Puzzling Problems -- Pulling Hair

Paul wrote:
> Bill Anderson wrote:

>>
>> Now I am once again RMAing a stick of memory to Crucial. I'm also
>> buying two more identical sticks because he has told me that even if
>> 32-bit XP and Vista won't see all if it, my BIOS will and I'll get the
>> added advantage. I also figure that this way when the next stick goes
>> bad I'll have three to fall back on.
>>
>> I furthermore figure I'm an idiot.
>>
>
> Hmmm. Maybe with four sticks, you'll be able to scrape together two
> working ones ??? I guess that is what the young man at Crucial was
> thinking. [ I wonder at what point, they'd give you your money back ? ]
>

Yes, indeed. My problem is that I seem fixated on the notion that
Crucial produces superior memory modules. I think something about my
system is methodically murdering memory, but the nice people at Crucial
just don't see it that way. "Sounds like 'bad luck.'" Also sounds like
a crummy product, but I'm too nice to say that just yet. Things are
working fine right now, though.

So I press onward. Now that I have four gigabytes of memory installed,
I've loaded 64-bit Vista, which gives me four, count 'em, four OSes to
choose from when I boot. So far I'm having no 64-bit driver problems,
and I'd swear the 64-bit version of Internet Explorer is running faster
than the 32-bit version. Maybe things will start slowing down as I
continue to add applications. Or not. We'll see.

I'm hoping I'll be able to process video faster in 64-bit Vista.
Earlier this morning I compressed some video to fit on a blank DVD, and
I noticed no appreciable improvement in processing time. I'll continue
to experiment. Maybe I was running a 32-bit application in a 64-bit
environment, which I suppose really shouldn't yield a performance
improvement.

The system is reporting 4096 megabytes of RAM, which is nice. But I do
hope I begin to notice improvements in performance as I continue to play.

Again, many thanks for your invaluable advice, Paul. I am not ignoring
it -- in fact I've been doing some reading at your dirction. Still, I'm
waiting for the next disaster before I follow up completely on your
suggestions.

--
Bill Anderson

I am the Mighty Favog

Bill Anderson wrote:

> Still, I'm waiting for the next disaster before I follow up completely on your
> suggestions.
>

Hey, don't fight it. If things are working, enjoy :-)

Paul

Paul wrote:
> Bill Anderson wrote:
>
>> Still, I'm waiting for the next disaster before I follow up completely
>> on your suggestions.
>>
>
> Hey, don't fight it. If things are working, enjoy :-)
>
> Paul

I left Avast antivirus running all day today while I was at the office.
At a little after 1:00 (I could tell from the clock gadget) the system
froze. Found it stuck when I got home. Hit the reset button. Computer
wouldn't boot. Aha! I said, that's it for you, Crucial.

But no, the computer WOULD post, and I got into BIOS and discovered it
was seeing all my RAM but the system wasn't finding the hard drive that
contained my boot partitions.

I've learned through experience what to do with my P5K-E Deluxe WiFi Ap
when that happens: Jiggle and re-seat the SATA cable. Finicky SATA
connections came with the motherboard. Right out of the box it wouldn't
see any hard drives. Jiggle cables -- it sees one. Jiggle more and
more and more and now it sees all four. Today it was seeing three of
the four.

I have built at least five computers using Asus motherboards, and this
is the first one that has given me grief. Wish I could pin the blame
unequivocally on Asus or Crucial or Western Digital or Maxtor or ...
anybody but me.

When my computer works, it's great. But I'm getting tired of
troubleshooting. The case seems to be open more than it's closed.

--
Bill Anderson

I am the Mighty Favog

Bill Anderson wrote:
> Paul wrote:
>> Bill Anderson wrote:
>>
>>> Still, I'm waiting for the next disaster before I follow up
>>> completely on your suggestions.
>>>
>>
>> Hey, don't fight it. If things are working, enjoy :-)
>>
>> Paul
>
> I left Avast antivirus running all day today while I was at the office.
> At a little after 1:00 (I could tell from the clock gadget) the system
> froze. Found it stuck when I got home. Hit the reset button. Computer
> wouldn't boot. Aha! I said, that's it for you, Crucial.
>
> But no, the computer WOULD post, and I got into BIOS and discovered it
> was seeing all my RAM but the system wasn't finding the hard drive that
> contained my boot partitions.
>
> I've learned through experience what to do with my P5K-E Deluxe WiFi Ap
> when that happens: Jiggle and re-seat the SATA cable. Finicky SATA
> connections came with the motherboard. Right out of the box it wouldn't
> see any hard drives. Jiggle cables -- it sees one. Jiggle more and
> more and more and now it sees all four. Today it was seeing three of
> the four.
>
> I have built at least five computers using Asus motherboards, and this
> is the first one that has given me grief. Wish I could pin the blame
> unequivocally on Asus or Crucial or Western Digital or Maxtor or ...
> anybody but me.
>
> When my computer works, it's great. But I'm getting tired of
> troubleshooting. The case seems to be open more than it's closed.
>

The SATA connector mechanical design, was an afterthought. The main
purpose, judging by how they did it, was to enable hot plugging of
SATA or SAS hard drives, into server "backplanes". The connector is
intended, to enable sliding a drive into place.

Butchering the concept, and making motherboard connectors was the
after thought. The first generation of SATA, did not have anything
to secure the cable at all. Some people had then fall off while in
use.

The second generation have a plastic feature, that mates with a
metal clamp on the cable. That kind should not fall off. The cable
type you select for SATA, should match the type of connector being
used.

This one has a metal latch, but needs the proper motherboard connector
to work properly.

http://www.cooldrives.com/lasaii30sida.html

Paul