05-08-05  13:46, Jim Holsonback told James Bradley about Part 1 100/66 MHz fsb

 How do, Jim?

I'll try to simplify. We might be chasing each other's tails at the moment:

SaintSong EPC-1 as second hand in 2001 
        30 days return f/credit
HD + SODIMM over eBay in late 2001 
        No warrantee but "Not Dead On Arrival"
2002 -> 2005 *Various* flavours of Linux installed on HD
        (/dev/hda IIR)
2005 booted SimplyMEPIS f/CDROM until the library asked for it back.

One night this year, I noticed the HD banging its actuator repeatedly. (It
actually woke me up.) KB, and mouse seemed locked up, so I powered down.
Booted up the next day, where SMART complained that I better back up the
HD, and go out a buy a new one.

Instincts are telling me, that *if* I could garner a pro-rata warrantee on
the HD, it would amount to $0.50. I'm rather tempted to just turn off
SMART, and see how long I can crawl along like that. I haven't opened up
the dock, so I don't know for sure if I could move the HD to that channel,
nor do I suspect the IDE controller is to fault. (Have no reason to steer
me that way.)

 JH> Hello, James.   This is part 1 of 2 parts.
 -=> on 05-06-05 00:07, JAMES BRADLEY wrote to JIM HOLSONBACK <=-

 JH> Also BIR, they want upgrades to be done by "authorized" service
 JH> centers, so maybe they hold those cards close to their vest.
 
Hey... That's never stopped me before.<-;

They did distribute it with a few mpg-s to help the end user open the case,
install the -CPU, (both package types) -RAM, -HD, ... Sure the manual
suggests "Authorized Service" but it's not the first duplicitous
nuggets I've heard from them.

 JB> Like you say, perhaps depending on the rev.# on the MB...
 JB> 

 JH> My best advice - - from a working system, try to upgrade only one
 JH> component at a time.  Maybe first priority should be to get a working
 JH> internal or external HDD working.

Oh, no... It was running Solitaire for a few years already. 

 JH> Yes, I hate it when a HDD dies and I don't have backups.

The (not so) funny thing is, I was trying to wire up the for mentioned USB
DVD+RW to the W'98 machine when it went down. I had the DVD part running
just fine, and was trying to get EasyCD Creator to recognize the USB drive
when Windows threw the hissy fit. What're you gonna do? 

 JB> I don't recall seeing anything about the MB being updated on it, but
 JB> like I say, being from Tiawan... Given my last research timeframe...
 JB> Given the phase of the moon, and the height of the tides...

 JH> That, plus their website being pretty darn weak in the tech support
 JH> area.  :-(

Ya... That was a down side, but never being much of a drain on tech
support, I thought I'd give it a go. As it is, I spent very little on the
thing, so there's not too many tears shed over one component failure. Sure,
if the controller was the issue, I'd have some sour grapes over it, but as
it stands, I've only tasted another sour grape from Fuji. /-:

 JB> I'll be... I've been running a "133A" chip. (At least
that's what it
 JB> says on the paper sticker.) That shouldn't cause any problems by
 JB> running it at a lower rate, should it?

 JH> You have a Pc133 SODIMM stick in there?  Yes, I would think that
 JH> should work OK at slower system speed, with either 66 or 100 FSB chips.

The only other memory related issue is the stick wasn't the promised
16x16M. As such, the BIOS only sees half of it, and I suspect Linux did
too. That wouldn't cause collisions?

 JH> An external USB DVD burner?  The CDROM drive still in there?  Will it
 JH> boot from that?   Back to board and BIOS rev. numbers?  I assume that

Yup, yup, and yup...

The DVD+RW is external USB.
The CDROM is the IDE master on channel two, and has always booted fine.

 JH> dock sta works over USB - - I just bought a board a couple years old -

Nope...
 JH> - USB boot options in SETUP included FDD, HDD and CDROM - no mention of
 JH> DVD. Sorry, no experience here in booting to DVD, and I generally
 JH> avoid booting to CDROM, unless I can't find some work-around.

Ya, the only thing I've been thinking, is the USB doesn't finish probing
the DVD for its boot sector before the booting attempt is made, or the
allocation table is still being read... (That stuff is still voodoo to me.)

I did try all the USB options, with and without feeding the IDE CDROM, as
well as *any* USB/CDROM options with and without feeding the IDE a
(non-)bootable disk... I think, unless I can speed up the USB scan, or
delay the booting - but those are real shots in the dark. I'm almost
positive I'd be spinning my wheels there. Seeing as I can still boot to CD,
the way to install an OS would be that way, or the floppy. Not a huge
concern.

 JH> Hmm.  Meantime, while waiting, if a little old IDE drive were
 JH> available, I think I'd try it in the docking station in the CDROM bay,
 JH> and see if it would boot to that.  BTW, it _will_ still boot to  the
 JH> FDD, won't it?

I've never tried to boot from floppy, but I would imagine it'd be OK. You
did give me an idea though. I've a couple of scrap 12.5mm - 2.5"
drives laying around. I should be able to toy around with those, if the
Fuji wants to die a miserable death. (Time to skeet shoot? ;-)

 JH> Ouch! Ouch! I iggorant about running Linix.

You and me both! 

 JB> Again, I'll have to dig around. Somewhere told me it was an Intel MB.

 JH> News to me if Intel ever made a 5" x 7" mainboard.  Maybe
next time on
 JH> internet you can snag a little program named  CTBIOS.EXE.  That will
 JH> usually ID mainboard manufacturer, and yield lots of other info.  Runs
 JH> from either a working HDD or a bootable floppy.

I think I've something here like that, (Library isn't letting me save
anything but text files at the time.) but would they give you a MB
manufacturer, or just a chipset-BIOS id?

 JH> it puked on you, is it too late for an RMA?
 
Sometimes, you swallow the grape, and sometime you spit it out. 

 JH> You "can't rightly tell" me if you have ever asked at  -
 JH> support{at}saintsong.com.tw         ?
 JH> Seems strange.

It's a long story involving prescription pain killers. It just might have
been support that told me about the 800/900MHz limit. Like I say, why I
can't remember is a long and convoluted story, of which I can only remember
parts real well, or mostly not at all. What're you gonna do? 

 JH> So you bought a bare system, and later added a HDD, SODIMM, Celeron
 JH> 466 with HS&F and an external DVD burner?  How long did all that work
 JH> before the HDD 'died'?

Now, we are on the same page! ...And yes, I was running the drive for close
to Three-years. Just about long enough to negate any cash back/apology for
a product that didn't quite meet its expected MTBF. )-:

Just a reminder, Jim. This is not really an attempt for me to trouble shoot
the system. I'm 99.9% sure it's a Fuji drive I have to complain about. My
main interest, was just to find the fasted 100MHz socket 370 CPU that was
developed. Or, more accurately, the fastest 100Mhz fsb socket 370 CPU you
had heard about.



... Thanks Again, Jim.      James

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