Phaeton Arrives and Brings Disappointment

Author: jawapro
Date: Tue 08/04/2008 11:09 AM




Isn’t it amazing how quickly you can go from being insanely excited to being devastated and depressed? Read on…

You see - the last components of my new PC (code-named Phaeton) arrived yesterday.

 

The keyboard, mouse, and fans aren’t mine - they were bought by a friend.

So last night I had a great few hours opening boxes and trying to work out what everything was and where it went.

 

^ Here’s a picture of Phaeton without most of it’s innards.

 

^ Here’s the motherboard - the base of the machine, upon which everything else is built.

 

The CPU - the ‘brain’ of Phaeton. It’s a Quad-core, so it basically is 4 CPUs on one.

 

^ This rather large CPU cooling fan was stupidly difficult to mount.

 

^ Next up - the RAM. 4 glorious gigs of it.

 

^ This dude was hired for security during the project - to try and keep any Mac lovers from seeing what a real computer looks like.

 

^ Eeek - what a mess of cables.

 

^ They all fit inside - sort of.

 

^ Sorry about the lack of focus on that photo. Phaeton and it’s security guard.

So by the time I had everything in the case - I was excited and rather ecstatic in fact. Stupid things like that can get me in a good mood for days. I remember when the 2nd trailer for Star Wars Ep2 was released. I was in school back then - and I was in a great mood for about a week, just thanks to watching the trailer.

This time, the mood wasn’t going to last.

I think my security guard should be sacked - he must have let some Macintosh terrorists through.

Because when I was part the way through installing XP, it BSODed. (BSOD = Blue Screen of Death).

Then on reboot - it wouldn’t even POST properly (POST = Power-On, Self Test).

I can get it to POST most of the time now, but I still can’t get windows to install. I keep getting a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL message in the STOP screen (STOP = don’t go no more).

According to the net it could mean the mobo is faulty, the RAM is faulty, the SATA isn’t compatible, or the CPU is overheating. Not exactly specific…

After working on it all night - the lack of progress is enough to get me pretty depressed.

  

I’ll have to try some more trouble-shooting tonight.

Even when it cant get past the POST screen - its still better than a Mac would be. And when he eventually gets on his feet - he'll be an awesome machine.



Comments: 8

 

Comment: 1

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Tue 08/04/2008 10:01 PM




I feel for you. It's days like this you just hate computers. I feel the pain. I know the pain. It sucks so bad. The only suggestion I can make is try a Linux live CD. That will possibly give you a bit more info on what's going on, cos it won't give a ridiculous error, but will actually get some proper info out, like if the CPU is overheating or something. Also, try a memtest86, available on all recent Ubuntu Live CD's. That's what I'd be trying.

None the less, that sucks. I'm so unhappy for you.

 

Comment: 2

Author: bennyling
Date: Tue 08/04/2008 10:25 PM




Ouch. I'm truly sorry.

Since you introduced Macs to this blog, I'll do my duty and defend them.

Funnily enough, with Mac's, "Things just work!"

Sure, they DOA sometimes (as do all electronic devices) but I haven't seen a Mac that has failed to start up the first time.

1: Mac resale value rocks, far more than any PC will ever have. The OS is also included with the price. You don't have to add on more for a crucial part of a computer!

2: None of that crappy BSOD/STOP rubbish - the only thing that will prevent you from doing your work is a Kernel Panic - sometimes they're bugs in the actual OS, sometimes its faulty RAM, etc, etc.

3: You can run Windows on your Mac. You can't run OSX on a PC.

4: Beacuse it's based on Unix/BSD, you don't get viruses like Windows can.

5: Because Apple make both the hardware and the software, you don't get strange hardware incompatibilites like you're experiencing.

Sure, there are some downsides of Macs too - many popular games won't run on OSX without emulation, hardware is usually non-upgradeable, etc.

Whatever. I don't have the breath to debate Mac vs PC with you.

Now, instead of me rubbishing PC's, I'll actually try and help you...

1: It's possible (although unlikely) that the Motherboard is too new for the CPU. I've heard that some of the old 680i's won't actually work with the newer 45nm-series CPU's.

2: Judging by the STOP message, you want to get some newer drivers. Either that, or you can try and download a newer firmware for your mobo - a hard thing to do without Windows installed.

3: Buy a Mac. (Sorry, had to sneak that one in somewhere.)

I feel for the fact that you don't have a Mac. I also feel that your project doesn't work. Debug the source code! Re-compile it!

 

Comment: 3

Author: jawapro
Date: Tue 08/04/2008 10:37 PM




Judging from my investigations tonight - I have a bad ram stick.

Took all bar one out - it installed. Put 2 in - worked fine. Put three in - ERROR. Took the latest one out and replaced it with the last stick - no problems. Put the bad stick back in in a different slot (just in case), and more errors.

Its the ram - seems pretty consistent.

Some brief replies to your mac vs pc points.

1. Yes - they cost more too. You'd want to get more value back too - with a PC you get your money's worth from actually using the computer - with a Mac you need something to compensate. By the way - if you run Linux/Unix on your PC, you dont pay for the OS either.

2. Faulty ram - same as  here. Happens to both. You can do more overclocking and things on a PC - although I dont bother. But there is some point to all the options.

3. If MacOS is so good - why did they make it so you can run Windows. You cant run MacOS on a PC - but who would want to?

4. You can still get viruses - but there are much less around. Largely because there are so few Macs around. Who's bother writting viruses for them. But I'll admit, the best bits of MacOS were stolen from Unix.

5. You dont get incompatibility problems in a toaster either - but you cant exactly play Crysis on it.

Appoligies for going on about PCs being superiour to Macs - but I enjoy it.

 

Comment: 4

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Tue 08/04/2008 11:34 PM




I agree, RAM sounds very very suspicous if you've done that to it. Good work on the spot. And if something was to have an issue, that's the best option.

PC vs [the unspeakable 3 letter word]

1. As [le fruit] makes both the software and hardware, you're completely locked into what they want.


2. What happened to [operating system] x86. I don't know why you would ever want it, but it proves you can indeed run run it on a PC. By the way, the only reason you can't is because [le fruit] wrote in a string that it needed a [le fruit] motherboard. And people whinge about M$ being anti-competitive. Mind you, that does explain the Xbox 360...

3. Even Linux gets viruses.

4. When was the last time you found a nice way to CONSISTENTLY BSoD a Windows machine? Without a serious hardware issue? I found how to kernel panic a mac. I had to use a web browser to upload a file from a network share to my webmail. It should be able to handle that. One would hope.

5. Jawa owns 2 macs, although he probably doesn't want me to remind him. Plans are still on the way, jawa...


6. Unlike you, value for money is actually important to some people.

7. Last time I checked, the Q6600 was still a 65nm mobo. And the 680i was released at the time of the 65's, but was compatible with the 45's. In that instance, it's not the motherboard, but the CPU that's too new. Which is not what you said. Sorry.

8. Use Linux (TM)

 

Comment: 5

Author: jawapro
Date: Tue 08/04/2008 11:42 PM




My mobo is a 780i not a 680i anyway - so I'm not sure who has the valid point there.

 

Comment: 6

Author: Nifen
Date: Mon 14/04/2008 12:07 PM

 

Comment: 7

Author: Nifen
Date: Mon 14/04/2008 12:27 PM

 

Comment: 8

Author: jawapro
Date: Mon 14/04/2008 12:50 PM




If you read the following post - you'd see that I managed to solve this particular problem. Faulty RAM.