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Ian
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Bloody PCs!
« on: Feb 11th, 2003, 10:30pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Just had to rebuild and reinstall the damn thing again! My 'old' (30 months) Seagate Barracuda drive (nice, but noisy) ground to a halt on Saturday, so I bit the bullet and finally activated the RAID controller on my mobo, stuck on two single-platter Maxtor drives (so quiet you have to look at the LED to see if they're being read) and changed my MS Intellimouse (regularly cleaned, but now playing up a bit) for a neat Logitech MX300 optical one. Just for good measure, I pulled the old PSU out and stuck in a new switched-mode P4 unit with a much quieter fan - bliss!
 
Oh goody. What a can of worms that opened up.
 
The RAID worked fine, and I even managed to coax the old drive back to life to copy off everything (using the commonly tried, but little understood, percussive method, followed by positional variance {I slapped it and shook it about a bit until the thing shuddered back to life}) - saves digging through a pile of Zip disks. Except I missed the bit that says Win98 can't FDisk drives bigger than 64MB (which it now is)... Good job the old drive lasted long enough to d/l the appropriate patch from MS as well, then - they miss that one from Windows Update, don't they? Come to think of it, so does BigFix and the like.
 
Got it all running fine, but then found out the Alcatel USB ADSL modem shuts off at the exact moment that the 'Start' button appears. The PC thinks it's actually okay, though, and creates a connection before this hangs at the point of actually finding the ISP. This in turn means the PC won't shut down - just stays for ever on a black screen after closing the desktop (presumably still waiting for a shut-down confirmation from the already-off modem).
 
Much digging (and one reinstall) revealed that the Logitech drivers install an alternative NTKERN.DLL file - not replacing the old one, but letting both load and fight it out, with odd messages in the Bootlog file like 'Overwrite standard NTKERN - success'. So I reinstall and leave it as a standard mouse.
 
Still haven't solved the ADSL problem, so I ring the 24/7 helpdesk, who asks 'Have you downloaded the latest drivers' -  Angry Angry Angry Angry With what? I have a modem, but the ISP tells me I haven't got the correct account to use dial-up! Dopes!! No wonder they get such 'good' press...
 
Actually, he wasn't that useless, because he almost immediately realised his slip-up and thereafter provided good advice. I'm a tweaker, but didn't appreciate that the so-far okay at-the-limits BIOS settings might be a problem, plus Alcatel had just released v2 drivers (much better - very stable and they connect more reliably - I have known times when a restart was the only way to make an initial connection with v1.3 and v1.4). Just for good measure, there's a new set of VIA 4-in-1 drivers (4.45 'Hyperion'), a USB filter driver and another update MS didn't bother issuing via Critical Updates (this time for the UHCD system). But I need to connect to grab these - 20MB or so - and I had to wait until I could get back to work before I could find them.
 
Once on, these updates do the job - even the Logitech drivers work - although it still gets random freeezes, requiring a restart. Odd. Anyway, it seems like the 'missing names' are back - the 'From' column in MSOE is full again. Except one of those hangs happens when I'm d/ling the HUGE lists of headers from GRC (hadn't even got to SecureComp) and the whole lot is knackered once more - no more names no matter what I do.
 
So now I have a slightly wobbly (nothing unusual there - it is MS software after all), but very fast and much quieter PC. The HDDs are UDMA133 7200rpm units (with fluid bearings, AFAIK), replacing the older UDMA100 unit and SiSoft Sandra benchmarks them at over 37000, compared to 18000 for the older one. I used to leave the PC after a good few hours with the impression that a WWF champ had been pushing his fingers into my ears - not any more!
 
So, perhaps this is the system that will last somewhere like the one from last year - 13 months before reinstallation - whereas the one directly in between lasted 3 days before first fouling up and 6 weeks before dying.
 
Oh BTW, I've left enough space for a full installation of SuSE 8.1 as well - maybe I can get that one right this time too!
« Last Edit: Feb 11th, 2003, 10:37pm by Ian » IP Logged
... but crap arrives pretty much straight away.
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #1 on: Feb 12th, 2003, 2:43pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Interesting... so you're running it as RAID-1 (mirroring)?
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Jamming
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #2 on: Feb 12th, 2003, 7:38pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Does Sweden have "lemmings"?   I only ask this because I think you just ran poor Ian off the edge of the cliff with that rather touching statement, (touching like skewering throught the heart if he is not.) Wink
« Last Edit: Feb 12th, 2003, 7:39pm by Jamming » IP Logged
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #3 on: Feb 13th, 2003, 1:47am »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Sorry Jamming, but I'm not really an ADSL-modem guru Wink   I was impressed with Ian's choice of running RAID, though... didn't think the conservative Brits would be the lot to start implementing such new high-tech solutions (I'm kidding Wink)
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #4 on: Feb 13th, 2003, 11:49am »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
First Off, Ian is not your typical Brit, he is atypical.  Secondly, Brits have this problem with new cutting edge technology, it is the expense. Wink
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Servare cives, major est virtus patriae patri.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American!
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There are many things that are worse than war. They all begin with defeat.
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People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #5 on: Feb 13th, 2003, 5:56pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Hey,
 Hi Ian, I hope you're new system will serve you well. On my new computer I used a single WD 80 gig hard drive but after about a month I updated to a pair of them. I figured if the board supported that option why not do it. It's set up for 2+0 stripe. Takes a little longer to load but it is faster now. It'll be a year that I've owned a computer by the end of this month. I totally trashed my first one playing around with it. It only had a 2 gig hard drive and by the time I added a new printer and scanner and a couple of games there wasn't much room left. I helped pick out the parts for this computer with the help of the salesperson and then they built it for me. For my next one I'd like to build it myself, maybe by then I'll have gained enough knowledge to do so.
Regards, DC
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Ian
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #6 on: Feb 13th, 2003, 10:28pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Cheers, guys - one and all!
 
Actually, Magnus, I'm a speed freak, so I striped the array (although I thought long and hard about mirroring - especially after hearing the old drive wind down like a washing machine). According to the Highpoint info, I can add more drives later to stripe and mirror, and so long as it's just for mirroring, they don't have to match the existing two (AFAIK, it's better to have exactly matching - firmware and all - drives for any striped array, but mirrors just need to have the right capacity). The system is flexible enough to allow me to add just one extra drive instead of two, which is nice, although a friend with the same mobo reports that configuration is not as steady as a 4-drive array. If I really decide to throw it all to the wind, I could stripe over 4 disks (hell of a job backing it all up, though), but by then I'll probably not be able to match what I've got already running.
 
Hey Jamming! The expense thing may be because all the hi-tech stuff comes from US where they simply swap £ for $ and make a 60% mark-up on this side of the pond. The only way the exchange rate works in my favour is if I buy software online and avoid taxes, shipping etc. Most Brit who's got any understanding of the way things work realises we invented most of it - perhaps it's really true about the cost thing, cos all our best ideas (computers, jet engines, the Web, etc.) end up going abroad to find cash for development and production. Okay, so Tim B-L was actually working in CERN when he conjured up the Web, but don't let that small fact muddy the water!
 
Ever the fiddler, so maybe I should drive-image the C: partition right now - it seems excellent at the moment, but...
 
Hi DC -  I don't intentionally trash the systems I have, but they just end up that way in the end, it seems! Since PCs are now less of a luxury than they were (I got my first in 1991, a 386DX-25 with 2MB RAM and a 40MB drive, DOS 4.01, Windows 3 run as an application instead of an OS, and 14" monitor, for £1525 - today the price of a fairly mid-to-top-end laptop), the price advantage of build one from bits is less than it was. Except I'm a fiddler (oh, I said that already), so the understanding and knowledge is great. Plus my systems tend to evolve - bits carried over, changed, never leaving a complete working PC along the way, but I've got enough bits to build a couple if I could be bothered. Just get stuck in (the first thing I added to my PC was a single-speed CD ROM and sound card - never looked back since). D'you get those tasty WD drives with the 8MB cache - IIRC they have the code 'QB' after their drive code? I looked at those, but figured the temperature/noise considerations outweighed the extra 6MB cache they had fitted - these Maxtor drives are noticeably cooler than the older Seagate one, and the stats suggest the WD range is as warm as the Barracuda drive.
 
Anyway, I'm very happy at the moment (but that could be the 'herbal tea', right?!)
« Last Edit: Feb 13th, 2003, 10:30pm by Ian » IP Logged
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #7 on: Feb 14th, 2003, 5:57am »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
That 60% is the mark-up for paying the VAT (Value Added Tax), but it is actually we know that you don't have any domestic high tech industries of your own since the 70's Wink  Last thing high tech was the SST and you did that with the French.  Since they have the Chunnel now do you have to check your backbone when you go to France? (Sorry Claire, Though I know your not as bad only being a Native French Speaker). Wink
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I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American!
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People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
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Ian
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #8 on: Feb 14th, 2003, 9:00pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Wow! Did His Royal Tonyness suddenly jack the taxes? 60% VAT is a touch steep... Cheesy
 
Okay, so I'm stuck to find a hitech thing we invented after Concorde - where were the big airlines fighting to buy that one, eh? I think Pan-Am was lined up to take a few, but the oil crisis knocked that on the head, leaving BA and AirFrance to uphold the national pride in having developed one of the most beautiful aircraft ever (only the SR71 beats it IMHO, and the P51 and Spitfire IV - or possibly a Griffon-engined PR special - run it close, with the added bonus that they won't bust your eardrums passing by at full chat).
 
Nothing hitech after Concorde? Hang on - where does that leave the WWW? Grin Grin Grin
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #9 on: Feb 15th, 2003, 8:01pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
You didn't, Al Gore did right before he whipped the Kaiser singled handedly Wink
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Servare cives, major est virtus patriae patri.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American!
- Daniel Webster

There are many things that are worse than war. They all begin with defeat.
- Aeschylus

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
- Eric Hoffer
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #10 on: Feb 15th, 2003, 8:23pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
on Feb 15th, 2003, 8:01pm, Jamming wrote:
You didn't, Al Gore did right before he whipped the Kaiser singled handedly Wink

 
 
Aw shucks, be nice. The puir wee guy was just too nice to be a successful politician (Al, that is, not the Kaiser). I applauded his decision not to run, it demonstrated that he really does have a rare combination of intelligence and personal integrity, both qualities that disqualify one from being Prez.
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #11 on: Feb 16th, 2003, 9:24am »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
Oh come on, Al Gore is nice?  He even lost his home state in the election for President.  The People that knew him best didn't think he would be a good President. Wink
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Servare cives, major est virtus patriae patri.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American!
- Daniel Webster

There are many things that are worse than war. They all begin with defeat.
- Aeschylus

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
- Eric Hoffer
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #12 on: Feb 16th, 2003, 10:03pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
on Feb 16th, 2003, 9:24am, Jamming wrote:
Oh come on, Al Gore is nice?  He even lost his home state in the election for President.  The People that knew him best didn't think he would be a good President. Wink

 
 
Which was exactly my point - "nice" don't make for a good Prez. Slimy and amoral obviously did for Billy, semi-literate and barely sentient obviously does for Dubya, but "nice" just ain't in the hunt. One can be Prez or one can be "nice", but one obviously can't be both. Grin
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Ian
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #13 on: Feb 17th, 2003, 12:56pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
don't go down the 'semi-literate' line - too many politicians have shown themselves up there!
 
Actually, who was it who very publically 'corrected' the spelling of a widely used food item?
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Re: Bloody PCs!
« Reply #14 on: Feb 17th, 2003, 12:59pm »		 Quote Quote  Modify Modify
on Feb 17th, 2003, 12:56pm, Ian wrote:
don't go down the 'semi-literate' line - too many politicians have shown themselves up there!
 
Actually, who was it who very publically 'corrected' the spelling of a widely used food item?

 
 
Quayle - with the plural of spud.  Grin
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