The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

Russ, I just got my internet back, me and Russ were talking last night (windows live) and I got cut off again, the past several weeks I have been having loads of problems with Comcast who is my ISP, one day the tv doesn't work, another the phone and tv, another the internet and phone etc. have been calling those people when they finally do sent somebody out it's 2 to 3 days later, the last 3 times a tech was here everything is working, finally got ahold of a local supervisor, that was a bitch cause they don't like to do that.

Him and another guy came out, said they think my street which is a dirt road, lots of trees and vines wrapped around the cable, the cable on my driveway and the dirt road is almost 30 years old, so needs to be re-wired, told him do whatever you have to do, he gave me his card and said don't call that 1-800 number anymore, almost short of calling them nitwits himself and said call me directly, hope things get straightened out.

Russ, guess what, I feel bad, after all that time we spent searching that case, that's not the one, I'm bad with names but never forget a face so to speak, it has red 3.5" & 5.25" drives and expansion cards buttons, nor did it have a see thru side panel, I give up, thanks so much in searching, we both went kinda nuts looking for the damn thing but don't bother anymore, my fault I never saved that link.

 

This is the only tower I've found at the moment with red 5.25 bays. Is that the one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811208040

 

That's a nice case something I would buy.

 

Yah, it's pretty sharp. Not into the red myself, but that really depends on the environment. For me, it'd be kind of tacky. Not too bad though LOL! An acrylic case would be kind of tacky, but I'm so intrigued by the physics of it all! I still haven't decided. I've still got some time. I definitely want a very nice LCD monitor. I'm not gonna skimp at all on that one! Not this time!!!

 

If you like the acrylic then you should go with that and it has a lot of the features you want so as long as you know what the issues are go for it. It doesn't matter who else likes it or not.

I like red& black so the other case is nice however it is a bit much in color, you’re right about that.

 

No kev, sorry I think I explained wrong, the case russ just gave a link for, yes that case has the red buttons plus the clear side panel, the case we were looking for had neither, the case we were looking for I thought did have a blue cable in the back that's probably why Russ thought he caught it, but it's not the one, thanks anyway Kev.

 

CaseLabs are also quit nice; still the same bad price range though.

 

Gotta be part of their club Looks like some very intriguing cases though. Apparently they make one that will hold 2 motherboards :S WOW WOW WOW! I could handle her!

 

With my eSATA card removed, I'm still incurring "C" drive lockups. But I just noticed something interesting. The lockup hasn't occurred while my eSATA drive is engaged. That's very interesting. I could be jumping to conclusions. Because it doesn't make sense to lockup because of a device connected, but really isn't connected. What I mean by that is, The drive isn't receiving power, so how would the system even know it's there? I guess I'm gonna have to do so more testing. Testing testing testing. I sure hope it's not my Northbridge. I look at the NB, because it handles a lot of the communications, and it's the hottest temperature I've acknowledged. Though at idle, it is rather trivial. I guess I'm grasping at straws.
Remarkable, While typing this I've expected a lockup to occur. It hasn't. I'm looking at that engaged drive, and really wondering now...

Weird bug people, VERY weird! Of course as erratic as it clearly is, I may never discover what it is. In one way, I want it to be something wrong with the Mobo. Because then it would be case closed. But at the same time, if it does fail, I'd really be hurting. Though I could probably get by with my mothers Quad core machine. It wouldn't quite be the same, but I'd manage.

A complete reformat of windows. And only after cards were installed did the bug present itself. But that could be coincidence too. Man this is a pickle...

 

Never connect a drive with a data cable without powering it, bad practice. Doing this with any IDE drive failed POST, I don't imagine it's problem-free with SATA either.

 

I should have explained further. The eSATA data cable which is always connected, is connected to my thermaltake sata dock. The dock is not powered up unless I"m running a drive. Last night I found it curious that lockups were not occurring while the dock was running. Could be coincidence. This lockup is highly erratic. Makes me look at my board...
I'd like to find a Hard drive monitoring software that can monitor the bandwidth/activity beyond 45 seconds. I like the windows resource monitor, but there has to be something better. Perhaps a monitor that can monitor via graph for a near infinite amount of time? Microsoft should have allowed the ability to tweak the resource monitor.

If there's no power to the cable(no ground), then the dock/external drive should not be causing this. I sure hope I'm wrong about this :S I'd rather it were the external dock than my motherboard!

 

It's not Sam you are correct I'm sure this is Kev's issue.

 

Could you please elaborate?

 

If the data cable is hooked up and you don't have the power to the station on you still have power running to the station. It is minimal but it can be enough to see the device but not run the device which seems to be the issue for you. Pull your data cable when you are not using the eSATA device this is good practice and will eliminate these potential problems.


Pin Name Function
1 GND Ground
2 A+ Transmit+
3 A- Transmit-
4 GND Ground
5 B- Receive-
6 B+ Receive+
7 GND Ground

Serial ATA also reduces the signalling voltage from the 5 volts used in P-ATA down to 0.5 volts, which reduces power consumption and electrical interference.

See if the Device Manager shows the device show all devices even hidden.

 

I haven't seen a lockup for some time now. Man... this bug is really erratic. It makes me nervous. It tells me that something could be going bad, it just hasn't yet. Given the luck I've had with NB's and SB's, It wouldn't surprise me. Keep in mind though, I've restored overclocks back to factory specifications, and it had no effect. And everything has been adequately cooled since I bought it.
I guess I'll just wait and see.
It didn't show up in the device manager. I played with the cord while refreshing the device manager. No butter. I did tell it to show hidden devices. Oh well. It was worth a shot.

My next system is getting attention that no other has seen. Premium water cooling, hardware monitoring up the wazoo! LOL! I can't wait.

 

So for water cooling are you looking at the complete set and not just the CPU? Truly the complete set is the way to do it something like this.

H20-220 Ultima XT CPU Liquid cooling kit

Pump Controller

 

WCing the mb and gpu is really more for aesthetics then anything else and will nearly double the cost.

 

I know LOL!

 

Well, I've got good news on my Asus ODD. I finally got to speak to someone who had an understanding of Common sense and logic. I simply asked him why they let me send it back so their techs could check the drive, and then discovered when the drive came back, that the original factory sticker hadn't been broken, so it wasn't looked at, at all. When I opened up the drive, it took me about 15 seconds to see the missing screw that is one of three that hold the spindle motor in place. It wasn't inside the drive, and I'm pretty sure I would have heard it rolling around if it was loose in the case. Noises like that in ODDs are not a good thing!

I have to send the old one back and they will send me a "new" one, not a refurb. They even sent me a UPS Label so all I have to do is drop it off at UPS! It probably cost me more than the price of the drive, but I can only stand so much before it becomes a matter of principle. I mean, what do you say to a Rep that tells you you are right, and then voids your warranty in the same breath? Same thing with the Rep's Supervisor, although he was the one who promised me that he would have the drive looked at and then determine it's warranty status! Oh, you also get the old familiar speech! "We are going to make you a special one time only exception!" Asus really needs new Dialog! That line of BS is so old and tired coming from them!

Russ

 

I don't think so, the fact that Russ had issues with his NB/VRM is proof of that. I don't think water cooling is pretty either which also goes against your statement. Anything that gets hot is worth WC'n that is just common sense.

Russ, Glad to see they are finally helping you and not being a part of the problem, how frustrating!