I am having a diffucult problum when i turn on my computer 9 out of every 10 times nothing happens except lights fan and harddrive i.e. no post no beeps no booting this is not linux only also happens with windows. 1 out of every 10 times the computer will start normaly if in windows after starting it will wait about 10 minuts and die with no warning and no error if in linux from device /dev/pts/4 termination again after about 10 minuts if in safe mode logged in to root computer operates normaly exept for a few odd things ex clock is wrong no matter how many times i set it i have trye a few different fixes like replacing the cmos battery and messing with the bios (alwase remembering the settings and changing them back after they did not work btw also tryed defaults) have broused the internet and google for fixes but this one seams to be a gooden after removing one of the ram sticks it starts almost 100% of the time however the other probs are still there ie clock and 10 minute life span any advise or personal expereances with this exact prob would be greatfully appreciated as a side note i can onli get on line to check postings every few days sry 
by the way im using a compaq presario v4000 laptop with dual boot
Hi, unfortunately to me this sounds like a hardware problem. Probably the motherboard although the RAM thing is strange. You could try upgrading the bios and how about using a live linux disc to check whether its the hard-drive. You could try Compaq’s forum as well for others with similar problems. Sorry not more help!
I dont think that it is a harddrive issue ive run verious tests on it and i have at one flashed the bios to get usb booting suport after word it worked fine but im a little aferade to do so again “10 minute life span in windows and flash program runs only for windows” fear what might happen if it dies mid flash as for hardware issue i aggre that is the likly prob but i know a lot about comps and have never experianced some thing like this before is there a way to use linix to run some kinda diegnostic or something that might give me a better clue to whats going on?
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is there any way i can see what was sent to tty4? so that it might give me a better idea what is going on here?