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I originally spendt 280 on an ABIT KG7 RAID mobo, an XP1800, a Radeon 8500 and two sticks of memory for it, only to find out after two months headscratching and a new powersupply the board is about as stable as a tower block made of jelly in the wind, particularly when you plug a SoundBlaster Live into it. So I forked out for an Audigy, sure enough it was a lot better behaved, but not 100% okay, and when one crash lost me three days work I went ballistic, and bought a new motherboard, an EpoX 8K5A3+, which comes with dual RAID and sound onboard (thus making my SB Live obscelete twice over). Around the same sort of time my girlfriends computer went kaputt, so we got her a new processor, and stuck in t2*DdGN
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I originally spendt 280 on an ABIT KG7 RAID mobo, an XP1800, a Radeon 8500 and two sticks of memory for it, only to find out after two months headscratching and a new powersupply the board is about as stable as a tower block made of jelly in the wind, particularly when you plug a SoundBlaster Live into it. So I forked out for an Audigy, sure enough it was a lot better behaved, but not 100% okay, and when one crash lost me three days work I went ballistic, and bought a new motherboard, an EpoX 8K5A3+, which comes with dual RAID and sound onboard (thus making my SB Live obscelete twice over). Around the same sort of time my girlfriends computer went kaputt, so we got her a new processor, and stuck in t2*DdGN
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Argh, my PC's homosexuality is leaking!!! Save the internet!
Original post as it should have been, barring any tranfer mischief:
I originally spendt 280 on an ABIT KG7 RAID mobo, an XP1800, a Radeon 8500 and two sticks of memory for it, only to find out after two months headscratching and a new powersupply the board is about as stable as a tower block made of jelly in the wind, particularly when you plug a SoundBlaster Live into it. So I forked out for an Audigy, sure enough it was a lot better behaved, but not 100% okay, and when one crash lost me three days work I went ballistic, and bought a new motherboard, an EpoX 8K5A3+, which comes with dual RAID and sound onboard (thus making my SB Live obscelete twice over). Around the same sort of time my girlfriends computer went kaputt, so we got her a new processor, and stuck in that ABIT mobo, the Audigy to keep it happy, half of my RAM and ANOTHER new power supply. An added joy was that during the installation her primary HD broke, which it had been threatening to do for ages.
So the new board arrives, and initially everything seems fine, no more random hangs, but there's some curious problem, where everything grinds to a halt whenever the computer is loading files and playing music. Eventually the problem is tracked down to my primary Hard Disk stuck in PIO transfer mode, and nothing was able to get it out, not even on my girlfriends machine.
So, a new Hard Disk later, and everything seems to be running okay. Until I try running a 3D app, when this odd jittering effect presents itself. 3DMark2001, for instance, would be totally smooth for about a second, then freeze for an instance, then smooth, then freeze, the timing being totally regular. Figuring it was a BIOS problem I tried any setting that looked like it might have an effect, but to no avail.
In the meantime, my girlfriend, flush with cash as she is, went out and bought a new laptop, rending her PC (with my original bits in it) obselete less than a month after she first took possession of it. So I decided it should go downstairs and play a double role as a media server and a desktop for my housemate who only has a P166 laptop. To do this, I'd need to put the thing in the hall and run extension leads through to his room, as the hard disks are much too noisy to be in someones bedroom overnight. So I went out and spent almost 50 on a new monitor cable, a long USB cable, a USB converter and a powered USB hub. I left the keyboard and mouse to him, I wasn't forking out for everything. In the end he got his mouse working, but there's no such thing as a keyboard PS/2->USB adaptor, and the cheapest USB keyboards clock in at 25 which is more than he's prepared to pay. So that computer with my old 1500Mhz processor, my SB Audigy, 256MB of my memory and 40GB of my HD space is now sitting under the stairs gather dust, not even switched on.
Going back to my computer, it was slowly becoming clear that the graphics problems were not going to be solved by changing settings, and it wasn't the Radeon 8500 at fault - it was going to mean another new motherboard, barely a month after I bought the last. To add insult to injury, I had bought that EpoX off a private trader on Ebay, who had 0 feedback (let this be a lesson to all of us). He had sworn the motherboard had worked, and barring this mysterious AGP issue it does, but it's of no use to me now. The best bit of all is that they just released a BIOS patch for this motherboard which gives the RAID controllers RAID5 functionality, which you only usually see on very expensive add-on cards.
So I've gone the whole hog now, an ABIT NF7-S arrived through the post this morning, a truly space-age bit of kit, AGP8X, serial ATA, and at last everything seems to work! Well not quite, there's a weird problem with the temperature sensor, and I can't enable USB2.0 unless I get XP service pack 1, but after 4 months of swearing at broken bits of hardware I FINALLY HAVE A COMPUTER I CAN DO MY COURSEWORK ON |o/
Of course all this is subject to it not manifesting some fault in the next couple of months. Not that I have any money left now, having forked out for 3 motherboards, 2 processors, 2 powersupplies, 2 sticks of memory, a soundcard, a hard disk and more than enough leads to hang myself with. On my desk I have two defective hard disks, an obselete Soundcard, and in a box somewhere I have my girlfriends original motherboard (probably broken), her original processor (probably alright) and my defective motherboard, not to mention the full system under the stairs providing a home for some dust mites.
I hate computers :O/
I originally spendt 280 on an ABIT KG7 RAID mobo, an XP1800, a Radeon 8500 and two sticks of memory for it, only to find out after two months headscratching and a new powersupply the board is about as stable as a tower block made of jelly in the wind, particularly when you plug a SoundBlaster Live into it. So I forked out for an Audigy, sure enough it was a lot better behaved, but not 100% okay, and when one crash lost me three days work I went ballistic, and bought a new motherboard, an EpoX 8K5A3+, which comes with dual RAID and sound onboard (thus making my SB Live obscelete twice over). Around the same sort of time my girlfriends computer went kaputt, so we got her a new processor, and stuck in that ABIT mobo, the Audigy to keep it happy, half of my RAM and ANOTHER new power supply. An added joy was that during the installation her primary HD broke, which it had been threatening to do for ages.
So the new board arrives, and initially everything seems fine, no more random hangs, but there's some curious problem, where everything grinds to a halt whenever the computer is loading files and playing music. Eventually the problem is tracked down to my primary Hard Disk stuck in PIO transfer mode, and nothing was able to get it out, not even on my girlfriends machine.
So, a new Hard Disk later, and everything seems to be running okay. Until I try running a 3D app, when this odd jittering effect presents itself. 3DMark2001, for instance, would be totally smooth for about a second, then freeze for an instance, then smooth, then freeze, the timing being totally regular. Figuring it was a BIOS problem I tried any setting that looked like it might have an effect, but to no avail.
In the meantime, my girlfriend, flush with cash as she is, went out and bought a new laptop, rending her PC (with my original bits in it) obselete less than a month after she first took possession of it. So I decided it should go downstairs and play a double role as a media server and a desktop for my housemate who only has a P166 laptop. To do this, I'd need to put the thing in the hall and run extension leads through to his room, as the hard disks are much too noisy to be in someones bedroom overnight. So I went out and spent almost 50 on a new monitor cable, a long USB cable, a USB converter and a powered USB hub. I left the keyboard and mouse to him, I wasn't forking out for everything. In the end he got his mouse working, but there's no such thing as a keyboard PS/2->USB adaptor, and the cheapest USB keyboards clock in at 25 which is more than he's prepared to pay. So that computer with my old 1500Mhz processor, my SB Audigy, 256MB of my memory and 40GB of my HD space is now sitting under the stairs gather dust, not even switched on.
Going back to my computer, it was slowly becoming clear that the graphics problems were not going to be solved by changing settings, and it wasn't the Radeon 8500 at fault - it was going to mean another new motherboard, barely a month after I bought the last. To add insult to injury, I had bought that EpoX off a private trader on Ebay, who had 0 feedback (let this be a lesson to all of us). He had sworn the motherboard had worked, and barring this mysterious AGP issue it does, but it's of no use to me now. The best bit of all is that they just released a BIOS patch for this motherboard which gives the RAID controllers RAID5 functionality, which you only usually see on very expensive add-on cards.
So I've gone the whole hog now, an ABIT NF7-S arrived through the post this morning, a truly space-age bit of kit, AGP8X, serial ATA, and at last everything seems to work! Well not quite, there's a weird problem with the temperature sensor, and I can't enable USB2.0 unless I get XP service pack 1, but after 4 months of swearing at broken bits of hardware I FINALLY HAVE A COMPUTER I CAN DO MY COURSEWORK ON |o/
Of course all this is subject to it not manifesting some fault in the next couple of months. Not that I have any money left now, having forked out for 3 motherboards, 2 processors, 2 powersupplies, 2 sticks of memory, a soundcard, a hard disk and more than enough leads to hang myself with. On my desk I have two defective hard disks, an obselete Soundcard, and in a box somewhere I have my girlfriends original motherboard (probably broken), her original processor (probably alright) and my defective motherboard, not to mention the full system under the stairs providing a home for some dust mites.
I hate computers :O/
Miserableman wrote:
> Argh, my PC's homosexuality is leaking!!! Save the internet!
I doubt that the technology of your pc is so advanced that it can choose its sexuality
> Argh, my PC's homosexuality is leaking!!! Save the internet!
I doubt that the technology of your pc is so advanced that it can choose its sexuality
You should hear what happened to Phil.
Glad to know it's ok though.
Glad to know it's ok though.
Needless to say I am now stunningly broke.
I thought your first draft was admirably concise :)
Miserableman wrote:
> Argh, my PC's homosexuality is leaking!!! Save the internet!
That, is the most entertaining quote I've seen all day.
> Argh, my PC's homosexuality is leaking!!! Save the internet!
That, is the most entertaining quote I've seen all day.
unknown kernel wrote:
> I thought your first draft was admirably concise :)
It better encapsulates the frustration, I felt
> I thought your first draft was admirably concise :)
It better encapsulates the frustration, I felt