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Post by elvisuk on Apr 20, 2009 16:24:19 GMT
When you say this " have you upgraded your memory speed Elvis??" if you mean dims then no thy came with the motherboard.
Thanks confused
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Post by ken on Apr 20, 2009 17:25:02 GMT
If you got the memory modules with the board Elvis, flashing the BIOS shouldn't be necessary. It was just that pushing F1 got me thinking and I was comparing it to my own trials. You dont need to be flashing them, if you dont really need to. I've been fine tuning this afternoon.  Only gained 0.1 on the gaming graphics, but any gain shows you aint stuffed up and I wasn't expecting a major change. Looking at your picture of The Nightmare, I would put a shorter SATA cable in, with straight plugs and try and keep it as straight a possible. When the plastic gets warm that low bend might become more acute and give you the cycling on bootup. That would account for a cold hard boot and cycling on a soft reboot. KC |
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 20, 2009 19:29:22 GMT
Yes i got a bundle, CPU, fans, motherboard, memory, power supply and case i thort it would be easer that way (boy did i make a mistake)  when you say " put a shorter SATA cable in, with straight plugs" do you mean without the L shape on the ends? i am going to the doctors Tuesday so i can get one then. As you say it may be geting to hot, but if i put straight on in it will have a bend on it as well as i don't see anyway round it. Thanks |
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Post by ken on Apr 20, 2009 20:15:53 GMT
I have just looked at the larger picture and I think it's my eyesight thats your trouble here. The cable from the hard drive looks alright, I was getting it tangled up with the one from the optical drive. Now I have looked at the big picture, they both look OK. As you use Linux most of the time, do you have the DVD drive as the first boot?? With SATA, Windows prefers to have the hard drive as first boot. It might be worth a try and just change over in the BIOS when you need to. Dual boot can be a bit of a pain, when mixing 2 different families. Its not exactly easy when mixing Windows, W7 wants priority over XP and will take charge if your not looking. The Nightmare looks good compared to your old Workhorse. With more new computers being tested The Beast has dropped in rank on the CPU. That last bit of tweaking is still keeping her in the top 5% over all.  KC |
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 20, 2009 23:25:11 GMT
H! KC, Yes i have the DVD as 1st boot and 2an H/Drive never had a problem before but i will give it a try, change in the bios next time i boot i am in town today at about 9.00am so i will pick up a few SATA cables as thy always come in handy ;D yes it's a lot tidyer than my Old Workhorse and speaking  of old The Beast must be getting on now that's why it's only in the top 5%? ;D |
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Post by ken on Apr 21, 2009 8:41:22 GMT
The Beast mark 10 is 4 months old now, so shes getting well past it. Will have to start planning mark 11 ready for the new year and see if I can keep her tottering along until then.
KC
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 21, 2009 19:04:20 GMT
"The Beast mark 10 is 4 months old now" you most have lots of cast to chuck away KC  i only panic when my computers are about 4 to 5 years old Well My Nightmare was running without any problems from 5pm till 1.35am on Monday 20th. I did not get to get any cables to day i will get them tomorrow all being well. I was thinking could it be a software problem ? what do you think as i have taken some stuff off. |
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Post by mikkh on Apr 21, 2009 21:00:22 GMT
You need one of these Ken www.web-systems.co.uk/?page=Products&pid=4328You're obviously not scared of spending money and HD performance does make a lot of difference to the overall speed of a system. I recently knocked up a system from parts hanging around and was quite disappointed it seemed sluggish despite having a reasonable CPU and plenty of RAM. Then I remembered I just chucked in an old 40 GB HD, just to get it up and running. A new drive made it fly compared to it's previous performance |
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Post by ken on Apr 21, 2009 23:13:38 GMT
Bit pricey Mikk. I bought 4 x 1Tb Seagate Barracuda 300, SATA II 3 Gb interface, for about £400. They are 32 Mb cache, but only 7200 rpm and they read and write a wee bit quicker than me.
KC
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 23, 2009 14:30:31 GMT
H! KC,
Just to let you know My Nightmare has been runing OK for the past few days in Linux Mint so i am going to run it in XP pro for a few days just to see what happens.
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Post by ken on Apr 23, 2009 15:43:40 GMT
Great stuff Elvis, if it runs with one it should run with the other. The hardware must be OK, so if anything happens its probably Windows drivers to blame.
I've taken XP x 64 off now and only running Windows 7 on The Beast. If I get trouble and need XP, I can still boot off the 4th hard drive in the eSATA docking station. I've still dual boot on my laptop, XP SP3 x 86 and Windows 7 x 64. I love Windows 7 nowI have got the all the right drivers.
KC
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 24, 2009 0:13:42 GMT
H! KC, Well i got it back tonight about 11.00pm in Linux Mint it just stalled i had to restart by pressing the power button, started OK but it stalled again so i shut it down till 1.00am and it's fine again? So i don't now what to try now  |
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Post by ken on Apr 24, 2009 6:09:37 GMT
I dunno Elvis, without seeing it I'm beat. I couldn't even find your motherboard, to see if there are any BIOS updates. Intermittent crashes suggest a power problem, but you have got a new PSU. Unstable memory settings, could cause a hit or miss run or not. Thats why I was looking for BIOS updates, but I cant even find your board. Maybe yours was the only one they didn't throw away. SATA cables could account for not booting, but once running they dont usually play up and yours look alright in the photo unless I'm missing something. Photos can lie, contary to popular belief. Thats why a saggy cable can work perfect, until you reboot. Computers do my head in I tell ya, dunno why I bother.
KC
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Post by nike on Apr 25, 2009 0:19:45 GMT
If all else fails, then look at the ram being the culprit. More often than not, that's where the problem lies. It's happened to me on heaps of occasions, and now I keep a good supply of spare ram just for these sorts of times.
Ram is pretty cheap these days, so buying a couple of new ones is not really a hassle to most people, and if it's DDR2, then it's as cheap as. I have had brand new ram fail from the get go, which makes fault finding difficult as "it's new ram !" isn't it?, but that has been the problem from the start.
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 25, 2009 1:32:22 GMT
H! KC & Nike, Well 4.45pm it Froze on me so i rebooted and can't do anything in Linux mint it's a password problem anyway i rebooted into XP Pro and i can use XP, i was looking through EVEREST Ultimate Edition and did a test (see piccy) i am going to do sum more later and see wot happens   |
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Post by ken on Apr 25, 2009 1:54:48 GMT
What I was thinking Kev, these bundles are made up to get rid of stuff that is getting unsellable. Get something back at least. The motherboard makers list what RAM the boards can use and so the retailers take then at their word and chuck in any memory on the list that they have got a lot left over of. It might take a BIOS flash to stabilise that speed of memory, with the processor they have put in. There might not be anything wrong with Elvis's memory, that a BIOS flash can't fix. His computer is reading the full amount. I haven't been able to find any information on his board.
KC
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Post by ken on Apr 25, 2009 2:01:01 GMT
There seems to be something going on between the CPU and the memory Elvis. My last post might be on the right track.
KC
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Post by nike on Apr 25, 2009 3:51:06 GMT
Elvis, your computer is running DDR2 1066 ram, just go out and get yourself a new stick of it, preferrably a 2gig one and try that mate, even if it's DDR2 800mhz. Your motherboard is compatable for up to 1333mhz ram so 800mhz or 1066mhz is sure to be Ok.
I can buy 2gig of DDR2 800mhz for $33.00AU or preferrably, a 4 gig kit of DDR2 1066mhz, (2 x 2gig) for $85.00AU You could just try one stick and if that works, put the other one in as well.
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 25, 2009 12:29:33 GMT
H! KC & Nike, Well i don't think it's the power supply as for the memory yes ithink it may be or the MSI motherboard (i dislike MSI motherboards and mator H/Drives) anyway i have had a look inside My Nightmare and the number on the motherboard is MSI P6NGM and i have tryed to attach a file about the mothrboard which may help but i don't now if it will upload as it's the first time for me  |
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Post by nike on Apr 25, 2009 23:03:05 GMT
I used MSI in the early days of my new computer builds Elvis, and found them to be pretty reliable. The fact that many of the "Name Brand" manufacturers use MSI boards testifies to that fact. I don't have a real problem with them except that they don't have many of the new features incorporated into other boards of the same era. Anyhow, the ram is cheaper than a new motherboard, so give that a go and see if it fixes the problem. I'm sure it will, judging by what you have told us so far.
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 26, 2009 0:47:31 GMT
H! Nike, ;D Yes i will have to look in to the memory see how much £ it will cost and when i can get it. My first MSI board was for an AMD chip i got and the board would not work so i took it back to the shop and the shop had gone bust in the mean time and i got told to go to the manufacture email after email and thy sent me a new board a year later cost me a tenner to send it too them in the first place, six month later that board went kuput on me as well |
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Post by nike on Apr 26, 2009 1:25:15 GMT
The cheaper models of the MSI range were a little iffy Elvis, but then there were a lot of boards that were like that as well, even ASUS. At one stage, I couldn't find a cheaper motherboard that I trusted to give a good long service life. The MSI boards I used were in the upper price range, and they were fine. The last MSI board I purchased was a $300.00 Socket "A" board, the equivalent of the closest competitor of the time, an ASUS A7A266-E Deluxe. I used an Athlon XP2100 Palamino on it, which was the biggest Palamino chipset processor that board would take. It ran fine for a couple of years while I had it, and I ended up selling it to a friend when I upgraded my system. He had it for a further 3 years and it gave him no problems at all.
The simplest, easiest, and cheapest solution to sort out if it's the mobo or the ram, is to buy some new "Brand Name" ram, put it in and see the result. If it still re-boots, then blame the mobo, but I don't think it will be the board myself... JMHO
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Post by ken on Apr 26, 2009 8:46:17 GMT
Theres no BIOS updates for that board that I could find Elvis. It just says plug and play BIOS and will adjust itself to anything you plug in, as long as its on the list of specified parts. Looks like Kevs way is the cheapest way to go.
KC
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 26, 2009 12:18:44 GMT
H! KC & Nike, well it's working OK now so i am going to have a look for some more ram and see how much it costs in the mean time i will just run the computer and see whot happens and hope |
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Post by ken on Apr 26, 2009 18:00:39 GMT
Good luck Elvis.
KC
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 27, 2009 0:38:11 GMT
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Post by nike on Apr 27, 2009 5:47:27 GMT
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Post by ken on Apr 27, 2009 12:08:45 GMT
The MSI US of A site has more information on what parts to use than the UK site Elvis. They have a list of recommended brands of RAM and PCI/PCI-E cards. It's so uncomplicated, it should be the easiest board in the world to set up. They always say that, even about top of the range overclockers.
KC
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 27, 2009 14:39:14 GMT
H! KC & Nike,
I was thinking of getting a stick of 2GB DDR and leveing one stick of 1GB in that would give me 3GB as i am using XP Pro 32bit it only reads 3-3.5 GB says crucial.com
"How much memory your Windows OS will recognize depends on which version of Windows you are running. 32-bit versions of Windows will see (and utilize) only 3GB or 3.5GB. To utilize more memory, install a 64-bit version of your OS."
What do you think?
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Post by elvisuk on Apr 27, 2009 14:45:33 GMT
H! KC & Nike, I have been looking on Crucial.com and i am thinking about getting one or two sticks of these? All MSI (Micro Star) P6NGM Memory Upgrades (RAM) / CT761795 Memory Upgrade for the MSI (Micro Star) P6NGM Motherboard 2GB, 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module 2GB, 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module CT25664AA800 Module Size: 2GB Package: 240-pin DIMM Feature: DDR2 PC2-6400 Specs: DDR2 PC2-6400 • CL=6 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR2-800 • 1.8V • 256Meg x 64 • £19.54 inc. VAT* 240-pin DDR2 DIMM Banking: 2 (2 banks of 1) Chipset: nVidia MCP73U/PV/V DDR2 SDRAM Frequencies: PC2-4200, PC2-5300, and PC2-6400 Error Detection Support: Non-ECC only Graphics Support: PCI Express x16 Max Component Density: 1024 Max Unbuffered DDR2 SDRAM: 4096MB Module Types Supported: Unbuffered only Supported DRAM Types: DDR2 SDRAM only USB Support: 2.x Compliant Q: Will my system recognize the maximum upgrade? A: Possibly How much memory your Windows OS will recognize depends on which version of Windows you are running. 32-bit versions of Windows will see (and utilize) only 3GB or 3.5GB. To utilize more memory, install a 64-bit version of your OS. More information about OS memory maximums can be found at www.crucial.com/kb/answer.aspx?qid=4251. Price ea. Qty. Total CT25664AA800 2GB, 240-pin DIMM shop for more P6NGM DDR2 upgrades £ 16.99 Quantity should be numeric £ 33.98 Subtotal £ 33.98 VAT Tax calculated at 15% for United Kingdom £ 5.47 Shipping: Free Shipping (3-5 work days from dispatch) GBP 0.00 Royal Mail Special Delivery (1-2 work days from dispatch) GBP 2.49 Shipping £ 2.49 Estimated Total £ 41.94 This is the total for 4GB DDR |
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when you say " put a shorter SATA cable in, with straight plugs" do you mean without the L shape on the ends? i am going to the doctors Tuesday so i can get one then. 
of old The Beast must be getting on now that's why it's only in the top 5%? ;D
i only panic when my computers are about 4 to 5 years old 
Dec 2, 2024 6:42:15 GMT
