Editing Psion netBook Troubleshooting Guide (section)

== The netBook has no OS, and that changes diagnosis ==

At power-on the netBook searches the D: drive for a CompactFlash card holding a file called '''OS.img''', loads it into a walled-off region of RAM and runs it. If there is no card, it displays a message telling you so.<ref name="faqgen">[https://www.oocities.org/epoc_32/general.html "Psion Series 7 FAQ: General & hardware information"], oocities.org/epoc_32 (February 2000). Source for the netBook's OS.img boot arrangement, the reason for the doubled RAM, the module-swap results and the reset procedures.</ref>

'''So a netBook that shows a message and stops is behaving exactly as designed.''' It is the single most common misdiagnosis on these machines: a perfectly healthy netBook with no card, or a card whose partition is not marked bootable, looks like a dead computer to anyone expecting a Series 7.

{| class="wikitable styled-table" style="width:100%; text-align:left;"
|+'''Boot-stage faults'''
! Symptom !! Likely cause !! Action
|-
| '''Message on screen about no CompactFlash card; no further boot''' || '''Normal.''' No card, or no OS.img on it || Fit a card carrying a valid OS.img. Psion supplied the OS and applications on CD so customers could build their own image.<ref name="faqgen" />
|-
| '''Card is present with OS.img but the machine does not load it''' || '''The DOS partition holding the file must be marked bootable''' || Check the partition flag.<ref name="openpsion">OpenPsion, [https://linux-7110.sourceforge.net/howtos/netbook_new/x43.htm "Linux on the Psion netBook HOWTO — Introduction and netBook Specifications"] and [https://linux-7110.sourceforge.net/howtos/netbook_new/x1042.htm "FAQs"]. Source for the bootable-partition requirement, the bootloader versions and the Malaysian netBooks, the CompactFlash size limits, the kernel memory configurations, the serial-mouse burnout report and the null-modem cable.</ref>
|-
| '''EPOC upgrades refuse to install''' || '''A OneEd / "Malaysian" netBook''' with '''bootloader version 12''' rather than the standard version 11 || Hardware is identical to an ordinary netBook. Fitting an ordinary netBook personality module is the understood route back to standard behaviour. For Linux, no special treatment is needed at all.<ref name="openpsion" />
|-
| '''Machine reports the wrong amount of memory''' || Mismatch between the personality module and what is fitted || '''Only 16, 32 and 64 MB are accepted; 48 MB does not work''', and a Series 7 memory upgrade will not work in a netBook.<ref name="lindsay" />
|-
| '''Series 7 fitted with a netBook module is unstable at speed''' || '''Some Series 7 machines failed the high-speed test''' and were binned as Series 7 parts || The safe swap direction is netBook down to Series 7, not Series 7 up to netBook.<ref name="lindsay" />
|}

Always '''remove every battery''' — main pack, backup cell and both modules — before changing the personality module.<ref name="faqgen" />