Ratdude's Main rig V2

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

found the source of the BSOD.

I was using driver 9.5.4...

A random thing form 3ware said the controller workes unofficially with 7 using driver 9.5.3

I copied 9.5.3 to the flash drive and all issues seem to have gone away.

either 9.5.4 breaks 7 compatibility or the 9.5.4 copy on my flash drive was bad.

If I like how it works out, I will snare my $20 copy from the college bookstore (I wonder if I can grab 2 and use the second on my laptop... )

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

No luck with the tuner under 7... I guess it installs the ATI driver whick locks out QAM...

looks like I either get a new tuner yet again (AIW?) or I get mythtv to work...

[brethin]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

No luck with the tuner under 7... I guess it installs the ATI driver whick locks out QAM...

looks like I either get a new tuner yet again (AIW?) or I get mythtv to work...

What do you mean it installs the ATI driver and locks out QAM? Do you mean you get no Clear-Qam channels?

What tunner are you using again?

I have used several different ATI tunners with XP MCE, Vista and Win 7 and never had one lockout anything.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

What do you mean it installs the ATI driver and locks out QAM? Do you mean you get no Clear-Qam channels?

What tunner are you using again?

I have used several different ATI tunners with XP MCE, Vista and Win 7 and never had one lockout anything.

It is an ATI HDTV wonder. (Listed in page 1 of the thread).

ATI's driver doesn't allow Clear QAM even though the HW to support it is on the card. The reason is because when the card came out, QAM did not exist yet (cable still used NTSC, ATSC was new) and when QAM did exist, ATI decided to make a new QAM compatible card and make some $$$ rather than mod the driver and not force people to upgrade...

Linux on the other hand uses more generic drivers, which allow the QAM capability and with the correct FW, can tune QAM.

---

I went back to ubuntu 10.10 + gnome shell... I got me-tv to work but mythtv won't open the card when I go to scan for channels with the digital half of the card... odd...

Now if me-tv supported analog like IIRC xine did (via some TvTime plugin?), then I would be 100% happy... the DVR parts of mythTV are icing ont he cake, but as it is, it is the only analog program that will allow recording (TvTime is only a viewer).

If I thoguth I could get a QAM-rated AIW (AGP) for an affordable price, I would go that route... IIRC AIWs are pricey?

[brethin]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

That is a very old Tunner (pre XP MCE) so I can see why you are having problems with Win 7 for sure. That card does not support (was never sold supporting) ClearQam so if you find a way to use it that way and it works good for you but don't dog ATI or Microsoft if you can't get it to work.

A current working ClearQam Tunner can be had for like $25 (like $10 if you buy a china sold card that works fine in Win 7) so just buy another card that supports ClearQam.

I really dont get why you are trying to build your Replacement Main System using really old shit and begging/trying to make work old parts when you could have a way more current Motherboard/CPU etc that will smoke what you are building for less than you have spent and alot less begging for free shit.

Add up what you have spent, add up what what you got free and then look at what you could have based on the fact your old system will suck balls compaired to something of the same price range and newer and you will see you what I mean.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

well, let's see:

mobo: free

RAM: $5 (for the 4th stick yet to come, the other 3 I already had)

CPUs- $20 (for both)

Coolers: $24 + $1.50 (screws)

sound card- $15 (it was 100% recapped with pannies, hence why it cost more)

GPU- $15 (the upcoming 9800 pro

Everything else I either already had or I bought not specifically for this rig (the tuner, for instance- It was bought a couple weeks before I decided to build the rig).

I always wanted to have a dualie workstation-style rig... and a decent one. I was also tired of pushing a really crappy system that was thrown together junk (half the parts were the cheapest things one could buy to make the system work)... and when you factor in everything else, I doubt you could build a much faster rig of decent quality at that price.

---

about the tuner- all the cheapo tuners I saw were PCI-E or USB... in addition, I wanted to also have good analog on the card (for use with my VCR, etc.), which cheapo cards do not have.

I started a thread at ubuntu forums regarding the mythtv issues...

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

UPDATES:

The new GPU (9800 pro) came in, as did the 3th DDR stick.

The good news: the GPU works-- it is requiring an OS (Mageia 2 beta2 GNOME) reinstall due to firmware issues though.

The bad news:



See the issue? No? Look at component C84:



Yup... the second dead 4th stick in a row due to Physical SMD damage... (the first one, not mentioned previously, had an SMD cer. cap snapped off)

an updated pic:



(it doesn't work with 3 sticks or RAM and an unplugged GPU as shown)

Looks like I need to find more ECC DDR... Anybody have a spare PC2100 512mb ECC stick?

[momaka]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Seriously? Just 1 cracked ceramic cap and you're calling the whole RAM module dead?
Just remove the cap and test the RAM stick. Chances are that it will work fine. And even if it doesn't, it won't kill your other RAM - it will just lock/crash your computer. In that case, find a ceramic cap of the same size on a junk board, take it off, and put on your RAM module.

Last year, I accidentally bumped my "RAM bag" (a small bag where I keep most of my RAM modules) and it fell on the floor. Several modules had ceramic caps destroyed. One even had slight trace damage. 1 hour later with the soldering iron, and I got all of those RAM modules fixed.

If you have flux, you shouldn't have a problem soldering these components back.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Well, here is what happened:

1. I put all 4 modules into the computer.
2. I get a "spin fan" condition
3. I try different pairs of RAM to determine it is the faulty chip
4. I look and find the broken cap.

I might be able to swap a cap from the first dead module (its missign part is unknown)... I do have flux, so I'll give it a try...

[momaka]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Ceramic caps are delicate and when they get cracked, they can become shorted. So it's possible that's the reason why you got the "spin fan".

As for the other dead module, post a picture of the area that has the missing part. I might be able to identify it.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

I lost the other dead module... it was a screwball ECC stick that was low profile (regular non-ecc height).

I did find a similar cap on a a dead linksus router board... and with some braid, a flux pen, and my newly acquired weller w-60P w/ a tiny tip, I got it swapped. it isn't pretty but it's attached. Once the computer is done re-installing mageia, I'll test it.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

I mispoke about what the cracked module did... it would void the whole bank at boot (only the 1gb in the other bank would show up). unlike a 3 module mix where it would spin fans, this failure was weird.

The fix was not successful... same symptoms.

I also found out why the GPU had issues... I was using the DVI port via an adapter for some dumb reason... I plugged my monitor to the VGA port and all is good.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

update:

the 9800 pro GPU rocks... with HT off (bios was reset and I have been to lazy to re-enable it), it performed supertuxkart at a similar level of performance as the onld system... it gets bogged mostly by the addtion of extra AI drivers drivers, which sounds liek a CPU bottleneck that HT may help overcome... its not that bad.

also, Mageia seems to be working well. the packages are actually up to date )mostly) and it seems like a well run distro... Kudos in advance to Mageia for making a so -far awesome distro.

[momaka]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

The Radeon 9700 and 9800 are pretty kick-ass, but just make sure to keep their fans clean and well-lubricated. They do fail after several years of heavy use. After that point, the yellow glue on the GPU die becomes almost gum-like, rendering it useless.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

The Radeon 9700 and 9800 are pretty kick-ass, but just make sure to keep their fans clean and well-lubricated. They do fail after several years of heavy use. After that point, the yellow glue on the GPU die becomes almost gum-like, rendering it useless.

that's odd...

I re-did the thermal compound with some leftover silver compound I had... what came off wasn't glue, but shiny and metal like... The card is made by sapphire FYI.

--

I found out that the linux version of F@H is crap... I installed it and it killed my performance... when I temporarily stopped it, my performance was so much better... IIRC, F@H only uses EXTRA cpu cycles for the folding... so I'm not sure what that's about.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

A belated update:

awhile back I recieved a 600W CM PSU with a bad fan controller (thanks Everell!) that I fixed... It's modular too. As luck would have it, it had the right set of modular cables included (1 3x SATA strand, 1 3x molex strand, 1 2x molex + 1 berg strand, no PCI-e strands).

The only caveat was that the PSU fan hole wasn't compatible with the PSU (the grille sticks out) and for a while I could only install the screws part way.

Today I fixed that using my dremel...

Pics of the new setup to come later tonight.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

Some pictures:



That should help with the airflow...



That is one of the stickers that came on the coolers' original fans. I placed the other sticker on the bottom of my Dell Latitude D630 (It does get hot, so it applies).



I love how clean the wiring looks now... every strand has a use, there are no extra cables. Since it is a single rail unit, the lack of PCI-E doesn't affect the available wattage.

Yes, I know my desk is a mess... and don't sweat the CDs, they are virtual coasters (out of date beta disks).

Now to find more RAM for it... 1gb isn't quite cutting it.

The computer is missing a part previously installed. 5 points goes to whoever can spot it .

[t.j.]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

not tuner card~!

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

not tuner card~!

yup. tv tuner is gone

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's Main rig V2

not tuner card~!

You have been awarded 5 points.. what the points are good for is beyond me

What happened was that the tuner card was choppy under my distro and I suspected it was the card. combined with the fact that me-tv was only picking up 16 channels and that myth TV was an epic fail (to date I have NEVER gotten it to work with anything), I removed the card.

I may put the card back in if I try something like debian testing... Mageia impressed me at first but the list of unfixed bugs is getting pretty long... If I can get my sound card working under it then I may try the card again.

Edit- Topcat also gets 5 points since he beat me to the punch.