PC not booting :(

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Sanity? They elected Steven Harper, mister I-fuck-the-environment-in-the-ass. He's barely better than Bush. Barely.


Vancouver and Victoria, in British Columbia.
I think the guys north of the US are a lot, lot more saner, Coug.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
Sanity? They elected Steven Harper, mister I-fuck-the-environment-in-the-ass. He's barely better than Bush. Barely.

The whole world is on a strong rightward trend in its politics. The current US president is a center-right politician and to hear our current (very) right-wing, he's the biggest socialist threat since the Sermon on the Mount. I've heard enough Canadian political discourse to know that it's much more moderate and infinitely more civil. And that's admirable.
 

CityK

Storage Freak Apprentice
Joined
Sep 2, 2002
Messages
1,719
They have places where it doesn't snow?
I'll have you know that my province's southern most point is lower then your state's northern most point -- take that you slack jaw yokel ! :-D
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Nice friendly jibes at each other!

Back OT, went to the disty this morning. They agreed the pin was bent. Prob with replacement was manifold:
1) they had to wait for approval of the DOA (as they termed it) from Asus
2) they had no stock locally - it had to be shipped from Mumbai which was closed today for a holiday
3) Mumbai would hip only one board in replacement
4) There was no guarantee that the replacement would be problem free

They offered to straighten the pin, bench test it running and show me, with the additional guarantee that if I had any further problem I could take it back. So I have the board with me, bent pin straightened out gently with tweezers and bench tested. It was running the latest version of the BIOS.

So now the build starts!
 

CityK

Storage Freak Apprentice
Joined
Sep 2, 2002
Messages
1,719
Yeah, the middle of Lake Erie is known for balmy winters. :)
Well, its still terra firma ! ... In any regard, besides Pelee Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelee,_Ontario), you can still sneak under the 42nd on the main land too (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Pelee ) ... and given the centre coordinate value for the municipality of Leamington, I'd suspect that there are a number of communities/hamlets, running along the lake front and/or slightly above, in Essex county, that would fall under that mark too.

mubs said:
Nice friendly jibes at each other!
Friendly?? (Wait -- You mean I should stand down the waves of Canada Geese squadrons I sent to carpet bomb the fairways of California's finest golf courses? ... Okay, they're all ordered back....except for that one I strangely couldn't get a hold of. But I'm sure everything will work out fine .... (and you thought goose pooh was harmless! Ha! Silly Americans)
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Booted fine on first try. Running Memtest 86+ with only one stick installed.

Can you please guide me on what tests to run and for how long before one can assume the stick is good (assuming no errors are found) ?

Right now running default tests. I will run the tests on one stick at a time as recommended by G.Skill.

The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO barely fits from a DIMM clearance point of view; I have to clip the fans a few mm higher so it fits. The bottom most fins of the cooler are very slightly squished on the heat sink of the first DIMM.

Since I wanted to test the DIMMs first, I installed the stock cooler for now. Once the DIMMs are all tested, I'll install the Evo. If I need to remove the first DIMM, I'll have to remove the Evo, though. CPU running at ~ 37C on stock cooler with it's fan control disabled. Case is open, but I have two filtered fans in the front blowing through the HDD cages, two fans immediately behind the HDD cages pulling that air into the case (these can be angled about 30 degrees to blow on the DIMMS / MB / chipset), two fans in the top to blow out the air. For now, no fan in the back since I want positive air pressure.

Thanks for all your help, all!
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
Memory tests are notoriously inaccurate and I think it's only gotten worse as DIMM capacities have increased. If anything, I'd probably look for some kind of general-purpose burn-in like repeated runs of 3DMark looking for signs of instability.
 

Handruin

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
Messages
13,737
Location
USA
I've also skipped memtest as a tool and just use prime95 for CPU and memory stress within your OS. I let it run for 24+ hours and if there are no issues found, I feel reasonably good the machine is stable.
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
It's going to be painful to run tests inside the OS one DIMM at a time. If I put in all 4 DIMMS and test in the OS, finding a problem DIMM will be painstaking. That's why I'm trying to do it before installing the OS. I let Memtest at least do the basics and then move to OS based testing.

Thanks.
 

Handruin

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
Messages
13,737
Location
USA
It's going to be painful to run tests inside the OS one DIMM at a time. If I put in all 4 DIMMS and test in the OS, finding a problem DIMM will be painstaking. That's why I'm trying to do it before installing the OS. I let Memtest at least do the basics and then move to OS based testing.

Thanks.

I guess I'm not as methodical in testing my new ram components as you are. For me, the easiest test is to put it all together and stress it all as one. Then, if there are failures I'll spend the time ruling them out individually.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,511
Location
Horsens, Denmark
I guess I'm not as methodical in testing my new ram components as you are. For me, the easiest test is to put it all together and stress it all as one. Then, if there are failures I'll spend the time ruling them out individually.

As do I. But I suppose it depends on the failure rate which is more effective. Considering I've only had a half-dozen bad DIMMs in the last decade it hasn't been worth it for me.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
Messages
21,564
Location
I am omnipresent
I had a whole defective shipment about five years ago. It was horrific for me since the DIMMs were distributed to about 50 systems before I realized I needed to find and replace all of them.
 

Handruin

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
Messages
13,737
Location
USA
For a single home personal system, I test it as a whole. If I had to deploy 50-100 systems that had a different reliability requirement, I might take a different approach.
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
It's just me....reliability and dependability are the two top factors for me, more than speed or bling. So I'm obsessive about configuring and building my system, but once done, I'm set.
 

Handruin

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
Messages
13,737
Location
USA
It's just me....reliability and dependability are the two top factors for me, more than speed or bling. So I'm obsessive about configuring and building my system, but once done, I'm set.

I hear ya. I don't overclock because I value stability more than the extra few percentage I can squeeze out of my system. I just like to start basic and verify everything together and chance that the system will run fine afterward. A prime95 will stress the CPU and memory for extended hours. If it doesn't report incorrect calculations in the math after 24-48 hours of stressing, that's good enough for me.
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Each stick has individually passed at least 5 rounds of the default Memtest 96+ tests, and all 4 have collectively passed 5 rounds of the default tests as well.

Now for installation of XP, followed immediately by Prime95 for some more testing.
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Haha, nice joke, guys.

My main OS will be Win7-64. I need XP because Epson hasn't released (and never will) drivers for Win7-64. The last full fledged sw released was for XP. So I plan to dual boot. Anytime I need to scan (which is once in a while) I'll get into XP to scan. The scan output drive will be common for both the OSes.

Installing XP first so it won't muck up the Win-7 install. I remember the rule that in multi-boot, install the oldest OS first and the newest last.

But I have a problem. Will create another thread for it.
 

Chewy509

Wotty wot wot.
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
3,327
Location
Gold Coast Hinterland, Australia
Stupid question? Doesn't VM Player support USB/LPT pass through? Couldn't you just install XP in a VM, and tell the VM guest to use the scanner as needed?

I know Virtual Box supports USB pass through (use it all the time), but I'm sure VM Ware supports it as well for both USB and parallel ports? Heck, IIRC even Virtual PC (especially for XP Mode on 7) supports it as well.

Just trying to eliminate the need for dual boot, for a simple scanner... Also, would XSane being an option if libsane supports your scanner? (XScan has been ported to Windows, and libsane being the underlying scanner drivers, also works as well). http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html#Z-EPSON
 

Bozo

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 12, 2002
Messages
4,396
Location
Twilight Zone
I run XP in VMWare on my Server 2008 computer. It has access to my USB printer and can be released to the main OS. I also have a folder shared out on XP that I can map to in 2008.
Don't really see a need for dual boot.
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Thanks guys. It looks like I don't have a choice, actually.

I DBANned the drive before starting. XP lived on this drive without problems in my now dead PC when I first built it 6 years ago; can't remember how. My drives may not have been in AHCI mode at that time. But now during installation, it dies with a blue screen:

STOP 0X0000007B (0XF78D2524, 0XC0000034, 0X00000000, 0X00000000)

Apparently this is connected to the fact that it's a SATA drive and XP doesn't have drivers for it. Asus's drivers for it are for installing from within Windows (chipset drivers to be installed first, etc.).

I neither have the patience nor the energy to experiment with slipstreaming.

So I'm going to go with single booting Win7-64 Ultimate and take my chances.

Thanks for link, Chewy. If I can't get XP to run in a VM with the scanner, I'll look into it. There also Vuescan, but that's money.

Is it possible to create an XP VM with VMWare Player? I know early on there were hacks, I just don't know if VMW closed those or have made it easy now to create VMs through player. There's also XP mode in Win7 that I can try.

Thanks all for the help!
 

Bozo

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 12, 2002
Messages
4,396
Location
Twilight Zone
The stop error means it can't find a hard drive. Go into the BIOS and set the drive for IDE. It's probably set for AHCI. Both XP and Windows 7 will then load.
I am using VMWare Player for my virtual XP on a Server 2008 install. No hacks nessesary. Just be sure to install the VMWare tools when the XP finishes installing.
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Thanks Bozo. I first used VMW Workstation in 2001 when I bought version 2 and run a 3-tier setup (for educating myself) on an IBM T23 laptop with what was then a benchmark - one GB of RAM!
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Running the default Prime95 torture test since 4:35pm Oct 29 (19 hours now). No hiccups, but one odd thing; the system went to sleep (power led blinking) with the test running. Is that supposed to happen? I woke it after about 5 minutes and turned off sleep in the Power Settings.

CPU Tj. Max is 105. When the test started, core temps reached maximum in about 10 minutes: 85, 83, 81, 80 C. Even at 100% continuous load and CPU running at 3.6GHz, it has run cooler after those peaks. Current temps are 73, 72, 70, 69 C. I'm using Coretemp 1.0RC4.

I vaguely remember from the Celeron 300 days that CPUs would initially run hot till they "burned-in".

Is 19 hours good (no overclocking other than auto from 3.4 to 3.6 GHz, and case side panels open) or should I run it for another 24 hrs?

Thanks.
 

mubs

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Nov 22, 2002
Messages
4,908
Location
Somewhere in time.
Am happy as a clam!

1) VMWare Player 5.0 took my old (VMW Workstation 4.0) W98 VM and updated it. My legacy app inside of it works like a charm!

2) I created a new XP VM using Player and installed the scanner driver inside it. Works! Player installed XP in this VM in about 5 mins, shocking the hell out of me.

Overall, I find Player 5 to be beyond awesome. Two of my main concerns were easily solved by Player 5. I am thrilled that I am able to use a program from the mid nineties in Win7-64 today.

3) I was apprehensive about this one. I was able to find a Vista driver for my Spyder2Express Monitor Calibration device. It installed successfully, and I have a calibrated monitor now. This solves the last of my serious concerns.

I have a few loose ends to tie up, and with that, I am done, and very, very happy.

Thanks a lot guys, for your advice, encouragement and support!
 
Top