Alien

Errr...I think I have 1 a freeware 1 somewhere.....<goes rummaging>

Quote: Read my previous post (the text file). It turns out I had a heat sink all along! An Aluminum one I beleive I have done now, you must have posted that whilst I was writing my post. I think you do need a new HSF though, as your CPU is rather on the warm side. Mine's a 1.6Ghz & currently @ 49&degC - the hottest I've seen it go is 55&degC, & that was only cos my room was really warm.

Quote: <snippage>.........Shassounes, sell or give away your computer, this is not a hobby for you. But do it fast, you are likely to hurt yourself on the PC if you persist. H. -------- So many a$$holes, so few bullets... LMAO I wouldn't even run a P90 without a heatsink! It might not be relevant, but as soon as I read this I had a flashback of this advert they used to show on british TV [i think it had Harry Enfield in it] for a chocolate coated toffee bar called "Dime". This well-spoken bloke brandishing a mic & a Dime bar & being followed by a camera crew tries to persuade this shabbily dressed country bumpkin/poor farmer type [for the Americans reading this - picture someone out of the Beverly Hillbillies & you won't be too far off] of the merits of a Dime bar, explaining that it's "crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside". The farmer pulls out an Armadilo, & exclaims "Armadilloes!!! Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside, armadilloes!!!" without dropping the strand of straw he has stuck in his mouth, & trundles off with his shopping trolley leaving the other guy looking on in disbelief. BTW. I didn't think a T-bird would last more than a few mins without an adequate HSF without being permanently damaged?

Quote: SuperMicro is good, however, a lot of people don't like their tech support. My P3TDDE is great, too bad I can't say the same thing for the IBM 60GXP's which at least one has crapped out. Brian, what temp is your remaining 60GXP running @? [use SpeedFan if you don't have any other method for checking it's temp as it can read IBM 60GXP's temp sensors, amongst other things]. Mine normally stays below 40&degC unless I'm really thrashing it with something like a defrag, or unless my room's really warm - if yours reads as much above that then maybe some extra cooling is in order? Just a suggestion.

Hmmm... just a thought...but try using TweakUI. You want the My Computer -> Special Folders section. See what folder "Start Menu" is set to - I have a hunch it won't be where your shortcuts actually are - if so, click the Change Location button & after telling the pop-up warning dialogue what to go & do with itself browse to where your shortcuts actually are. If you're lucky that might fix it - though you may need to log off & then on again or reboot for it to take effect [even if it doesn't actually tell you that].

About 20 years, I think. Wow - I just re-read what I wrote & I really started waffling, so the following is a much cut down version. 1st comp - ZX81 - end of 1982 Then got an Acorn Electron, followed by a BBC model B which I had for quite a while. 1997, got a 286 laptop for only £20 as LCD's backlight was dead. 1998 made the move to 486-ville & stayed there til 1999 when I got a P90. Then got a P120, & eventually a P166MMX. 1999 - I eventually got a K6-2/500 & got given a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI. 2000 - got my 30GB IBM 75GXP - my 1st decent sized HDD! 2001 - Got my Radeon 64MB DDR ViVo 18/4/2002 [last Thursday] - FInally got myself a decent mobo & CPU - 1.6Ghz of Athlon goodness. Finally got my system to a state that I'm fairly comfortable with [for now], aside from the lack of a DVD drive.

Quote: If this is a safety factor the advice is: set the CPU settings as they should be, boot to DOS from a floppy, stress mem and CPU a bit on 11.5 x 133 and see if it works.H You might wanna re-read that Harry...

Quote: At idle - 28C Full Hard @ss Load - 40C I maxed the cpu out at 100% for 5 hours, and the temp never went over 40C..... Of course that depends on if my AC is running or not. :-) I've seen it idle at 26C and be at full load running at 35C Just depends on ambient room temp for me. Mine is not overclocked. Standard CPU 's alright for some - mine's currently @ 48&degC, but varies from 46&degC upto about 54&degC depending on room temperature. I haven't really stress-tested it yet, so I don't know how hot it will go under load. Friday night I decided to try & improve the temperature situation a bit [as it was staying around 52&degC even when my room was fairly cool], so opened up my case & found that the wires had come loose on my front intake fan. I was gonna re-wire it, but I realised I could fit a 92mm fan I had just lying around in the same place as I currently had an 80mm [below the PSU, behind the CPU], with a bit of modification of course [so the 80mm that I moved replaced the front intake 1, to save me having to fix the wiring] - namely new screw holes & enlarging the existing holes. I was gonna dremel out 1 big hole, but by the time I got round to getting everything out of my case it was too late to make that much noise so ended up just enlarging most of the holes with a hand drill [yes, my hands do still ache!]. I'll probably get round to dremmeling it out eventually, I've also been thinking about turning the HSF fan the other way up & making a little "hood" or duct that will change/redirect the airflow from the fan @ 90&deg to the original direction of flow, so that it would be aimed straight @ the exhaust fan. What do you guys think? If it makes any difference the HSF is the 1 that came with my Athlon & has a 60x60x10mm Dynaeon fan. I might also fix the wiring on that other fan & add it to the other in the front, so that I'd have 2.

Yeah, Abit - don't you just love 'em? So far, I do - this is my 1st Abit board & so far it's running brilliantly. I think my only gripe so far would be the manual, which is a bit vague, or lacking in info in places - especially the part about the pin-outs of the USB header. [i want to connect my Antec ezUSB to it, instead of the supplied back panel wotsit. I'll probably go look for the online/downloadable version of the manual later, to see if it's a bit clearer in there. [yes I know it's probably on the CD, but I can't be arsed to go dig it out ]

It's shiny & flat as far as I could see - I could detect no curve to the base, as I have read about in some HSF reviews, though there was a slight amount of machining marks visible, hence the distortion in the reflection.

Errrr....guys - a few points of my own to make. Firstly - shassouneh: I forget whether I asked you or not, or whether you answered me, but do you have spike/surge protection? By this I mean a special extension lead or something else that goes between the mains socket & the plug for your PC power lead that is specifically designed to protect against power surges? If not & you had a thunder storm in your area around the time things started going pear-shaped then that could well be the cause. However, if this is the case then you still have to track down which bits have been damaged. Even if you haven't had a large thunderstorm in your area recently, other appliances in your house can cause smaller spikes, which over time can slowly damage components - you only notice when the damage gets to a level where it impacts performance. [i got my 6-way surge protected extension leads after a nearby lightning strike totalled my cable tv box.] To others: What's the correct voltage for an XP1900+? [just want to check mine's running correctly - feeling a bit paranoid now ]. Also, when I 1st powered up my system I think it defaulted to 1200 in the BIOS [i didn't notice what it displayed as before I went into the BIOS], but I was expecting this because as far as I knew I would have to do a BIOS update for it to be able to run an XP1900 @ full speed. That's why I didn't bother trying to change the speed settings. However, on another reboot [after fiddling with ram-stick order to get them all to work] for some reason I decided to look @ the Softmenu III thing again & noticed that it now said it was running @ 1500 [though I now know that this was the AMD XP rating, not Mhz], so I looked @ what available speed options it had & found it was already ready to run as a 1900 [1.6Ghz], so I set it to that. I just had another look, & apparently, although it only has the preset settings for Athlon XP's upto an XP1900, you can set it manually upto 13x133 which is 1729Mhz = Athlon XP 2100. 1 weird thing though - in the list of multiplier settings it went upto 13x, but then after that it had 13x&above - how would that be used? [my mobo's an Abit KT7A-RAID v1.3 for those who haven't seen me list my specs, BTW]

Got it working now thanks Philipp. You were right - was a cookie issue. It's a good thing that I know where to look for them in XP though as they definitely aren't where that VBulletin help page said they were.

I have a Macron 300w PSU & my system [see below] seems to be doing fine [though I wouldn't mind an Enermax dual-fan 431 or 550 ]. Fortrex "Magic" MG-780 ATX Full Tower Macron MPT-300 PSU Athlon XP 1900+ [1.6Ghz] Abit KT7A-RAID v1.3 384MB RAM [3x128MB PC133] IBM 75GXP 30GB ATI Radeon 64MB DDR ViVo Sonic Vortex 2 Lite-On LTR 12101B [12x 10x 32x] BTC BCD24XHM 24x CD ROM 3.5" & 5.25" floppy drives [1 of each] Antec EzUSB Realtek RTL8029 based NIC MRi PCI1456 56K modem Kensiko translucent blue PS2 keyboard Logitech USB Optical Wheelmouse Motorola Surfboard 3100 cable modem Eizo Flexscan 9400 20" monitor

Quote: So tell us ! H 's quite simple really - remove the fan, put heat sink in a sealed/air-tight plastic bag, then place it in freezer for about 2 or 3 hours. When you take it out just use your fingernails to pick off the now brittle "chewing gum". After that I just buffed it with kitchen roll. They'd made the base nice & shiny, but I was really surprised & pleased that I managed to get the bit where the "chewing gum"had been as shiny & clean as the surrounding area.

Hey LinuxBoy - what temp does your CPU stay @ when idle?

My updated specs: Fortrex "Magic" MG-780 ATX Full Tower [a.k.a. that rather big full tower that Maplin sell under the wrong name ] [They call it a "Jupiter Full Tower"] Macron MPT-300 PSU Athlon XP 1900+ [1.6Ghz] Abit KT7A-RAID v1.3 384MB RAM [3x128MB PC133] IBM 75GXP 30GB ATI Radeon 64MB DDR ViVo Sonic Vortex 2 Lite-On LTR 12101B [12x 10x 32x] BTC BCD24XHM 24x CD ROM 3.5" & 5.25" floppy drives [1 of each] Antec EzUSB Realtek RTL8029 based NIC MRi PCI1456 56K modem [just in case cable server dies ] Kensiko translucent blue PS2 keyboard [the ones Staples sell] Logitech USB Optical Wheelmouse Motorola Surfboard 3100 cable modem Eizo Flexscan 9400 20" monitor

My updated specs: Fortrex "Magic" MG-780 ATX Full Tower [a.k.a. that rather big full tower that Maplin sell under the wrong name ] [They call it a "Jupiter Full Tower"] Macron MPT-300 PSU Athlon XP 1900+ [1.6Ghz] Abit KT7A-RAID v1.3 384MB RAM [3x128MB PC133] IBM 75GXP 30GB ATI Radeon 64MB DDR ViVo Sonic Vortex 2 Lite-On LTR 12101B [12x 10x 32x] BTC BCD24XHM 24x CD ROM 3.5" & 5.25" floppy drives [1 of each] Antec EzUSB Realtek RTL8029 based NIC MRi PCI1456 56K modem [just in case cable server dies ] Kensiko translucent blue PS2 keyboard [the ones Staples sell] Logitech USB Optical Wheelmouse Motorola Surfboard 3100 cable modem Eizo Flexscan 9400 20" monitor

Hey, shassouneh - I don't know why you're complaining about CPU temp with your CPU @ only 38&degC - mine's [Athlon XP 1900 @ 1.6Ghz] @ 52&degC!!!! Time to mod the case fan holes I think - they don't let enough air in & out.

Felix - it wasn't an entirely serious question - I know that the bases of heat sinks are supposed to be nice & smooth & shiny [as shininess is an indication of how smooth/flat it is]. Basically I was trying to bait ppl's curiosity & see if they could guess how I managed to get rid of the gunk that came with it & get the place where the gunk was as shiny as the surrounding area without using any of the methods I mentioned.

So I finally got my KT7A-RAID & Athlon XP 1900+, & intend to install them later today, but having read through the manual I have 2 questions. I have 3 IDE drives [1xHDD, 1xCD, & 1xCDRW] & I would like to put them all on seperate channels. As the manual says that the only type of drives you should run from the HPT 370 RAID controller are HDDs, & not CDs, etc, this means my HDD is going to have to go on the RAID controller. I've heard that if you actually want to install-on/boot-from a RAID array that you have to have a driver [floppy] disk handy for when it asks during XP's install, but do you still need to do this if you only intend to run the drive like a normal single ATA/100 drive? My other question is what needs to be done to tell the motherboard/BIOS to boot from an HDD on the RAID controller? I know in the manual it says to set the boot device to ATA100RAID - that much I understand....but you see something else has me concerned. I've heard that when you create a RAID array that you lose all data on the drive. Obviously I do not want this to happen, as I only intend to reformat the 1st partition [the 1 that XP is currently installed on & that I intend to reinstall it to]. From looking @ the RAID section of the manual it would seem as if it would be ok to just select the boot disk & set the mode [uDMA, etc] & leave the options for creating RAID & mirrors alone. Am I right in this, & will it leave my data intact? Thanks in advance. PS - anyone know what the CFM rating is of the fan that AMD ship out with the retail version of the XP 1900? It's the same colour blue as those plasters/band-aids that get used in kitchens [so they can be easily spotted in the food], is 60mm square & about 10mm thick, & has the number 41512462 underneath the barcode. It's possible that it might say in 1 of the leaflets that comes with it, but I haven't opened the package yet - want to leave doing that til the last minute. Only asking cos whilst the heat sink looks to be not too bad, the fan looks a bit wimpy.

Well, from what I've seen plastic packaging of this kind can normally be divided into 3 types: 1. The heat-sealed variety [like batteries come in]. 2. The type that's all 1 piece of plastic that's folded @ 1 end & sealed @ the other [& sometimes the sides as well] by either staples or the plastic has been shaped so that it locks together. 3. Like no. 2, except it's actually 2 seperate pieces of plastic that either lock together or are stapled. Personally I think no. 2 would have been most appropriate for the Athlon XP, closely followed by no. 3. So you're thinking that they went for no.1, right? Wrong - worse than that! They went for 2 seperate pieces that were glued together in places, but as it wasn't glued together all the way round & the glue wasn't visible I just stick my thumbnail inbetween the 2 layes of plastic & tried to pull it open, to no avail. @ 1st I thought it was just a tight fit & got a flat blade screwdriver to try & lever it apart, & work my way around the outside of the packaging - still no joy. In the end I had to cut the stupid thing open. Even the heat-sealed variety would have been better - @ least that way I would have been able to see straight away that it would need cutting open, but I still think no. 2 or no. 3 would have made much better choices.

Thanks! That saves me having to trawl through newsgroups for the answer. BTW - I forget which v. of the Athlon you have, but did you [or anyone else] get the retail/boxed version of the Athlon XP? & if so, am I the only 1 that would like to see whoever designed the plastic box/package it came in hung, drawn & quartered? Grrrr!!!

Last time I ran NDD it told me to run CHKDSK!!!

Quote: I haven't heard much about Ali, either positive or negative so I really can't form an opinion Well I had 2 socket 7 ALi-based boards & it would take a LOT of persuasion [& probably large bribes] to get me to use another ALi-based board.

This just shows that it pays to shop around, I think I did quite well with what I got, but had I been shopping for different products I may have ended up buying from elsewhere. I checked Eclipse's price of an oem Athlon 2000+ & it was nearly £2 cheaper [than Ebuyer], but they charge for delivery. Isn't so bad if you're ordering several things, but for a single item it definitely is a factor. Strangely enough their retail version of the same is a lot more - £241.99!