Bootable USB on Laptop?

[ThaCrip]

I can't seem to get a Laptop to boot from USB even though that same thing works on my main computer no problem. it's basically a USB card reader with a SD card in it that connects to a computer with the usual USB port.

 

laptop model = HP Pavilion dv5-1002nr (NOTE: i upgraded the laptops firmware which added one additional boot option which appears to be external USB DVD drive. but after i upgraded i loaded the system defaults and rebooted to make sure no funny glitches remained. main BIOS menu shows "InsydeH20 Setup Utility Rev. 3.5" if this is of any worth(?))

 

It appears there is three types of USB stuff you can try to boot from but it simply does not work and there is very little you can configure in the BIOS menu. you can change boot order but this seems to do nothing.

 

But once you load up the initial BIOS screen it shows...

 

F1 - System Information

F2 - System Diagnostics

F9 - Boot Device Options

F10 - BIOS Setup

F11 - System Recovery

Enter - Continue Startup

 

I assume only F9 and F10 is of any concern with what i am trying to do. so with that said...  when i press F9 it shows the following...

 

Internal CD/DVD ROM Drive

Notebook Hard Drive

 

then below that shows 'Press F10 to BIOS Setup Options. ESC to exit.' so basically i ultimately enter the F10 to get to the general BIOS settings but inside there is very little you can configure and ultimately boils down to System Configuration > Boot Options. once i enter there it shows...

 

F10 and F12 Delay (sec). of which you can adjust from 0/5/10/15/20 seconds options, below this in the same menu...

 

CD-ROM Boot = Enabled or Disabled (only two you can choose)

Floppy Boot = Enabled or Disabled (only two you can choose)

Internal Network Adapter boot = Disabled or Enabled (only two you can choose)

 

>Boot Order

 

so basically when i enter the 'Boot Order' screen, which i assume is where i want to be(?), it shows...

 

USB CD/DVD ROM Drive

USB Diskette on Key/USB Hard Disk

USB Floppy

Internal CD/DVD ROM Drive

Notebook Hard Drive

! Network Adapter

(with the F5 and F6 keys i can adjust the order of those options above)

 

so with that said... i would imagine being i placed all three USB options above the DVD drive and Hard Drive it 'should' attempt to boot from those before Windows 10 loads up, correct?

 

also, the Laptop has three USB ports but i assume it does not matter which one i use?

 

NOTE: i used Rufus (i.e. http://rufus.akeo.ie/  ) to create the bootable USB. so i assume it should be fine as, like i was saying above, it works fine on my main computer. i even re-did the SD card with Rufus to make sure it works on the older MBR stuff with the 'MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI' (the other two options specifically deal with UEFI and i assume those won't work). the file system i choose should not matter much, would it? ; it has FAT/FAT32/NTFS/UDF/exFAT as your choices. but i just let the program do it's thing when i load up the ISO that i want to boot from this USB device.

 

NOTE: it boots fine from CD/DVD drive as that's how i ended up clean installing Windows 7 and then put Windows 10 on it very recently. but bootable USB is easier to use for future stuff which is why i want to get this figured out as while a old PC i have from 2001 does not boot from USB either i can't imagine something noticeably newer would also have that kind of problem to.

 

with all of that said i would imagine there has to be a fair amount of people around here who stumble into this stuff and will probably know what to do

 

any suggestions?

 

Thanks for your time.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

To rule out it being a problem with the SD Card or the USB SD Card adapter I would suggest making a bootable USB flash drive and then attempting to start the Hewlett-Packard Pavilion DV5-1002NR from that.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[ThaCrip]

Well tried what you suggested by using a old 128MB flash drive, which i loaded it with FreeDos with Rufus just for a quick test, and when I press F9 it now shows the USB device (instead of just the DVD drive and HDD like before) and when i select it, it boots

 

So at least we know the Laptop does boot from USB thumb drives but it's odd that it would not work with the USB card readers i got as my main computer, which has UEFI, it works with the USB card reader (the exact one (like same card reader and SD memory card) i am using on this laptop) no problem.

 

maybe the actual USB thumb drives report to the laptop differently than the card reader does and that's why it works where as the card reader does not?

 

but only problem is when it comes to USB thumb drives of a size i can use for what i want to do (i.e. boot CloneZilla and Windows 10 stuff) i am going to need at least a 512MB and a 4GB usb thumb drive. i do have a old 1GB USB thumb drive which, assuming that also works, would work with CloneZilla, but i would need a 4GB+ range for Windows 10.

 

I wonder if it's possible to setup the large 64GB (it's actually only 61.5GB) USB v3.0 thumb drive i got with a partition where i can use the first one for booting Windows 10 and then the rest of the storage space for general storage space? ; because if i could do this, that would work great.

 

EDIT: i might have to play around with this ( https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ ) as it appears like it will do what i want which is boot CloneZilla/Windows 10 images etc while still being useable for general file storage.

Edited December 9, 2017 by ThaCrip

[DevTech]

15 minutes ago, ThaCrip said:

Well tried what you suggested by using a old 128MB flash drive, which i loaded it with FreeDos with Rufus just for a quick test, and when I press F9 it now shows the USB device (instead of just the DVD drive and HDD like before) and when i select it, it boots

 

So at least we know the Laptop does boot from USB thumb drives but it's odd that it would not work with the USB card readers i got as my main computer, which has UEFI, it works with the USB card reader (the exact one (like same card reader and SD memory card) i am using on this laptop) no problem.

 

maybe the actual USB thumb drives report to the laptop differently than the card reader does and that's why it works where as the card reader does not?

 

but only problem is when it comes to USB thumb drives of a size i can use for what i want to do (i.e. boot CloneZilla and Windows 10 stuff) i am going to need at least a 512MB and a 4GB usb thumb drive. i do have a old 1GB USB thumb drive which, assuming that also works, would work with CloneZilla, but i would need a 4GB+ range for Windows 10.

 

I wonder if it's possible to setup the large 64GB (it's actually only 61.5GB) USB v3.0 thumb drive i got with a partition where i can use the first one for booting Windows 10 and then the rest of the storage space for general storage space? ; because if i could do this, that would work great.

You are dependent on the HP BIOS in terms of what will boot or not.

 

The only error you made was not knowing that all BIOS have a normal behavior that will not show an unconnected device as a boot option so you have to plug stuff in to see if it will be detected.

 

If the boot can't recognize multiple partitions, then just partition the whole drive NTFS or FAT-32, then add the Win 10 install, then just make a sub-directory to hold all your stuff. It won't interfere with Windows 10.

 

[ThaCrip]

@DevTech

 

But i did try booting from the USB card reader on the HP laptop as it was all connected etc but simply acted like it was not even there as the HP bios simply don't see it. but with the 128MB usb thumb drive i tested that shows up immediately and booted when i selected the drive, so it works as expected here. basically i see the initial HP screen and then i hit F9 and then a moment later it shows me the stuff i can boot from which is the USB thumb drive or DVD drive or usual hard drive and then i simply select the one i want and press enter and all is good.

 

But that was a good point about the Windows 10 installation stuff as i can use Rufus to make the drive and then make a sub folder to hold my files. but ill need the drive to be NTFS file system because i occasionally use that drive in a bluray player to play videos and it must be in NTFS format otherwise the bluray player acts like the usb thumb drive is not even connected. but when formatted to NTFS, everything works fine.

 

but with the info you guys gave me in here i think i got a general idea what ill be testing out and see what happens as i figure assuming the Windows 10 installation can go on the 64GB usb thumb drive, and can be booted from the HP laptop etc, i should be good at that point because i can always try the 1GB usb stick for the CloneZilla thing and that would basically fix my issues   ; this will probably be a better option than using that YUMI program (that i mentioned above) i suspect. but then again having both (Win10/CloneZilla etc) being bootable from one usb stick could be a bonus.

 

looks like ill have to play around with things and see what works and what don't and go from there.

[PGHammer]

How old is the laptop in question?

 

For some reason, HP laptops (and notebooks) were among the last such to allow booting from USB (this also affected those that supply to HP and source from HP - MSI and ASUS are examples; MSI supplied parts to HP, while ASUS both supplied to HP, and sourced from HP - an example of the latter are ASUS' own X and K series notebooks, such as the X54C).

My two HP notebooks are fine; however, the ASUS X54C (despite it being driven by a Sandy Bridge Core i3), will only boot from optical media - not a USB stick; definitely something unexpected from ASUS.

[ThaCrip]

@PGHammer

 

as far as how old this Laptop is... in short, my best estimates are likely somewhere between 7-10 years old, or probably somewhere between 2007-2010.

 

longer answer...

 

with laptop age... it's hard to say exactly as i just got it used two days ago for only $20 at a local auction. it's the first Laptop i ever had. but i ordered a battery for it on Ebay yesterday as the one that's in it is apparently shot as when the Laptop is plugged in it works totally fine (i ran memory tests (Memtest86) and even ran DBAN on the hard drive) but when you try to run off the battery it dies within a few minutes tops and either shuts off immediately or the Laptop basically freezes. but the battery that's in it is apparently some generic one (has no HP logo on it like the official one apparently does) as the one i ordered has a actual HP logo and i heard it's generally not a good idea to risk generic batteries in Laptops etc as quality control can be suspect on those cheap generic batteries and might be more risk of fire etc especially on stuff like Laptop batteries etc.

 

but anyways, the Laptop apparently came with Windows Vista (as it has a sticker on the laptop with the Vista logo) which means it can't be older than about 10 years old basically which is why i would assume booting from USB should have been pretty standard by then. but as soon as i got it and ran those tests (the ones i mentioned above to make sure all is good with RAM and HDD), and after the drive was wiped with DBAN, I installed Windows 7 Pro x64 and then upgraded to Windows 10 x64 Pro. then after i confirmed it was activated i then clean installed from Windows 10 x64 Pro Fall Creators Update disc (i used a DVD+RW disc, which i suspect are on their way out as you can see light through little holes but apparently it still works because after i burned with IMGBurn i verified it. but this was only because i had issues with booting from USB which i solved with this topic pretty much(still gotta test what was mentioned above though) as i can confirm the Windows 10 "free upgrades" still work as they say it will work til the end of this year before the free upgrades will end for Windows 10. technically, it's only supposed to be for those with "Assistive Technologies", but it's obvious people are going to take advantage of it ; luckily i got a hold of this Laptop before the Windows 10 free upgrade offer expired otherwise i would have either went with Windows 7 til Jan 2020 when support for it expires and then shifted to some decent form of Linux or just went with Linux right off the bat. but i am glad i got Windows 10 on it as ill be good for the foreseeable future as it works fine with the laptop as i just clean installed and updated it and all is good as everything works as i don't need to install any driver updates for it etc as apparently there is no official drivers for the Laptop from HP website as on the HP site it only lists up to Windows 7.  but anyways, after i clean installed Windows 10 from scratch and ran Windows Updates etc i then defraged it and then used CloneZilla (which i just used some bootable CD-RW disc, but in the future i plan on using USB) to save a image to my main PC's hard drive through Samba share. so if anything funny happens in the future it will be nice and easy to get up and running again from reading the image from my main PC and restoring it back to the Laptop with the bootable CloneZilla USB stick.

 

the laptop is basically a AMD dual core CPU @ 2ghz with 3GB of RAM (apparently it has 1x1GB + 1x2GB chips). while obviously nothing special, the performance on it is not too bad considering as i think i partially got spoiled having a SSD in my main computer and forgot how long Windows etc takes to load up on initial start up but once everything is loaded and stables out it runs fairly snappy. either way, i damn sure can't complain for a $20 Laptop (that runs Windows 10) that's solid for general internet etc as it was nearly given away.

 

but with your i3 Sandy Bridge comment... that's odd as I got a i3-2120 (Sandy Bridge) in my main computer and it's got UEFI (motherboard is ASUS P8H61-M LX Plus) and boots from all of the USB stuff i tested unlike the Laptop, which at least given the little i tested so far, it seems to only like actual USB flash drives as it's nice and easy to get those to boot up but not the USB card reader with a SD card in it.

 

p.s. but it's nice as now i have a decent backup computer to my main computer (like in case my main PC goes down i can use the Laptop etc to order parts online etc) as my previous backup computers are ancient (i.e. from 2000 and 2001) and don't even work with modern browsers because the CPU's lack support of SSE2 instructions. but now that i got this decent Laptop ill likely dump that Celeron 500Mhz PC from 2000 (ill probably set it to the road soon enough as i suspect someone will likely pick it up). ill still hang onto the PC from 2001 which has a 1.2Ghz Athlon CPU in it as it can be nice for that occasional time you need to use old hardware once in a great while.

 

side note: when i received the Laptop whoever had it before had Windows 7 Professional on it. but that's all i noticed and immediately ran the memory test and then wiped the drive with DBAN.

Edited December 10, 2017 by ThaCrip

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

Just want to note, some devices don't support booting from SD Card

[ThaCrip]

I need some more suggestions....

 

because the Laptop does not seem to like the 1GB USB thumb drive (which i got for free from Microsoft years ago now) i have as it simply acts like it's not there and let me further explain...

 

i double checked the exact process i used with Rufus to make the 128MB Lexar USB thumb drive bootable, but doing that EXACT same thing with Rufus on the 1GB USB thumb drive simply does not work. does this confirm that the Laptop simply won't work with the 1GB USB thumb drive i got and nothing i can do will help it?

 

for the record... i used 'MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI' along with FAT32 file system when i created the working FreeDos bootable USB drive with the 128MB Lexar thumb drive, which worked, and then tried that same thing with the 1GB and it won't work.

 

NOTE: I have not tried the Sandisk 64GB USB v3.0 thumb drive on it yet. but that's the only other thumb drive of a useable capacity i got as if that fails i have nothing else i can try (unless the users here have some suggestions?).

 

EDIT: i just tested the 64GB USB v3.0 Sandisk thumb drive and it does work with that... i tested 'MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI' and then NTFS file system and that booted up CloneZilla (so i assume Windows 10 will boot fine to) (NOTE: i tried this with the 1GB and it did not work). it shows up as 'Sandisk' on the Laptop boot menu when i press F9 at the initial HP BIOS screen. so at this point... is it just safe to assume the 1GB USB thumb drive simply will not work no matter what i try? ; or do you guys have some suggestions?

Edited December 10, 2017 by ThaCrip

[ThaCrip]

Since i can no longer edit my first post, ill add this information...

 

I just used that 'YUMI Multiboot USB Creator' program (i.e. https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ ) , which is free, and then once it's own boot menu shows up i then quickly tested it's ability to load CloneZilla and Windows 10 and that seems to work on the 64GB Sandisk thumb drive as i briefly loaded the CloneZilla, which loaded to it's menu fine(so i assume this works), and then rebooted the Laptop and then tried the Windows 10 installer, which that seems to load to the basic install screen fine, then i simply shut down the laptop as i imagine i am golden now (short of some weird thing acting up).

 

that YUMI program seems to work quite well as you can add as many bootable ISO files you want to.

 

so at this point... even if i can't get the 1GB USB thumb drive to work i should be pretty much golden as i got those two programs (CloneZilla and Windows 10) to work from the Sandisk 64GB USB v3.0 thumb drive on the HP Laptop. plus, since the drive still shows up as NTFS in Windows 10 i should be able to transfer my video files to a folder like usual for use on my bluray player.

 

p.s. side note... i might try imaging my current Windows 10 installation on that HP Laptop with CloneZilla, just to be 100% sure that works with the method i described in this general post, and then once that succeeds i can then try clean installing Windows 10 to the HP laptop just to be 100% sure this works. then assuming that works it would 100% confirm the YUMI stuff works without issue for me. then at this point i could simply restore the CloneZilla image so things are like i never touched anything.

[DevTech]

That is a very old laptop.

 

That is a very low end laptop.

 

Add those two together and you have a very old low end laptop.

 

It has already stolen way too many of your neurons. Old stuff like that is good for Smart Mirrors where the old junk produces a result that seems more modern than modern!

 

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/8/17/16158104/smart-mirror-diy-raspberry-pi-commute-weather-time-gadget

 

https://www.postscapes.com/diy-smart-mirrors/

 

 

[ThaCrip]

@DevTech

 

very old/very low end? (i know in comparison to modern computers it's on the lower end side of things but i don't think i would call it 'very low end' as you can definitely go lower) ; Windows 10 still functions pretty well on it. so it can't be that bad, right? ; hell, it's only $20 (call it a bit over $40 if you count the battery i just ordered for it) for basically a legit computer. hard to beat for that price i suspect that runs Windows. but obviously, i won't be investing any more $$$ into it (maybe a battery in the future would be the limit but i suspect the replacement i am getting should last me at least 3-4 years).

 

if you want to see 'very old' etc, try my computers from 2000/2001 as those are pretty ancient because they can't even run modern browsers as they lack SSE2 CPU instructions which is why this HP laptop is MUCH better in comparison. the Laptop is well within useable levels for basic usage as i should be able to get quite a few more years out of it for basic internet usage without it being too slow. like it's noticeably slower than my main computer but they are not worlds apart for general usage and it's not to the point it's a chore to use it. the most chore thing about it is the mouse pointer since it's simply more difficult to use that touch pad (as it takes more time to point and click things) to move the mouse pointer than a actual mouse. i might consider hooking up the basic mouse on my old computer to it as that should help speed up general navigation quite a bit.

 

either way, thanks for your time and everyone else

[PGHammer]

14 hours ago, ThaCrip said:

@PGHammer

 

as far as how old this Laptop is... in short, my best estimates are likely somewhere between 7-10 years old, or probably somewhere between 2007-2010.

 

longer answer...

 

with laptop age... it's hard to say exactly as i just got it used two days ago for only $20 at a local auction. it's the first Laptop i ever had. but i ordered a battery for it on Ebay yesterday as the one that's in it is apparently shot as when the Laptop is plugged in it works totally fine (i ran memory tests (Memtest86) and even ran DBAN on the hard drive) but when you try to run off the battery it dies within a few minutes tops and either shuts off immediately or the Laptop basically freezes. but the battery that's in it is apparently some generic one (has no HP logo on it like the official one apparently does) as the one i ordered has a actual HP logo and i heard it's generally not a good idea to risk generic batteries in Laptops etc as quality control can be suspect on those cheap generic batteries and might be more risk of fire etc especially on stuff like Laptop batteries etc.

 

but anyways, the Laptop apparently came with Windows Vista (as it has a sticker on the laptop with the Vista logo) which means it can't be older than about 10 years old basically which is why i would assume booting from USB should have been pretty standard by then. but as soon as i got it and ran those tests (the ones i mentioned above to make sure all is good with RAM and HDD), and after the drive was wiped with DBAN, I installed Windows 7 Pro x64 and then upgraded to Windows 10 x64 Pro. then after i confirmed it was activated i then clean installed from Windows 10 x64 Pro Fall Creators Update disc (i used a DVD+RW disc, which i suspect are on their way out as you can see light through little holes but apparently it still works because after i burned with IMGBurn i verified it. but this was only because i had issues with booting from USB which i solved with this topic pretty much(still gotta test what was mentioned above though) as i can confirm the Windows 10 "free upgrades" still work as they say it will work til the end of this year before the free upgrades will end for Windows 10. technically, it's only supposed to be for those with "Assistive Technologies", but it's obvious people are going to take advantage of it ; luckily i got a hold of this Laptop before the Windows 10 free upgrade offer expired otherwise i would have either went with Windows 7 til Jan 2020 when support for it expires and then shifted to some decent form of Linux or just went with Linux right off the bat. but i am glad i got Windows 10 on it as ill be good for the foreseeable future as it works fine with the laptop as i just clean installed and updated it and all is good as everything works as i don't need to install any driver updates for it etc as apparently there is no official drivers for the Laptop from HP website as on the HP site it only lists up to Windows 7.  but anyways, after i clean installed Windows 10 from scratch and ran Windows Updates etc i then defraged it and then used CloneZilla (which i just used some bootable CD-RW disc, but in the future i plan on using USB) to save a image to my main PC's hard drive through Samba share. so if anything funny happens in the future it will be nice and easy to get up and running again from reading the image from my main PC and restoring it back to the Laptop with the bootable CloneZilla USB stick.

 

the laptop is basically a AMD dual core CPU @ 2ghz with 3GB of RAM (apparently it has 1x1GB + 1x2GB chips). while obviously nothing special, the performance on it is not too bad considering as i think i partially got spoiled having a SSD in my main computer and forgot how long Windows etc takes to load up on initial start up but once everything is loaded and stables out it runs fairly snappy. either way, i damn sure can't complain for a $20 Laptop (that runs Windows 10) that's solid for general internet etc as it was nearly given away.

 

but with your i3 Sandy Bridge comment... that's odd as I got a i3-2120 (Sandy Bridge) in my main computer and it's got UEFI (motherboard is ASUS P8H61-M LX Plus) and boots from all of the USB stuff i tested unlike the Laptop, which at least given the little i tested so far, it seems to only like actual USB flash drives as it's nice and easy to get those to boot up but not the USB card reader with a SD card in it.

 

p.s. but it's nice as now i have a decent backup computer to my main computer (like in case my main PC goes down i can use the Laptop etc to order parts online etc) as my previous backup computers are ancient (i.e. from 2000 and 2001) and don't even work with modern browsers because the CPU's lack support of SSE2 instructions. but now that i got this decent Laptop ill likely dump that Celeron 500Mhz PC from 2000 (ill probably set it to the road soon enough as i suspect someone will likely pick it up). ill still hang onto the PC from 2001 which has a 1.2Ghz Athlon CPU in it as it can be nice for that occasional time you need to use old hardware once in a great while.

 

side note: when i received the Laptop whoever had it before had Windows 7 Professional on it. but that's all i noticed and immediately ran the memory test and then wiped the drive with DBAN.

Hence why I said it was odd - the HP notebooks are older, yet support USB booting just fine. (The X54C has several quirks - such as a 4GB memory ceiling; atypical for a Sandy-based notebook or an ASUS notebook for that matter.)

[ThaCrip]

@PGHammer

 

Yeah, there do seem to be quirks as you got some and even the HP laptop i got seems random on what boots from USB and what does not. you would think whoever codes that stuff into the BIOS etc would come up with a standard that pretty much everyone uses as that way you would not have these weird glitches of stuff not randomly working and even with your 4GB limit which is a mistake because while that gives you a little room to work with if they were going to put a cap on supported bootable USB thumb drives you would think they would support at least 8GB as that will allow plenty of room for OS's to grow and still fit on there.

 

but with your 4GB limit on that ASUS X54C Laptop is kind of odd especially with ASUS as you would think they would have higher standards then your random Laptop because they are known for making motherboards for a long time now. hell, even my HP, which is probably about 7-10 years old, boots fine from a 64GB Sandisk USB v3.0 memory stick (which i got for $20 not all that long ago. has about 100MB/s read speed but only around 25-30MB/s write, give or take). so you would think something from ASUS would have no problems with larger than 4GB. o well, at least i learned a bit more recently with these laptops being picky on what works and what does not. so in the future if i have issues booting from USB ill simply have to try another one until i find one that works.

 

 

but another question that you might be able to suggest some stuff... short of dissembling the laptop, is there any decent way to blow the dust out of the CPU fan area on a laptop? ; i imagine at the moment i don't have any major dust build up issues but i would like to thoroughly blow out that general area just to be sure ill be good for quite some time. i got a air compressor which ill probably attempt to use that (it's what i used for blowing out my main computer about twice a year(i leave my main PC on 24/7 pretty much)) but it might be difficult to get any focused burst of air into that fan area on the laptop to shoot out any potential thicker dust that might be building up. because that worked quite well on a Radeon 5670 video card i had not long ago which seems to have a fan setup similar to what they have in the HP laptop i got but with that i can stick the area where the air bursts out of pretty much right into the fan section where as with this, while i can sorta see the fan through the plastic on the bottom on the laptop it don't look like it will be easy to thoroughly clean. but i guess if i can blow out enough potential dust in it, that should keep things good enough to where i won't have to worry about any overheating issues.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

If anything, I suspect it is an issue with the SD Card to USB adapter.  However, you may end up having to go through several before you find one that works with the particular laptop.  Also, when making installation media for this laptop, be sure you specify BIOS or CSM mode, not UEFI, if you are asked during the media creation process.

 

I would suggest using an 8GB USB flash drive for installing Windows 10, especially 64-bit versions, as the .ISO images usually seem to be about 4.5GB in size, and 4.0GB USB flash drives often format out to a little less than 4GB.  For that matter, if the computer has a DVD±RW disc drive, then it might be a better to use a DVD disc for installation medium.  Although slower, you are likely to have less compatibility issues than with an SD Card to USB adapter.

 

You can definitely try making a multiboot USB flash drive.  I seem to recall there being a guide to creating them in the Guides section of the forum.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

On 12/9/2017 at 2:41 AM, ThaCrip said:

Well tried what you suggested by using a old 128MB flash drive, which i loaded it with FreeDos with Rufus just for a quick test, and when I press F9 it now shows the USB device (instead of just the DVD drive and HDD like before) and when i select it, it boots

 

So at least we know the Laptop does boot from USB thumb drives but it's odd that it would not work with the USB card readers i got as my main computer, which has UEFI, it works with the USB card reader (the exact one (like same card reader and SD memory card) i am using on this laptop) no problem.

 

maybe the actual USB thumb drives report to the laptop differently than the card reader does and that's why it works where as the card reader does not?

 

but only problem is when it comes to USB thumb drives of a size i can use for what i want to do (i.e. boot CloneZilla and Windows 10 stuff) i am going to need at least a 512MB and a 4GB usb thumb drive. i do have a old 1GB USB thumb drive which, assuming that also works, would work with CloneZilla, but i would need a 4GB+ range for Windows 10.

 

I wonder if it's possible to setup the large 64GB (it's actually only 61.5GB) USB v3.0 thumb drive i got with a partition where i can use the first one for booting Windows 10 and then the rest of the storage space for general storage space? ; because if i could do this, that would work great.

 

EDIT: i might have to play around with this ( https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ ) as it appears like it will do what i want which is boot CloneZilla/Windows 10 images etc while still being useable for general file storage.

 

[ThaCrip]

@goretsky

 

but before i figured out how to get the USB stuff to work i initially ended up using Windows 7 SP1 x64 Pro, which i had on a DVD-R(or +R) disc, to install Windows initially and then did the Windows 10 upgrade process. then after Windows 10 was activated i then used the Laptop to burn the Windows 10 x64 Pro Fall Creators Update ISO (which i already had the ISO on my main computer and transferred it to the Laptop) to a DVD+RW disc with ImgBurn and then used that DVD+RW disc to clean install Windows 10. so initially all of the Windows 10 clean install and some of my CloneZilla usage was all from CD-RW or DVD+RW media even though now i got the USB boot stuff to work as i was just running Memtest86+ v5.01 on it a moment ago (took a little over 1hr to finish one pass and all was good).

 

as far as the multiboot USB flash drive... that YUMI program seems to work great and is pretty straight forward and you can add or remove bootable ISO's etc pretty quickly with it to as i currently have the following bootable on my 64GB USB flash drive... Windows 10 x64 Pro Fall Creators Update/CloneZilla/Memtest86+ v5.01/DBAN. but my guess if i do use DBAN i am going to run it manually, an not 'autonuke' mode, just to make sure it does not nuke the flash drive

 

also, the 'Windows 10 x64 Pro Fall Creators Update' ISO as downloaded (at least for me) using official Microsoft program = 3.54 GB (3,809,476,608 bytes) ; so it does fit on a 4GB SD card. but if Windows 10 grows in size in the future it's possible it might not fit on there as you only got 'maybe' 200MB in growth tops before it won't fit (but should be able to fit at least 100MB+ more before it won't fit). so the 8GB is generally best like you said even though 4GB works currently.

 

but yeah, i am using proper boot methods because, like i mentioned, i am doing the exact same thing with my 1GB flash drive vs the 64GB flash drive and the 1GB does NOT work where as the 64GB flash drive does work. then the USB card reader does not work for me either as i have two different card readers and neither work with that 1GB SD chip. i even tried another 4GB SD chip in one of the card readers and that did not work either.

 

but since i was mentioning Memtest86+ v5.01 above... my CPU temps seem to top out in the 58-61c range but i think the CPU can go into the 90's at the most and still be safe. i am not 100% sure but chances are that's about right given the fan is not spinning up that much when it's at the 58-61c range which it stabled out in that area with what Memtest86+ showed.

 

thanks for your time.

 

p.s. side note: i am going to disassemble the Laptop (there are YouTube videos) and thoroughly clean this thing out and then i should be good for years after that. because once i disassemble it to a certain point the fan area will be much easier to blow out with the air compressor i got. i am going to use that anti-static wrist strap i got just to be safe.

[ThaCrip]

a little addition to my above post about fan cleaning... it appears there really ain't much in there but since i already got enough of it apart to access the general area of the fan well enough what ill do is blow that out decently, of which i don't expect much to come out of it given the way it looks inside of there with a bit of dust build up on fan blades but nothing major (like on the YouTube video there ain't really much inside of that fan area and based on what i can physically see looking into the general area it's likely minimal dust in there to the point i don't expect to see much, if any, expelled when i hit it with air), and then hit the keyboard half way decently, since it's already removed, and then that should be pretty much it and then reassemble it.

 

also, those speakers are tiny with a really small wire that connects the speaker board to something else as it took me a while to find where the speakers actually were and then realized they sit on the black plastic piece that's somewhat apart of the battery compartment. no big deal here, just curious is all.

 

also, i never knew there was a remote in the side of the laptop as it takes a '2016' sized cell, but i doubt ill even attempt to use it. the battery for the motherboard board takes a '2032' sized cell of which i checked voltage and it might be a bit low but the thing is i don't know at which voltage the battery is shot because checking a new one i got in a package it's over 3.x volt where as the one in the laptop is i think it was either 2.6v or 2.8v (give or take) left in it. but the funny thing is, there really ain't much that's configurable in the bios settings so it's barely got to store anything. so i just put the 2032 sized battery back into the laptop as if it dies i don't really care because i can simply press F9 to select what i want to boot from etc and that's damn near all you can change in the bios is boot order with very little being adjustable outside of that.

 

EDIT: as it was partially apart... i just notice some screws were a bit loose which, when tightened, the monitor feels less flimsy now as the bracket that basically holds the monitor in place was loose with two screws on each side but now that those are securely tightened the monitor opens and closes smoother now. so that was a bonus to taking this thing apart partially.

Edited December 11, 2017 by ThaCrip

[ThaCrip]

Finished cleaning the laptop with the air compressor a moment ago and reassembled it. was barely any dust in there like i figured. but at least ill be good for years now since this laptop won't be on 24/7 like my main PC is. but anyways...

 

I am currently running Prime95 on the Laptop at the moment and here is the bottom line info after running Prime95 for 20min+ for each of the following tests...

 

-Blend (tests a variety) = 79c (CPU)

-Maximum Heat = 80c (CPU)

-Maximum Power Draw = 81c (CPU)  (ran this one for longer than the other two, 30min, but it seemed to hit 81c about 18-19min into the test)

 

-Room temp = about 68f (20c) (according to the clock in my room)

-CPU max operating temp = 100c (according to what i could find online from a quick search)

 

so given that info... i should have a decent safety buffer given the CPU won't be taxed anywhere near this heavily under normal usage. so even if there is a little dust build-up i should still be pretty safe even as the room temps generally peak around 85f in the summer which i am sure would noticeably raise the peak Prime95 temps but i would still guess will stay under 100c as, while i can hear the fan ramp up some in the tests i ran above, the thing did not sound like a jet engine, which means i still got a good amount of fan left to use should the temps rise.

 

but anyways, i always tend to run a CPU (and usually GPU but i won't bother with the GPU test this laptop) stress test when i get something new just to help ensure everything is in good running order when it's taxed heavily as if this does not get the laptop to act up then it should be pretty stable under general usage.

 

but now that this is done. once i get the new battery soon ill have to play around with that a bit to see what kind of battery life i get as if the battery life is high enough i won't really worry about tweaking settings in Windows 10. but if it's a bit low i might try to adjust some setting to squeeze out a bit more run time.

 

but speaking of battery life... does anyone have any general estimates of about what kind of battery life i should get per charge? ; 2-3hours? ; i ask because i have no real experience with laptops as while i have used them briefly i never really used one long enough to get a feel for general battery life from them since i never owned one. but it seems some modern Laptops can get 8-10+ hours per charge? ; since the Laptop i got is older i would guess i probably won't get more than 3-4 hours tops(?).

 

p.s. from what i noticed it seems fan speed stays at it's lowest til the CPU hits about 61c or so and you can hear it start to increase RPM's a bit. but after this point i can't seem to notice any obvious chances even though i imagine it slowly goes up after certain temps are reached.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

Glad to hear you got the operating system installed and updated correctly.  I am not certain why the 1GB USB flash drive would not work for you, but it is possible that it identifies with some kind of USB device sub-type that the Hewlett-Packard DV5-1002NR does not treat as a bootable USB device (floppy, optical, HDD or flash) at all.  It may still work to boot other systems, though, so I would not recommend binning it for recycling unless you find it to be completely useless for any task, including storage.  I have some old, low-capacity USB flash drives (16MB from Lexar, 256MB and 1GB from SwissBit) that I keep around specifically for running programs like MemTest and Clonezilla, and they seem to still work well.
 

One thing you might want to look into is replacing MemTest86+ (Version 5.0.1 was last updated in September, 2013) with the free version of PassMark's MemTest86 (Version 7.4 was last updated in July 2017).  I'm not necessarily convinced that is going to make much difference in testing 9-10 year-old systems like this HP notebook computer, but it may be more useful when checking memory in more recent systems.

 

If you are not going to use the remote, you should remove the CR-2016 +3VDC lithium coin cell battery from it and bin it for recycling.  As for the CR-2032 lithium coin cell battery on the notebook computer's systemboard, it is used to provide a trickle of electric current to the CMOS memory which stores the settings for the computer BIOS as well as powers its Real Time Clock.  You should replace this battery as soon as possible.  Aside from the date and time, this stores settings such as which drives the computer sees and their geometry (although that's largely autoconfiging at this point), as well as things like passwords.  Having an under-voltage cell in the computer could mean that these settings become corrupted.  You probably do not want to throw the notebook computer away because the BIOS password setting became corrupt and could not be reset.  I have had some systems fail to hold settings with voltage as low as +2.95VDC, so it is probably a good idea to do something about this sooner rather than later.

 

One thing you did not mention during your job of cleaning the insides was removing the CPU and GPU (if any) heat sink(s), cleaning them and their respective chip(s) of thermal paste, reapplying new thermal paste and reassembling.  Thermal paste does not last forever, and as it dries out, hardens and micro-gaps form, it will cease to conduct heat as efficiently as it did when it was originally applied.  I would suggest a high-quality thermal paste like Arctic Silver 5, but I've also used Antec's Formula 5 and Formula 7 paste when the Arctic Silver was unavailable, and it seemed to work quite well.

 

I'm not particularly familiar with his model of notebook computer, so don't have any ideas about how long it should last on its primary battery.  That is probably a question you could get answered in Hewlett-Packard's support forums, though, along with recommendations for where to obtain new or reworked batteries.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[ThaCrip]

After looking around online i found some basic info on battery life...

 

Quote

Deep discount or no, the deal breaker here might be battery life. The Pavilion dv5 lasted barely longer than two hours on CNET Labs' video playback battery drain test, placing it last among the mainstream group of back-to-school laptops. The similarly sized HP Pavilion dv6985 and its honkin' 12-cell battery lasted more than 2.5 times longer on this test.

 

but i wonder if that was with or without GPU acceleration (i.e. DXVA) on or off? ; or does that not matter? ; because when playing a 720p or 1080p video file without DXVA on the CPU usage is quite a bit higher vs when DXVA is on as when DXVA is on the CPU usage is minimal where as when it's off the CPU is getting a pretty good workout.

 

but anyways, i also tried another card reader i forgot i had and that did not work either. so i had a total of three different card readers (with the same 1GB and 4GB SD chips) and it did not work.

 

also, i used CrystalDiskInfo on that Laptop and the hard drive does not have all that many hours on it (like less than a years worth of hours) but the cycle count seems rather high. but i assume the cycle count is high because of the way laptops work with powering HDD down with hibernation etc with normal usage?

 

5 hours ago, goretsky said:

I am not certain why the 1GB USB flash drive would not work for you, but it is possible that it identifies with some kind of USB device sub-type that the Hewlett-Packard DV5-1002NR does not treat as a bootable USB device (floppy, optical, HDD or flash) at all.  It may still work to boot other systems, though, so I would not recommend binning it for recycling unless you find it to be completely useless for any task, including storage.  I have some old, low-capacity USB flash drives (16MB from Lexar, 256MB and 1GB from SwissBit) that I keep around specifically for running programs like MemTest and Clonezilla, and they seem to still work well.

 

Yeah, i am sure it will work in other devices like my main computer as that boots from the card reader and those 1GB and 4GB SD chips fine. I even used UEFI mode with GPT and that was fine.

 

5 hours ago, goretsky said:

One thing you might want to look into is replacing MemTest86+ (Version 5.0.1 was last updated in September, 2013) with the free version of PassMark's MemTest86 (Version 7.4 was last updated in July 2017).  I'm not necessarily convinced that is going to make much difference in testing 9-10 year-old systems like this HP notebook computer, but it may be more useful when checking memory in more recent systems.

 

Yeah, that Memtest86 from July 2017 is what i generally use but apparently the YUMI program does not list that in there but does list the MemTest86+, so until i get a newer system, chances are the older one will be fine. but like you say on older systems i am sure either will work fine. plus, it seems the older one is a little more detailed as it shows CPU temp and RAM chip names etc.

 

side note: i am guessing the HP Laptop was new in 2008 because i stumbled into a review of the exact model of Laptop i got and the review date was Aug 3rd 2008.

 

5 hours ago, goretsky said:

If you are not going to use the remote, you should remove the CR-2016 +3VDC lithium coin cell battery from it and bin it for recycling.  As for the CR-2032 lithium coin cell battery on the notebook computer's systemboard, it is used to provide a trickle of electric current to the CMOS memory which stores the settings for the computer BIOS as well as powers its Real Time Clock.  You should replace this battery as soon as possible.  Aside from the date and time, this stores settings such as which drives the computer sees and their geometry (although that's largely autoconfiging at this point), as well as things like passwords.  Having an under-voltage cell in the computer could mean that these settings become corrupted.  You probably do not want to throw the notebook computer away because the BIOS password setting became corrupt and could not be reset.  I have had some systems fail to hold settings with voltage as low as +2.95VDC, so it is probably a good idea to do something about this sooner rather than later.

 

I just briefly tested that remote about a hour ago and it actually works decently. but at the same time it's probably not something ill really need to use unless i would be sitting at a distance from the laptop playing video through say the HDMI port to the TV or something.

 

as for the CR-2032 battery stuff... i did not set any passwords on the BIOS, even though i apparently can adjust those settings, but even if these became corrupt, can't you just simply remove the battery and the thing would reset back to stock BIOS settings automatically? ; either way, thanks for the voltage information as i might just use that CR-2032 i got sitting on the shelf as it's already been sitting there for many years now. I might as well get some use out of it. plus, they are cheap enough to.

 

also, but i noticed that after i had the laptop battery removed along with the testing of CMOS CR2032 battery and reinstalled it, that it did complain about "CMOS Checksum Error" and had a couple of options (like pressing a couple different keys (i.e. something in the F1-F12 range)) like reset settings or something along these lines and a continue. had a slight issue with that but it went away after playing with it a bit after a couple of reboots or so. still, i might put that CR2032 cell into the laptop as it's not like they costs that much and then i can be sure ill be good for likely years.

 

also, correct me if i am wrong but i thought i heard that the only time the CR2032 battery is used is when there is no power source connected to your PC/Laptop, correct? ; so if that's true, being it's a Laptop it will always have some form of power flow from the laptop battery. hence, would use very little (to nothing) of the CR2032 battery.

 

side note: my old watch uses 2016 cell batteries.

 

5 hours ago, goretsky said:

One thing you did not mention during your job of cleaning the insides was removing the CPU and GPU (if any) heat sink(s), cleaning them and their respective chip(s) of thermal paste, reapplying new thermal paste and reassembling.  Thermal paste does not last forever, and as it dries out, hardens and micro-gaps form, it will cease to conduct heat as efficiently as it did when it was originally applied.  I would suggest a high-quality thermal paste like Arctic Silver 5, but I've also used Antec's Formula 5 and Formula 7 paste when the Arctic Silver was unavailable, and it seemed to work quite well.

 

Well in the YouTube video it does show the removal of the general heat pipe thing which ties into the fan etc. like it appears it's three screws to remove the heatsink and then i would have quick access to the thermal paste.

 

but assuming my CPU is cooling within safe/normal limits, which as far as i can tell it appears to be at the moment, and the Laptop is basically 9 years old... that would mean i should be fairly safe, correct? ; even with the Arctic Silver 5 stuff that i used on my two previous main PC's that was 6 years old and still going strong and then my current PC will be 6 years since i first applied it in May 2018 and with my stock heatsink on the i3-2120 CPU the temps are in the ranges that are expected with Prime 95 and general usage etc. so i would imagine that suggests the thermal paste is still working great.

 

or another way to put it, as that saying goes... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" ; which i suspect is good advice when it comes to removing the heat pipe thing to reapply the thermal paste since that seems a bit riskier vs a basic tear down of laptop to blow dust out etc. like if the temps seemed abnormally high i would likely do that but, while i don't know typical laptop CPU temps, i would imagine the CPU is being cooled well enough at the moment (even if the Arctic Silver 5 would help it a bit i imagine) given i am comfortably below the max operating temp of the CPU. like i said that 81c temp was the peak with Prime95 but at a idle it's much lower at roughly 40 or 50 something C as i can't imagine the general temps would exceed about 60c or so at the moment and even in the summer as room temps rise i don't see the Laptop CPU getting anywhere near 100c as, since you already know, Prime95 is sorta a worst case scenario with CPU peak temps.

 

p.s. i have some old Arctic Silver 5 from March 2006 which i used back then (like when i built a PC(the first PC i built)) and then again in May 2012 on my current main PC with the i3-2120 CPU.

 

5 hours ago, goretsky said:

I'm not particularly familiar with his model of notebook computer, so don't have any ideas about how long it should last on its primary battery.  That is probably a question you could get answered in Hewlett-Packard's support forums, though, along with recommendations for where to obtain new or reworked batteries.

 

Well given what i typed in my initial comments in this post above i would imagine my 2-3hour estimate is close even though there are some unknowns like how that test was conducted when they said it barely got over 2hours of video playback before the battery was basically dead.

 

as far as general laptop batteries i found... while i already ordered a official HP branded battery on Ebay, which i imagine will be here by the end of the week, i did find some that  look like high quality and higher capacity batteries (Duracell brand), but the problem is the costs were ridiculously high at about $90-110 which even if those batteries are top quality it's simply not worth it, especially for a Laptop as old as this one is as the battery i ordered appears to be the standard stock HP battery and it was only $21.xx on Ebay which is quite reasonable. like if those premium batteries were a bit more $ (say $30-35 or something like this) i would have likely bought those instead but when your going from about $20 to $90-110 that's a huge difference.

 

 

thanks for your time.

Edited December 12, 2017 by ThaCrip

[DevTech]

There has not been any leap in battery technology. Modern laptops get much better battery life while being far more powerful at the same time by improvements in the CPU technology. A modern laptop would get 5 to 8 hours on the exact same battery. Of course there are lots of low-end laptops made in 2017 that would be almost as bad as a low end laptop from 2008.

 

Rescuing old equipment and finding some useful thing it could do is probably a noble cause. It will be one less thing for future archaeologists to dig up in a petrified landfill. Those poor archaeologists will already have their hands full trying to understand the mysterious Religion of Trump the primitive natives practiced back in the 2000's millennium.

 

 

 

 

[ThaCrip]

@DevTech

 

Thanks for the info. that makes sense as computer tech just got more efficient to extend battery life (same with my video card which is powered from the motherboards PCI-E slot like my previous card was but yet is quite a bit more powerful. but there was a 7 year gap between purchases. so that's probably to be expected). but looking around online it appears there is some tweaks one can do to squeeze a bit more time per charge. but who knows how much ill get and if it's even worth my time to do it or not as if you can only squeeze maybe 10-15min more, or something like that, it's probably not really worth it. but if i can squeeze out a extra 30min or so it's probably worth it. i guess it just boils down to how long i get on a single charge as i am hoping for something in the ball park of 3 hours (or closer to 3 hours than 2 hours at the least) as this way once the battery wears down a bit ill still be 2hours+ because i figure i don't want to go too low of a run time between charges.

 

2 hours ago, DevTech said:

A modern laptop would get 5 to 8 hours on the exact same battery.

 

That kind of runtime would be quite nice and gives you quite a bit more room to breathe. but like i say, Laptops in general i usually avoid because of higher costs and they are less powerful vs a desktop. so i mostly see Laptops as a basic internet machine and not much beyond this as unless someone has money to burn i can't see dropping a ton of cash on a laptop as all you get with a laptop over a desktop is portability and those already high costs could be even higher especially if the battery replacement is somewhat of a arm-and-a-leg.

 

but anyways, as far as battery life on a Laptop goes... i figure once laptops his a certain point of battery life (which will vary a bit from person to person what they consider good enough) then upgrading because of that becomes much less appealing. like 2-3hours of runtime is not much but roughly double that would be a rather big upgrade. but going from say 6 hours to 9 hours, while that would still be a decent boost, it would not be nearly as big of a deal as i can't imagine too many finding that 3 hour difference from 6 hours to 9 hours run time much of a benefit as say 3 hours to 6 hours which is quite a gap in real world usage. but i figure once you hit 9 hours (like say we stick to 3-6-9-12 etc for sake of argument) that's likely going to be plenty of power in a lot of situations as i can't imagine too many situations where a 9 hour run time would be a issue (like being not enough) as it seems within that time frame you could easily access a way to charge it before it runs out. plus, with a 9 hour run time even as the battery starts to wear it it will still be plenty usable for quite some time beyond that. but with my 3 hours (assuming i even get that much) it won't take much of a drop before your limited. but i guess as long as i am not using it for too much away from a power source then i am still okay enough as ill likely be using it around the house largely so run time is not too much of a deal breaker for me and the battery is cheap enough to where if i need a replacement 4 years or so from now i can't really complain being it's only a little over $20 for it.

 

1 hour ago, DevTech said:

Rescuing old equipment and finding some useful thing it could do is probably a noble cause.

 

Well it's only worth rescuing as long as it's still useable (for $20-40 for a decent performing Laptop for general internet etc is hard to fault it) which this one is as i was playing with it earlier installing some basic programs etc (like getting my general core programs i might use on it installed) and it's not a chore to use it at all as it's quick enough (especially if you don't load too many programs at once). normally i prefer at least 4GB of RAM but, considering it's age, 3GB sure beats only 2GB of RAM by a decent margin as i was not going to be surprised to see it only have 2GB for it's age and when your that low that extra 1GB of RAM is a solid difference especially with Windows i imagine as i would guess Linux can get by with 2GB or so (maybe even less) but with 3GB it give me a little room to breathe as long as i don't load up a bunch of programs and it's nice having Windows on it because of program compatibility as i don't have to worry about transferring things between the two PC's being incompatible etc.

 

also, the last i knew they say Edge is the best browser for battery life... but it makes me wonder if it would end up being worse than Firefox/Pale Moon (and the like) because they tend to be more RAM friendly than Chrome/Edge etc as i figure if the browser starts using virtual memory, which i imagine it will especially on 2GB or so of RAM, that's got to tax the battery i would think because of more hard drive use due to lack of RAM. but at the same time... if i am not running multiple tabs like i usually do on my main computer that might help keep RAM usage a bit lower on Edge and might retain the small benefit of using it over other browsers. still, ill probably stick to Pale Moon x64 on the Laptop. but ill have to play with things and see what's that sweet spot as it just mostly boils down to what kind of battery life i am getting if ill need to squeeze every little bit out of it or not. but i don't expect it to be that much of a issue as ill be largely using it around the house in other rooms that my main PC is not in etc.

 

but eventually, like my PC's from 2000 and 2001, this laptop will become outdated which will mostly boil down to when browsers won't run on it (like my old PC's don't because of lack of SSE2 CPU instructions which seem to be required with the newest browsers for a while now). because even if things on this Laptop slow down a decent amount with time, it can still be useable occasionally. i won't be surprised if that Laptop stays useable longer (for very basic internet on occasion) than my PC from 2001 did. but it's still got years before it reaches similar amount of time. plus, you can tell my PC from 2001, which has a Athlon 1.2Ghz CPU (back when i got it, it was one of the faster CPU's), things are sluggish lately because the CPU is just ancient (it has 1GB of RAM which Linux can be passable with it) where as with the Laptop one it still feels closer to a modern processor than it does a ancient one for general website navigation.

 

just some random thoughts

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

No idea about the battery life, but if you are installing an updated operating system it may manage power differently than when that ~10 year old review was made, so it could perform better or worse.

 

As I mentioned earlier, you might have to go through several SD Card to USB adapters to find one that works correctly.  If none do, there's always the possibility of using something like the ISOstick .  That may be an out-of-budget solution.

 

I'm not familiar enough with this model of notebook computer or CrystalDisk to comment authoritatively on how they interact, but your description sounds about right to me--I am also going to guess that the HDD must not be original and was replaced at some point, accounting for the low usage hours in a 9-10 year old computer.

 

You have already noted that the CR-2032 CMOS/RTC backup battery is not supplying sufficient power to keep the CMOS memory charged so that settings are preserved correctly--that is what the CMOS Checksum Error is from.  Replace it.  They are not an expensive part and it is not worth the hassle it can cause.  If your shelf-spare is low (measure it before installation), just bin it for recycling, too, and put a fresh cell in.

 

Modern computer systems don't actually power down 100% when they are completely turned off.  This is why you will see things like LEDs lit up on some computer motherboards when the computer is turned off.  For a system of this age, it is possible it still takes a trickle of electrical current when its power adapter is plugged in.

 

I typically like to re-paste systems every 5 years or so, whether they need it or not.  I've not noticed any problems on the systems I maintain doing this, and generally-speaking, they run more efficiently (lower temperature) if I am doing this for the first time to replace thermal paste installed by the manufacturer.  Given that you are comfortable with the system's performance on the stock thermal paste and the complexity of replacing it, perhaps you should just monitor the temperature for a year or so to see if it remains stable.

 

Hewlett-Packard's own support forum is probably the best place to ask about the different brands of batteries available for the system, and their pluses and minuses.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

 

On 12/11/2017 at 11:15 PM, ThaCrip said:

After looking around online i found some basic info on battery life...

 

 

but i wonder if that was with or without GPU acceleration (i.e. DXVA) on or off? ; or does that not matter? ; because when playing a 720p or 1080p video file without DXVA on the CPU usage is quite a bit higher vs when DXVA is on as when DXVA is on the CPU usage is minimal where as when it's off the CPU is getting a pretty good workout.

 

but anyways, i also tried another card reader i forgot i had and that did not work either. so i had a total of three different card readers (with the same 1GB and 4GB SD chips) and it did not work.

 

also, i used CrystalDiskInfo on that Laptop and the hard drive does not have all that many hours on it (like less than a years worth of hours) but the cycle count seems rather high. but i assume the cycle count is high because of the way laptops work with powering HDD down with hibernation etc with normal usage?

 

 

Yeah, i am sure it will work in other devices like my main computer as that boots from the card reader and those 1GB and 4GB SD chips fine. I even used UEFI mode with GPT and that was fine.

 

 

Yeah, that Memtest86 from July 2017 is what i generally use but apparently the YUMI program does not list that in there but does list the MemTest86+, so until i get a newer system, chances are the older one will be fine. but like you say on older systems i am sure either will work fine. plus, it seems the older one is a little more detailed as it shows CPU temp and RAM chip names etc.

 

side note: i am guessing the HP Laptop was new in 2008 because i stumbled into a review of the exact model of Laptop i got and the review date was Aug 3rd 2008.

 

 

I just briefly tested that remote about a hour ago and it actually works decently. but at the same time it's probably not something ill really need to use unless i would be sitting at a distance from the laptop playing video through say the HDMI port to the TV or something.

 

as for the CR-2032 battery stuff... i did not set any passwords on the BIOS, even though i apparently can adjust those settings, but even if these became corrupt, can't you just simply remove the battery and the thing would reset back to stock BIOS settings automatically? ; either way, thanks for the voltage information as i might just use that CR-2032 i got sitting on the shelf as it's already been sitting there for many years now. I might as well get some use out of it. plus, they are cheap enough to.

 

also, but i noticed that after i had the laptop battery removed along with the testing of CMOS CR2032 battery and reinstalled it, that it did complain about "CMOS Checksum Error" and had a couple of options (like pressing a couple different keys (i.e. something in the F1-F12 range)) like reset settings or something along these lines and a continue. had a slight issue with that but it went away after playing with it a bit after a couple of reboots or so. still, i might put that CR2032 cell into the laptop as it's not like they costs that much and then i can be sure ill be good for likely years.

 

also, correct me if i am wrong but i thought i heard that the only time the CR2032 battery is used is when there is no power source connected to your PC/Laptop, correct? ; so if that's true, being it's a Laptop it will always have some form of power flow from the laptop battery. hence, would use very little (to nothing) of the CR2032 battery.

 

side note: my old watch uses 2016 cell batteries.

 

 

Well in the YouTube video it does show the removal of the general heat pipe thing which ties into the fan etc. like it appears it's three screws to remove the heatsink and then i would have quick access to the thermal paste.

 

but assuming my CPU is cooling within safe/normal limits, which as far as i can tell it appears to be at the moment, and the Laptop is basically 9 years old... that would mean i should be fairly safe, correct? ; even with the Arctic Silver 5 stuff that i used on my two previous main PC's that was 6 years old and still going strong and then my current PC will be 6 years since i first applied it in May 2018 and with my stock heatsink on the i3-2120 CPU the temps are in the ranges that are expected with Prime 95 and general usage etc. so i would imagine that suggests the thermal paste is still working great.

 

or another way to put it, as that saying goes... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" ; which i suspect is good advice when it comes to removing the heat pipe thing to reapply the thermal paste since that seems a bit riskier vs a basic tear down of laptop to blow dust out etc. like if the temps seemed abnormally high i would likely do that but, while i don't know typical laptop CPU temps, i would imagine the CPU is being cooled well enough at the moment (even if the Arctic Silver 5 would help it a bit i imagine) given i am comfortably below the max operating temp of the CPU. like i said that 81c temp was the peak with Prime95 but at a idle it's much lower at roughly 40 or 50 something C as i can't imagine the general temps would exceed about 60c or so at the moment and even in the summer as room temps rise i don't see the Laptop CPU getting anywhere near 100c as, since you already know, Prime95 is sorta a worst case scenario with CPU peak temps.

 

p.s. i have some old Arctic Silver 5 from March 2006 which i used back then (like when i built a PC(the first PC i built)) and then again in May 2012 on my current main PC with the i3-2120 CPU.

 

 

Well given what i typed in my initial comments in this post above i would imagine my 2-3hour estimate is close even though there are some unknowns like how that test was conducted when they said it barely got over 2hours of video playback before the battery was basically dead.

 

as far as general laptop batteries i found... while i already ordered a official HP branded battery on Ebay, which i imagine will be here by the end of the week, i did find some that  look like high quality and higher capacity batteries (Duracell brand), but the problem is the costs were ridiculously high at about $90-110 which even if those batteries are top quality it's simply not worth it, especially for a Laptop as old as this one is as the battery i ordered appears to be the standard stock HP battery and it was only $21.xx on Ebay which is quite reasonable. like if those premium batteries were a bit more $ (say $30-35 or something like this) i would have likely bought those instead but when your going from about $20 to $90-110 that's a huge difference.

 

 

thanks for your time.

 

[ThaCrip]

1 hour ago, goretsky said:

I am also going to guess that the HDD must not be original and was replaced at some point, accounting for the low usage hours in a 9-10 year old computer.

 

Yeah, it's possible. I would not be surprised as like you said less than a years worth of hours on it does sound low for a Laptop of that age.

 

but then again... when the hard drive powers down (like when laptop hibernates etc) i would imagine that is not counting hours towards of run time on it. i am not sure how hard drives report that info because on my Desktop hard drives i disabled the default behavior with Windows 10 etc which powers down hard drives from inactivity after a certain amount of time as i figure that powering off and on fairly often can't be good for them (but i am only guessing here) as they run 24/7 as my general PC is on 24/7. so my total hours on them is quite a bit as the years pass but my cycle count is much less than the laptops which has far less hours on it according to what the hard drive reports to CrystalDiskInfo (free program) but a lot more off/on cycles.

 

1 hour ago, goretsky said:

As I mentioned earlier, you might have to go through several SD Card to USB adapters to find one that works correctly.  If none do, there's always the possibility of using something like the ISOstick .  That may be an out-of-budget solution.

 

While that appears to be a decent device it's price (i.e. $100 basically) is a major turn off even though it does look like it would work for those more stubborn devices that refuse to boot from typical USB thumb drives.

 

but at least the Sandisk 64GB USB v3.0 thumb drive i got works in the Laptop for booting Windows 10/CloneZilla etc with that YUMI multiboot program. so i should be set for now in this regard. but i was a bit lucky as it's the only thing i got that seems to work in the Laptop for booting from USB that's of a useable size even though i got a old 128MB stick that boots but it's pretty much useless since 128MB of storage space is a joke as you can't really boot much of anything with that little of storage space.

 

 

thanks for the general info.