerryP]

Actually I could read the first part fine, I've had wings that typed much worse then that on a normal keyboard :-P


Given the deadline, I'd say hit the pencil and paper or better yet a typewritter if available.


I'm fortunate enough that my laptops 'Fn' key and associated keyboard functions largely work independent of the OSes I've used. Since the key-combos that toggle the wireless, numlock, volume, and brightness controls all work while the multimedia keys do not on my system.

I would guess that either through the BIOS or in hardware, the important stuff is implemented manually, presenting a normal keyboard to operating systems and relying on 'software' implementations for the multi-media keys that would normally control WMP.


I don't know about every other laptop in the world, but I'd be worried fi the laptop-specific keys didn't function!!!



You might try reinstalling Windows or a Linux distro to see if they have the same problem. It's hard to tell if it lays in hardware or software, if it's hardware... well that's an issue; if it's a software problem, its probably due to hardware dependency on software interfaces.

[Skyzer33]

Yea, everyone always tells me to check the fn key but my keypad doesn't go along the top so it doesn't even help....lol..i asked my unlce and he is a graphic designer, he knows more than me....lol, but tyea he said that its somthing in the soft ware so i called delll and each time i get somone with an indian accent and i cant understand what they are saying... so i guess i'll keep calling until i get some one who doesnt have an accent...lol

[TerryP]

I know how that is, some places it takes 3 or 4 calls to hit some one that knows more then whats in the manual lol. Good luck

[commonloon]

I googled for "Dell Inspiron 1501 manual". I downloaded the PDF. Table of contents to "Using the keyboard and touchpad". Then "Numeric keypad".

"To enable the keypad, press <Fn><Num Lk>. The "9" light indicates that the keypad is active. To disable the keypad, press <Fn><NumLk> again."

I guess you know that already, since it is giving you both letters and numbers. Maybe a duplex, local echo? Anyway, the manual, if you need it is here:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s ... 926A00.pdf (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1501/en/om_en/pdf/HN926A00.pdf)

[zxc_ty]

I've been having the same problems, plus my arrow keys are screwed up. Did you happen to get rid of this problem?