Posts by dcc

Are you getting any beep codes from the motherboard?

You can eliminate the PSU being the problem with this test. First unplug the computer from the wall receptacle, remove the PSU connectors from the motherboard, on the 24 pin connector there is one green wire, place a jumper from the green wire to any black wire, plug the computer back in and see if the PSU fan runs and stays on.

Did you format and partition the hdd?

btw...being in my mid fifties I have also joined that exclusive club of Old Farts.

This article may provide you with the information that you need.

The listed requirements for a PSU for that card is 400W, and that Antec is a good PSU, I don't think this is your problem.

The noise that you hear when it first starts could also be you optical devices spinning up, and yes it could be the hdd. Is the six pin power connector from the PCIe plugged in?

The coincidence of this happening immediately after changing the card makes me wonder if you loosened something in the process. I would go back and re-seat all of your cards, RAM, power connections.

That board is outdated, and Crucial was the only site that I found any information on it and they disagree with the number of RAM slots.

Try SIW, it will not only show you the number of slots and the amount of the RAM in them, it will tell you the capacity and the specs of each module. Look for this in memory.

Yeah i'm still confused about teh socket thing.... guess i'll have to read up on it.

Um, nothin' yet, buildin' from sratch.

How much do you want to spend on this?

M$ is notorious for releasing their products and then letting the general public find the bugs. Anyone wish to place a small wager on whether there will be a SP1?

Have you scanned for nastys?

Do not open the case if its still in warranty - just send it back
Also, never ever poek about inside the PSU fan or you may die

The fan that was mentioned was the HSF, not the PSU fan.

As for the dangers of shock from the PSU, the danger is with the capacitors which can hold a decent amount of voltage for a very long time and can give you a nasty jolt. You have to remember that it's not the voltage that is dangerous to the heart, it's the amperage. The capacitors that I've seen in PSUs have all been pc mounted with the leads being accessible only if you remove the board, basically you would have to work at getting shocked.

Electric livestock fences have an output of 10000V, the voltage by itself isn't usually fatal, but under the proper circumstances it can be.

Good to hear.

The SATA2 will work with the SATA controller, but it will only operate at the SATA speed of 1.5Gbps.

The socket with its number of pins is related to the CPU, example...Athlon's 64 3200+ CPU is a socket 939 which operates at 2.0GHz.

How much do want to spend on this computer, and what parts do you have, monitor, keyboard, mouse,etc?

When you install a OS in one computer it recognizes the drivers needed for that motherboard, and when you take that hdd and place it with a different motherboard it will try to find the drivers for that board. This creates problem that you OS may or may not survive.

I you wish to wipe the drive as suggested you could use Kill Disk, it's a free download.

I have to agree, try downloading another browser like Firefox, at worst it would work and you would then know that your problem is with the IE6. You may find that you like it better than IE. If you do install Firefox let me know, there is a way to speed up the pages opening.

One of the problems that I've read about associated with IE7 after it is unintalled is that it can corrupt the IE6. You could also try reinstalling the IE6.

I got started on the computer today. Here are the parts
Asus P5B-E
C2D- Conroe 6400
Lite-on DVD RW
Lite-on DVD Rom
Mitsumi floppy/card reader
G.Skill DDR2 800
XFX 7600
visiontek tv tuner
2-320 gb seagate hard drive
Running MCE 2005
I got it all set up and everything seemed to be going fine. I have been installing the drivers and windows updates and all of that was done. I was now working on getting some software installed and had installed the logitech setpoint for the keyboard and mouse. I installed the antivirus avg, windows defender which I had to uninstall because it kept on going corrupt. Anyway I was messing with the Al Lifestyles features and was just learning and playing around a little bit with fan settings etc. Nothing major at all. It had to restart and bam. It won't restart. The fans and dvd roms work, and the power light on the mobod is lit. No power to the screen at all now. What is up. I cleared the cmos and it said it couldn't find the dvd rom, floppy etc. but it won't let me get into the bios. Does anyone have any idea at all. I have built many computers and had minor problems but never this. WoW.

You have conflicting information here, first you say that there is no power to the screen which I take to mean that there is …

The PSU is one of the most important components of you computer, don't go cheap with this component. I would try either a Antec or Thermaltake.

Just to make sure that the problem is the PSU try this, turn off the PSU by the switch on it or unplug it. take the 20/24 pin connector off of the motherboard and take a piece of wire and short the green wire to any black wire, turn the switch on or plug the cord back in. If your fans run the porblem may not be bad. If you have a Volt meter check the different rail voltages.

You can find the color code for the different voltages here.

Try googling "how to build a computer", there are a whole slew of articles that a fairly short and easy to understand.

Neik e has a good point, I would open the case and see it there is any obstruction to the fan.

You might also try starting in safe mode and run chkdsk. If you need instructions go here

If you have access to another computer try installing the hdd as a slave and see if you can access your files. If you can and the noise persist start copying you files because this is the sign of eminent failure.

You should either install the OS on one of the new drives and then transfer your files, or use a utility like Synmantec Ghost or Acronis True Image to make a mirror image of you existing drive and transfer that to one of the new drives.

If the controller is integrated in the chipset you should be able to slipsteam XP and the drivers, or use a ghost image. If it's not, back to the floppy.

well its true. Ive installed XP on 8 pcs with SATA and 3 of them required me to choose "push f6 to ibsert a driver floppy for your scsi/raid controller"

see:

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=20748
http://cruftbox.com/blog/archives/000867.html
http://www.mysuperpc.com/build/pc_sata_install_windows_operating_system.shtml

its a well documented problem. Most OEM'S include slipstream the sata drivers thatw hy if you buy a dell and try to do a standard xp retial install on it then it fails miserably finding the hdds

So these three time that didn't work were with Dells? Did you try to slip stream the drivers with the OS?

Have you tried enabling the PAE?

Stuki, The amount of performance that you would gain by placing the ATA hdd in an external enclosure is something you would probably never notice in your situation. The bottom line in answering your question is yes you can use both ATA and SATA together in a computer.

I don't know what jbennet is talking about, if you couldn't install Windows on a SATA hdd they wouldn't be selling. Windows is not exclusive to IDE installations.

what, the card?

No, this..."but beware - dont get rid of the ide drive as windows doesnt like being installed to a drive which is on a card."

How do you figure?

do a google for "orcalogic" - im not sure though, they might be UK only..

They have a RAM finding wizard too and bive got thinkpad stuff off them before. Very cheap

What we were trying to promote here was not cheap RAM but good RAM. Kingston is at the lower rung on my list of good RAM, and their value RAM is not to be trusted. You get what you pay for.

btw, I wish you would quit telling people that you think they have to use matched pairs in situations where they are not running in dual channel, some people are confused enough with out your help.:lol:

From Simply Left Behind

Pretty stupid i would say :D

Back to the topic.:rolleyes:

It's situations like this that make me believe that we would all be better off if we just removed all of the warning label off of all the dangerous products and let Darwinism do its thing.:lol:

no this is a very serious difference actually. if you want to see my point without benchmarking, try to add an old 420Mb hdd into a new computer with a fast drive. you'll see the difference right away

You do like extremes.:eek:

btw, interesting what happens when you google members' names.:lol:

we seem to agree in all topics, but arguing is fun :)

You betcha, especially if I can learn something new in the process.:)

when it works as a usb external drive, it is not used by the system for the system's purposes. just like a cdrw wouldn't slow the computer down, because it's not an integral part of the system

I think we're talking racers and mini vans again, but I see your point.:lol:

you might be right, but if some extra performance is easily achievable even at home, why not go for it? all you need to do is ask the shopkeeper to give you a matching pair, he probably has a stock from the same series anyhow

Just arguing the point, the truth of the matter is that I agree with you. You will find better deals offered for pairs of RAM.:cheesy:

no problem at all, only that the entire system will work with the speed of the slowest component. usually the slowest component is the hard drive, since it had mechanical speeds, when the CPU and RAM have electronic speeds.
That means that the slowest HDD (currently the 30Gb) will be the one setting up the speed for the entire system.
I'd put it outside in a usb rack or something, for storage and data carrying :)

What difference does it make in having the ATA drive externally operated opposed to leaving it in the computer?

this "misconception" is a result of quite a few very heave tests we run where I work, before we send one of our PC's to the customer. The software installed on those PCs is an automatic 3d modelling system, which runs very heavy on the RAM, and every nanosecond is important. since we made installing only fully matching memory pairs a rule, the performance rate (rendering speeds etc) of the machines went up by at least 15%, and on some - much higher.

If you take two modules from two different manufacturers with the same specs there will always be some small variance, but for most computers being used at home this isn't going to produce any appreciable difference. Comparing your application to that of your average home user is like comparing the performance requirements of a Grand Prix racer and the family mini van. :lol:

it is all a matter of your motherboard's ability. if it can use dual channel - get 2x512 PC2700 or PC3200 DDR (but don't buy a cheap brand, because some of the cheaper ones cannot do proper underclocking. I'd go with kingston).
if the MB can't use dual channel memory, 1Gb stick is cheaper than two 512 sticks, and it will work just fine in any slot, 0 or 1. doesn't matter with DDR, only with RDRAM.

Kingston is ok, but stay away from their value RAM.

yes they do make them

but beware - dont get rid of the ide drive as windows doesnt like being installed to a drive which is on a card.

:eek: ??????? Where do you get that?

it will work. but if you use ONLY sata, you will get a much better performance, which IMO beats the extra 30Gb.

There is no problem using both types of hdds, the SATA is going to be the faster drive, but I don't think you are going to experience any appreciable difference is normal use. Set the SATA up as your primary drive and use the ATA for storage.

... and the generic PCs are easier and cheaper when it comes to maintenance and upgrades :)

That's not true, retail computers have the same problems as custom rigs, it largely depends on how competent the builder is. The maintenance is the same with either one.

As for upgrades, one of the biggest problems that I see is that the manufactured computers generally will have a PSU just large enough to run the components it has installed. If you want to install one of the newer graphics cards there is a good chance you will need to up grade the PSU. Now we get into another problem with manufactured computers, there are companies that are very proprietorial about their parts. This is true to the extent that they will install non-ATX PSUs, this means that in order to upgrade the PSU for that graphics card you now will have to buy one from that manufacturer.

All manufacturers have failures, that's a given. But I will bet that if you did a study you would find that the custom builds out live the manufactured ones.

i got a pc with Semperon, pci express mobo, 512mb ram, heatsink, fan, psu and case for under £150 (300 dollars or so) off of www.novatech.com - dunno if its uk only, have a look and see if theres a us version

A little late to be contributing to this one aren't you? That thread is almost two years old.:eek:

if its DDR it needs to be installed in mathcing pairs so your choices are:

That is not correct unless their motherboard supports dual channel and they are going to be running the RAM in dual channel.

A single 1GB module may be cheaper that two 512MB modules, but the tow 512MB modules will be faster that the single 1GB.

There seems to be a misconception regarding the RAM used in dual channel, it doesn't need to be from the same manufacturer. As long as the modules have the same spec/timings they will work just fine.

Wait.

I think DDR RAM needs to be installed in matching pairs (e.g 2x512mb)

The only time that you need matching pairs is if you are running in dual channel, and that computer was built before dual channel came about.

qazqaz, Are you sure that you have the correct model for that motherboard? Crucial doesn't usually make mistakes like that.

As for mixing speeds, you can mix speeds but there is a trade off. Ex. if you have PC3200 in your computer and you add PC2700 the PC3200 will slow down to the speed of the PC2700, this is called underclocking.

You may want to consider taking a can of compressed air and blow out the dust on the HSF.

IE7 strikes again. This is one the problems that I have read about after installing IE7. It seems that M$ has released another product for the public to debug.

Try disabling the automatic updates and get them manually.

If you want to go back to IE6 read this

This is one of the many reasons that I use Firefox, btw...Firefox is a standalone browser.

It shouldn't be a problem. The ATA and SATA use different cables and both hdds will operate independently from each other without having to make one the master and the other slave.

Crucial is some of the better RAM out there, and if you go to their web site they have two means of determining what RAM is going to be compatible with your computer. Their "Advisor" will prompt you to enter your computers information and then will show what they suggest. The second method actually scans you computer and then will show what they suggest. They guarantee that the RAM will be compatible.

Legacy ports haven't been used since about 1998, what in the world do you have? If you have removed all of the screws and cables you should be able to slide the board away from the rear of the case to free it, and then lift it out.

The only manual I was able to find was a 10 page one. It didnt have anything regarding it.

Where did you find the 124 page manual?

http://www.soyousa.com/downloads/filedesc.php?id=2161

I took the time to download the manual and the only mention that I found for a beep code was a reference to a beep indicating that there is a problem with the HSF assembly. Check to see if your CPU heatsink and fan are clean, and that the assembly is properly mounted and working.

Anything that is attached to the motherboard by a flat (IDE ribbon) calbe will need to be connected to a four pin (molex) connector, there are two rounded corners so it will only plug in one way. The floppy disk drive takes a mini connector which is keyed so that it will on connect one way.

Check your user's maual for error codes and let us know what it says.

I started to download you manual, it's 124 pages of adobe, and I'm on dial up...I don't have that much time or patience.

What makes you think that the mouse was the cause?

Is this a new build?

Ok...I'm confused, is this a SATA hdd or ATA? You mention the drive being a SATA and then mention connecting it with a IDE cable. SATA drives do not use a IDE cable.

Installation Software (DiscWizard)
Seagate simplifies the installation of hard drives with this program. This software also overcomes many system BIOS and operating system limitations that can complicate the installation of higher-capacity ATA (IDE) interface drives.

Did you download this installation wizard?

The wizard that you used should have allowed you to make a partition lagre enough for the whole drive. The limitations that they are referring to is the 137GB limit the BIOS has.

Hello

I would like to know wether In case I connect a cdrom as a slave to a primary HD, would it lawer its performance?

I would like to know that in both IDE and SATA connections

Thanks
Tori

No it will not effect the performance of either device.

This doesn't apply to SATA as their are no connected as master and slave.