# a friend has an issue....



## digibucc (Jan 19, 2013)

Sorry the title wasn't more descriptive, i wasn't sure how to word it. I have a local friend who will be stopping by today for me to look at his rig, i don't even know what distro he is using yet.
he thinks he messed up his swap drive, because sometimes when he boots recent documents are missing, but then a few boots later they return. I don't know enough about 'nix to even say if that makes sense re:swap drive.
also, when it boots the date is wrong. it doesn't go to a specific wrong date but what he says is "random". again i haven't seen it yet so i don't know the specifics. 

I'll get more info asap, but if anyone has any ideas I'm all ears - thank you!


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## drdeathx (Jan 19, 2013)

Test the drive and see if it has any errors. When the docs appear, I would back them up if he needs them.


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## Kreij (Jan 19, 2013)

Maybe he just needs a new mobo battery.
Would explain the date being wrong and possibly why it does not always recognize a secondary HDD.


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## drdeathx (Jan 19, 2013)

Kreij said:


> Maybe he just needs a new mobo battery.
> Would explain the date being wrong and possibly why it does not always recognize a secondary HDD.



Could be a variety of issues. Could be a bad port too. I would start with the drive and test it. Mobo battery is also an easy one.....


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## Mindweaver (Jan 19, 2013)

Yea, I would agree with the battery being bad if the date was a consistent date it was going back too. If it is the battery then it will go back to the same date every time it boots not jump around to different dates. I'd boot into bios when you boot up and check the date before it loads into the OS to ensure it's the bios battery. The problem with the files being there one day, and then not the next.. that's a problem.. It's possible something is going wrong with the kernel.. You can try a different kernel.. I believe I would backup important files, and reload the distro. I'd like to know which distro he is using, and which kernel he's using if it is different then the one that came with his distro when you get the laptop.


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## digibucc (Jan 20, 2013)

i should have it tomorrow, i will find out the info and come back here.

thank you guys


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## Easy Rhino (Jan 21, 2013)

sounds like a hardware issue and not software. all linux distros provide powerful HDD monitoring tools. you should be able to determine the problem fairly easily.


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## Easy Rhino (Jan 23, 2013)

any update on this?


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## digibucc (Jan 23, 2013)

sorry no, i gave him some tips through chat but he has yet to bring it to me.


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