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July 11, 2003
Computers suck
Asus A7N8X-DLX, Barton 2500, 2x512MB Samsung PC3200, Thermalright SLK-900U...
Sounds lovely in theory!!
Reality... had a MSI K7N2D-ILSR, found out at the last minute (after I had bought it!) before installation that it wouldn't fit the SLK-900U. Paid 20% more than I should have for the Asus that I wanted (had to buy retail, yuck!).
Installed Asus and the goodies, had weird 0MB drive errors and crap on my WinXP install despite the fresh format, even got some BSOD's (!). Removed a stick of RAM, cured the problem, thought I was good. Then inside WinXP, I can't execute files from my D: without severe system hangs. Read/write works better but still hangs on occasion. WTF?
Swap around RAM sticks and ram slots, then I start seeing BSOD's again. Start seeing "delayed write failure to D:" "delayed write failure to C:" "cannot write to file c:blah blah" and crap... Eventually my fresh Windows XP install ups and dies on me.
Pop in Memtest86 boot CD, test my ram for an hour, no errors? (what the hell? So is the ram good or not? I assume it's good for now)
I'm wondering if the A7N8X doesn't like my LSI Logic 21040 SCSI controller? I may pick up a new heatsink this weekend so I can try the MSI motherboard. I know either way, I'm going to be stuck returning stuff. =(
Oh, needless to say, when I stick my old XP1700 setup back in, everything worked perfectly. GRRR!
I'll screw around with this later. Too much crap to do, still have 500+ pictures to process and a job search to continue, plus packing/moving... argh!!!!
Posted by brian at July 11, 2003 06:46 AM