Surprise : PC's playing up ;) (again...)

[Evildead666]

Yay, miracle. or brainwave. or desperation...

Removed the files from the RAID onto other spare space...try finding 62GB of spare space in a hurry lol

Broke the RAID, rebuilt with 3 drives leaving one, thinking i'll reinstall windows on it. NO.
If i leave the BIOS in RAID for sata, i can't boot from it or the RAID, even tho it says I can boot from the raid...
So, set BIOS sata to enhanced IDE, and plugged in the XP drive from the PCI SATA controller...magic.
Screw the RAID, i'll just have to live with multiple 232GB drives instead of a big one...
But, Its very stable, not a hiccup in sight, and it all looks good .

Best not to play any more until tomorrow, at least now I can watch some episodes before bed...

I managed to avoid the reinstall, just, but it has taken many hours...

It seems that MS software isn't up to being 100% stable...i've been meaning to try Linux again, and I think this is going to push me over the edge. i'll keep XP for games, since thats what i have it for, and install Linux on the Epia (if they do a driver for 1680x1050).

i'm still not ruling out that I may have damaged something by going for 5GHz last night, be it in the PSU or elsewhere...but i'm not looking any further into it tonight.

Cheers for all your help,
many heads are better than one

Jez

[Nowhere]

Yeah TP, I didn't mention that reinstalling OS would be part of the procedure (or...do you mean clean Windows as in no drivers installed whatsoever?)


BTW, I'm far from beeing MS supporter, however...

...
It seems that MS software isn't up to being 100% stable...
...

...don't blame on software (and exactly what is 100% stable software, apart from Shuttle flight control computers?) what can be easily explained by faulty hardware...and in your case, Evildead, there's a lot of hints of that...

[The PIT]

Yeah TP, I didn't mention that reinstalling OS would be part of the procedure (or...do you mean clean Windows as in no drivers installed whatsoever?)


BTW, I'm far from beeing MS supporter, however...

...don't blame on software (and exactly what is 100% stable software, apart from Shuttle flight control computers?) what can be easily explained by faulty hardware...and in your case, Evildead, there's a lot of hints of that...

Clean Windows install on spare hard drive with only Motherboard drivers installed.
I went one year where I couldn't update ATi drivers.
Clean install they worked and when they brought the new cats out they worked sriaght away.

[Evildead666]

Well, Clean install it will have to be...

I thought I may have beaten it, but even just watching a simpsons ep, its doing the noise 'burp' again, where its intermittently locks up, be it for a millisecond, or more.
Scares the sh*t out of me, cos i'm sure its about to freeze again...

I have a LOT of software installed, and i regularly just update drivers and software without removing the previous versions.
Not a good idea, but i was lazy. I should be more careful,and at least have a backup image.

I closed Peerguardian, memory hog, and it still bitched, but calmed down a few seconds later.
I also think that some 'weird sh*t' may have come through uTorrent. As i also knew that Emule was a massive hole for malware, i'm thinking that some bittorrent clients are gaping holes...

One things for sure, I won't be installing windows on a non-onboard controller, and especially not one that can't be recognised by the install CD.
I couldn't even repair windows when it was on the PCI controller...without a floppy.(yuk)

Yes, my hardware (and more appropriately, my usage of said hardware) is probably to fault, but the way the problems have arisen, so very random, leaves me to believe that its mostly software, not MS, but all the crap thats on here.

Here's a screen cap of my Computer, I have storage, and there's a 232Gb and a 72Gb missing cos i haven't plugged them back in yet. One to Six are USB (Stor in Sig).

J

edit: the external drives are powered by a 300W PSU, in their own box. Another 120Gb is powered by the AT 220W PSU that powers all the cooling, fans and Nautilus 500.
The enermax 575W PSU just has the CPU, GPU, and mobo and related stuff to do , plus 5 HDD's, and a DVD burner.

edit2: I have storage cos i never throw anythng away. I still have all the drivers for my PIII 450, and nearly all the old Nvidia drivers from the TNT2 days...and everything else, in multiples, since i haven't sorted anything yet, just stacked it up. Ran out of space? bought a new HDD, then bought 1TB and sort of went 'Ahhhh'

[Evildead666]

Update:

Did a long repair of Windows, where it reinstalls all the drivers and all the files, but keeps all the previous installed programs, except the Microsoft ones got via WinUpdate.

The PC is now fine, with no (yet) problems at all...apart from one.
None of the 86 Critical updates will install, and i'm back to IE6, etc, etc...

So it looks like a full, clean install will fix it.

I had recently been installing lots of video codecs, on top of others, and installing codec packages on top of each other.

I'm currently installing a 'Spare' PC for daily usage, and i'm finally relegating this to a Games machine.

Spare PC is a bit crap, but its whats there, P4 S423 1.5GHz, 128Mb Rimm, i850 Mobo, 40Gb HDD, Win98SE and Ubuntu 7.10, and Matrox G400 MAX.

Just about to install Ubuntu, hope theres enough RAM...won't be getting any more ever...(its Rambus 400MHz...only 2 slots, and filled with 2x64Mb)

[Evildead666]

128Mb isn't enough for Ubuntu...
I'm installing FluxUbuntu atm, I know nothing about it at all...

Basically, i'm looking for a Linux distro that will run on 128Mb of RAM, and will be able to:
Play Divx/Xvid etc...upto 1024x576 or even 1280x720 if possible..
Play DVD's

Can anyone recommend a good Linux distro ?

For the config of the PC see previous post.

cheers,

Jez

[Evildead666]

Just an update, if anyone cares....

I reinstalled Windows, and everything, but one, is working fine.

If i run Nero, i get a bluescreen and an immediate reboot.
Apart from that, its heaven.

Fluxubuntu is sooo easy, i have no idea how to change resolution, and keep it that way...wow, linux is sooo easy...

Enough to put me of for a lifetime...

It seems that even the Linux community is getting the feel for more 'expenditure'...
At least 192Mb of RAM, its Rambus memory, and its very expensive.
Won't anything run on 128Mb of RAM anymore.. ?

p.s. I was asving the Duron for another project, thats why I didn't choose it in the first place.
An epia is underpowered, that much I now know ( why do I have 6 of themm?).
I was hoping to be able to use the 'Pauvre' Willamette for good, but now it will have to do something else....if thats possible.

I finally gave up, and installed XP on a Duron 1800 with 768Mb of RAM i found...
Not sure if it will do the trick yet, but i'm hoping it will.

I see a door, and i want it painted black.

[Evildead666]

Still have problems, but think its coming from the Disk controller.
And one of my disks is making a noise. 'clunk' like it was switched off...

Apart from Nero giving a bluescreen, WD diagnostics also gives a bluescreen and reboot as soon as I launch it...

I suppose i'm gonna have to take it apart...and reinstall Windows again...must find the original driver cd...

[Nowhere]

You know...if you'd get rid of watercooling you could probably get, without adding much money (if at all), standard, aircooled, faster and working components...

And BTW, you're not very fair for Fluxbuntu...it is meant for advanced users. Beeing easu for beginners is one of the reasons why proper Ubuntu or OpenSUSE exist, not why their offshots exist (but you could also try http://ubuntulite.tuxfamily.org/ , perhaps slightly ligher, perhaps not, but definatelly different)

Also I'm not sure why Duron1800/768MB shouldn't do the trick with any OS besides Vista, I'm using a bit slower computer right now.

And...it's not the fault of p2p clients that you download malware...

[Evildead666]

To be honestly fair, the Fluxbuntu site is a bit vague in all of its explanations.
I checked out their Forum, and had a hard time finding info...

I WANT to use Linux, just to get to grips with it...

Heh, I tried watercooling before, on my Athlon mobile 2500+, and found out that mostly, I could have done it all on Air. The watercooling was superfluous...OK, the chips stayed at 32C, but a major hassle when taking my Video card out (was watercooled also).

Then I went aircooled, and bought a very very loud 160+cfm 120mm fan.
Mainly to insure that the mobo was sufficiently cooled whilst overclocking.

Money is pretty short atm, and with Xmas on the horizon, its just gonna get worse.

As for P2P letting in Malware, sometimes peerguardian throws a fit, and sometimes, no p2p program running, i get incoming connnections that are refused...Fixed IP prob doesn't help...

On another note, even listening to the radio, the PC 'pauses' for about a second, from time to time. Nothing works during that 1s...
Tried to install the Inte Matirx storage manager, but it says that my chipset doesn't support it, even tho it does. I think it may only work when the SATA ports are in RAID mode, and that means that I would have to boot from either a RAID, or an IDE hard drive...

I know i'm flogging a dead horse with the Pentium D, but for the mo, I can't afford a change.
I should have gone COre2 a while ago instead of going Watercooled...

Having good look at the ubuntulite site now, cheers. This could be the one to run in 128Mb of RAM...

Have to find that dodgy hard drive too....

[Nowhere]

So wait...incoming connections = malware?...

Also, you're still unfair towards Fluxbuntu; I'll repeat it, it's not for beginners/typical users, so most of documentation will be in generic man pages.

And...C2D is not the only choice for something comparable/faster. Definatelly not the cheapest one.

[Fat Tone]

Still have problems, but think its coming from the Disk controller.
And one of my disks is making a noise. 'clunk' like it was switched off...

Apart from Nero giving a bluescreen, WD diagnostics also gives a bluescreen and reboot as soon as I launch it...

I suppose i'm gonna have to take it apart...and reinstall Windows again...must find the original driver cd...

Drives like that can cause a BSOD in my experience. Boot off a DFT CD and see what happens.

[Nowhere]

Thanks to Fat Tone I recalled some problems I've had...

Still have problems, but think its coming from the Disk controller.
And one of my disks is making a noise. 'clunk' like it was switched off...

Does this clicking sound happen at the same moment as OS freezes?

[The PIT]

First of all mem test you need to run it overnight a few hours isn't enough.
Certainly there is faulty hardware in that rig somewhere.
Clicking hard drive is one place to start. However you've got so much in there you need to start at the basics. So strip everything out and just use the basic set up. If that runs fine then slowly add the rest of the hardware back in. Slow painful but it stops you chucking money at the wrong piece of hardware.
What's the power supply voltages under load. I had one power supply go wobbly kneed and that produced a clicking hard drive as it couldn't provide the power. I fired up the Motherboard monitor and ran defrag. 12v line fell to 11V straight away.

[Evildead666]

So wait...incoming connections = malware?...

Also, you're still unfair towards Fluxbuntu; I'll repeat it, it's not for beginners/typical users, so most of documentation will be in generic man pages.

And...C2D is not the only choice for something comparable/faster. Definatelly not the cheapest one.

Incoming and outgoing connections on bootup, that I have NOT allowed.

Here's a screen cap of peerguardian after full reinstall, with just one (PATA) hard drive and the DVDRW.

This outgoing, and I have no idea what it is...

AS for the CPU choice, this mobo won't accept anything above Pentium D...