The picture on the left is not "DOS" it's a BIOS boot error mesage, which is before the machine even decides what OS to load. So this would have been a problem even on a PC-based *nix machine.

Posted by: Dunc at November 28, 2003 04:50 AM

Except that a *nix box probably wouldn't have crashed. More important is the line, DISK BOOT FAILURE etc etc, which indicates a serious problem.

Posted by: Ravi at June 14, 2004 11:27 PM

ok, but what about the other screen? what does it say?

you know what? Airports should just use linux. it's open source, so they could probably make a special airport edition linux, and the fact that linux is so much more robust than windows and mac put together (i don't want an os debate, i'm just commenting)

Posted by: lane at June 15, 2004 05:28 PM

At least they should use an NT based version of windows. Last time I was at an airport, they had a blue screen of death.

Posted by: Justin at July 13, 2004 03:26 AM

The error on the left means the hard drive is not connected....not a windows error.

Posted by: me at July 13, 2004 04:45 PM

Windows NT has a BSOD.

Posted by: Geek at December 2, 2004 06:44 PM

You can avoid most windows rumtime problems by using a linux based digital signage system.

Infojection provides a Linux Solution for Digital Signage and Plasma screen Advertising.

Posted by: Dunc Digital Signage at December 12, 2004 05:48 AM

I had a good laugh as soon as I seen the pics. I'm sure lots of people hestiated when they seen this error message, I for one would have hesitated to go on the plne myself.

Todd

http://www.supersizetv.com

Posted by: Todd at January 14, 2005 03:22 AM

I cannot see the photo for it has been taken down for reasons I cannot ponder, but DISK BOOT FAILURE etc etc as Ravi puts it, usually means there is a disk in the *floppy* drive that is not a boot disk, and that the computer is trying to boot it.

Posted by: Brian at January 15, 2005 10:00 PM

Someone stole my name to make an inane comment, so I felt I must step up and defend my name...

DISK BOOT FAILURE simply means that the computer can't find a suitable disk from which to load an operating system. This could mean a floppy in the drive, as the other Brian mentioned, or a hard drive being disconnected, or (most likely in this sort of instance) a hard drive (or other hardware) failure.

Posted by: The REAL Brian at March 15, 2005 02:55 PM

Won't they use my os?

Posted by: William at June 24, 2005 09:22 PM

Well, I'm as much a Linux fan as the next Linux fan, but Linux wouldn't have helped with that blackscreened computer.

Look at it. It's a Pentium-MMX 166. Some essential component probably died of old age.

Posted by: Kalthare at February 13, 2006 04:23 PM