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376

Living Room / Re: Win XP reboots sometimes *after* startup [Any Ideas?]

« Last post by nudone on July 13, 2011, 01:22 PM »

(I don't think this has been mentioned yet.)

I tried compressed air, vacuum and brushes (and I think a brush did once kill something inside the machine via static).

Having read about why all of the above are bad in some way I tried to find something similar to compressed air but without the cost.

I now use a mini leaf-blower (or whatever you want to call it). It's like a large hair dryer, nowhere near the size of a proper leaf-blower, but is a lot more powerful than a hair dryer and maybe more powerful than a small compressed air can.

Of course, it blows dust everywhere - so I just take the filthy machines outside and don't have to worry about the dirt blasting out and landing on something in the house.

Can't remember the price but it was only like £10.00 on ebay or something.

p.s. you don't get any moisture condensing with it either.

377

General Software Discussion / Re: What is Mozilla trying to do?

« Last post by nudone on July 13, 2011, 01:02 PM »

I assume they'll slow down with the new numbers when they get to number 10 (or whatever Chrome is at). Then they'll update as often as Chrome does after that. (They aren't chasing anyone else are they?)

378

Living Room / Re: Real SciFi Technology - a 3D-Replicator

« Last post by nudone on July 10, 2011, 06:41 AM »

Yep, amazing.

Any idea on the cost?

379

Living Room / Re: quick opinions: do i return this annoying machine

« Last post by nudone on July 07, 2011, 02:09 PM »

I don't think there will be a problem. But if they want to find a problem, I'm sure they could think of something that matches their terms and conditions. Maybe something like, "the machine isn't as sold because you've changed the cables around inside". Which would be ridiculously petty, but wouldn't surprise me at all.

380

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 07, 2011, 12:00 PM »

Okay, good points. I will see what happens.

381

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 07, 2011, 11:20 AM »

tell them to upgrade you to a better model ssd or motherboard

-mouser (July 07, 2011, 11:08 AM)

Is the reasoning behind that to avoid them not really replacing the parts or simply because you think these model numbers can't be trusted?

382

Living Room / Re: quick opinions: do i return this annoying machine

« Last post by nudone on July 07, 2011, 11:01 AM »

I first saw your reply to the other thread, Shades so I posted my reply there: https://www.donation....msg254375#msg254375

(I just said it's a solid state drive, so no spinning involved. The machine was working fine and today just decided to be stupid again. So, it's definitely going back to the shop and I want a full refund - but a motherboard replacement sounds like it might be enough to fix the problem - who can say though, I don't want to test that theory.)

383

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 07, 2011, 10:57 AM »

Thanks, Shades, but it's a solid state drive (so no spinning)

The strange thing is that this machine has been turned on and off everyday for the past four days and it worked fine each day. Today nothing had changed since yesterday when the machine was last used - it just simply couldn't find the SSD.

It did find the SSD after I disconnected two of my old hard drives that have been in the machine since Sunday (four days ago) and therefore they worked fine too (and still do work fine).

I have also now concluded that the SATA-6-1 socket on the motherboard is faulty. Using the SATA-6-2 socket does work and this is what I've been using to connect the SSD over the past few days.

I really don't care now. I've got a RMA number from the store and they know I'm bringing it back with the intention of claiming a full refund. Whether they find some issue to argue over and refuse the refund remains to be seen. Perhaps I could get away with just a motherboard replacement - but if the full refund is there, I'm taking it without a doubt.

384

Living Room / Re: quick opinions: do i return this annoying machine

« Last post by nudone on July 07, 2011, 05:51 AM »

I hope they don't make a fuss over it.

-nudone (July 07, 2011, 05:27 AM)

Good luck! And you have this forum and the posts you made as kinda 'proof' it didn't die on you just yesterday or today

-Ath (July 07, 2011, 05:44 AM)

Good point. Hopefully they'll appreciate I have no other reasonable option that to ask for the full refund. It seems clear enough on their terms and conditions page - but Carol did mention how awkward they were to her.

385

Living Room / Re: quick opinions: do i return this annoying machine

« Last post by nudone on July 07, 2011, 05:27 AM »

Okay, thanks for the sensible advice everyone. I'm now filling in the online returns form. It's going back. I hope they don't make a fuss over it.

386

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 07, 2011, 04:22 AM »

The machine did not recognise the SSD today on first boot. Had to wiggle the SATA cables around. I'm wondering what to do about the machine, i.e. try to resolve cable issues or send the machine back and claim a refund.

I've made a new thread about that here: https://www.donation...?topic=27248.new#new where I'm asking for opinions on what to do. (I've made a new thread so that people ignoring this thread will see it. I need the opinions quickly as it will be to late tomorrow to send back under the 7 day refund policy.)

387

Living Room / quick opinions: do i return this annoying machine

« Last post by nudone on July 07, 2011, 04:19 AM »

Sorry for creating a new topic that is very closely related to my previous one here: https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=27196.0 I thought I'd start here as I just need quick opinions for the following question.

I bought a new computer last week. I had problems installing Windows on it and concluded it was a SATA cable problem. Today (6 days after the machine arrived at my house), I turned the machine on and the system didn't recognise the solid state drive where the operating system is.

I've now got the machine working - simply by unplugging and reconnecting the SATA cables a few times. I've yet to restart and investigate further.

I'm looking at this situation with two options available:

1) If I'm correct, I have one day left to send this machine back to the store and get a full refund (unless they decide to be difficult). This is under the distance selling regulations (in the UK). I'd do this as I simply don't want to assume this machine is "perfect"; I want to buy a machine that works correctly straight out of the box - not something that might fail in a few days again.

2) I keep the machine and attempt to make the cable problem go away myself. Maybe it really is just a socket that is a bit "large" and the plug needs a bit of help to stay secure. Or, maybe I should just accept there is something at fault with the solid state drive. (I will be conducting a few test after making this post).

As a note: I did change the cables around a few days ago whilst attaching two more hard drives. This means I must have moved all the cables around inside the machine quite a lot whilst setting things up - none of this caused the machine to stop booting. So it seems odd that today the machine would not recognise the SSD. (Anyway, on with the tests.)

388

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 06, 2011, 03:51 AM »

It's a HP ZR30W S-IPS

I saw the review in PC Pro magazine http://www.pcpro.co....zr30w/specifications last week and thought I'd just bite the bullet. The price seemed right and the overall opinions online by other reviewers are positive.

I bought an ex-demo model which cost £799.67 (full price is usually between £1000 - £1300 online). The screen has a two years warranty and has no defects.

At the moment, I'm still getting used to it. I'll be calibrating it a few times yet. All the reviews mention the vivid colours which need to be muted a bit but otherwise it's very, very good.

I'm used to sitting in front of a 24" EIZO monitor during the day, and in the evening in front of a budget priced Samsung 24" screen. The difference between them being so dramatic that I think the Samsung model should never have been allowed to go on sale (nor any other monitors that are genuninely painful to look at - they need a health warning attached).

Because I'm used to seeing the differences in quality between the two monitors, I did wonder if the new HP 30" would be impressively large but awful to stare at (the EIZO 30" is well over £2000 so I wondered if there was going to be a similar quality difference between low and high priced products).

Thankfully, the HP screen is perfect. Right now, it appears even better than my old EIZO monitor. The complete area of the screen appears very consistent in colour, brightness and contrast (I noticed very faint vertical bands on the EIZO but that might have been its age showing). The definition or sharpness is also consistent - I was worried about this as the cheap Samsung 24" I mentioned has areas on the screen that are very slightly "blurred" which I think causes eye strain when reading text (no surprise).

I'm pleased with the screen, almost ecstatic perhaps, as it didn't turn out to be a total waste of time - if it had been blurred or had any other slightly annoying feature about it I would be getting rid of it instantly.

389

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 06, 2011, 12:46 AM »

Good point, JavaJones. I'd not even thought about warranties; which also means I feel the same way as you. I'd prefer to just get on with using the machine and let it die naturally rather than start hitting it with a stick to see if there's something wrong.

More importantly, the 30" monitor has arrived and it's amazing. A dream come true. I've wanted one for years.

390

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 05, 2011, 02:34 AM »

I don't think the problem is that we don't know what diagnostics are (I've used software tools in the past, even though it may sound like I've never heard of such things). I'm not really bothered about eliminating the problem, I just wanted the machine to install Windows and work after that, which it is now doing.

My personal tone in this thread is to simply bitch and make a fuss, to moan about the store and blame someone other than myself for spending eight hours trying to install Windows.

If I really, really, wanted to know if the hardware was at fault I would run some checks immediately. I haven't and probably never will - not unless I detect some odd behaviour on the machine first.

You mentioned already that I've ignored the comments that provided good advice and that's true. But for me, this thread is just to let of steam and try and see who agrees and, at a push, maybe find someone that provides an instant 100% guaranteed solution to the original problem - which I thought I'd found when I discovered there was a "special" sata cable that had to be used.

Right now, I'm sticking with the "don't try and fix what isn't broken" method of computing. (I guess you can expect to see a fresh thread started by me in a week or two when I repeat all my complaints all over again because the machine has died.)

391

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 04, 2011, 06:20 PM »

I can't say for sure but I'm assuming it's not too good an idea to stress test an ssd. I say that simply because I've read that defragging them isn't a good idea (or even necessary), so stressing them like a normal drive probably isn't good either. But, I certainly don't know for sure.

I'll run the diagnostic tools and that will be enough for my curiousity.

Maybe if I start a bit of overclocking I'll do some relevant stress tests.




Shades, I've definitely gone beyond the the leap of faith stage. As mentioned before, the data is the important bit for me. I'm going to concentrate on that - the machine will work until it doesn't.

392

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 04, 2011, 05:55 PM »

I'll have a look at what diagnostic downloads Crucial and ASUS have - in a few days time and run the checks then. If there's anything bad, then I'll report back. Until then I'll be enjoying the machine (I hope).

393

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 04, 2011, 04:53 PM »

westom, i do appreciate what you are saying but i've not responded directly to your suggestions as i really don't know how to go out diagnosing the problem.

the "bad" cable doesn't appear to be bad at all at the moment. so i can only conclude there is nothing wrong with it. same applies to the solid state drive, works fine as does the motherboard and other components in the machine.

i don't have any real testing equipment, other than to keep swapping hardware around until i find something that doesn't work. i don't have the time for that and i wouldn't find any satisfaction in doing it either.

so, i think i understand and agree with you that it is important to find the solution to what caused the problem - but i don't know how. not in any practical way, i need the computer to earn a living so sending it to the store only creates even more problems for me.

maybe i'm just missing something obvious, are there simple ways to diagnose the trouble i've had. any suggestions will be appreciated (other than taking it to the store or buying equipment to test it with).

394

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 04, 2011, 02:32 PM »

Right. Can't say I'm too surprised that they are the same (unless there is a genuine improvement with shielding and quality). I didn't want to research if there was a difference or not as I didn't want to find out they were identical and then blow my "wrong cable" theory out of the water. Knowing that there isn't a difference also explains why the store didn't bother to use the special cable.

Not sure what to do or say, really. The machine appears fine now and I really don't know which is the original "bad" cable as I've got four identical old style sata cables in there now (plus the "special" 6Gb/s cable) that all came with the ASUS motherboard.

I guess first sign I see of something not working correctly I should just buy four new cables to replace the ones I have, that's the only way I'll really know I've removed the possible dodgy cable.

Or, I just order four new cables right now and avoid the trouble of something going wrong. One annoying problem is that I don't know if it's the socket on the motherboard that's at fault (or even something else).

Having said all that - there IS a potential difference because of the quality of the cable. Perhaps there genuinely is a good reason for this and that is simply why the solid state drive now works.

I'm beginning to really hate computers. I think I'll just go and bury my head in the sand until the machine explodes in a spectacular fashion.

395

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 03, 2011, 03:26 PM »

True, I can't complain that they want to make money. I just wish I'd not been so eager to buy a new machine and then I'd have spent a bit of time calculating what it would cost me. Maybe I'd still have gone for the option of them building it regardless of the cost - because I would have considered it worth it to avoid all the hassle myself.

Oh well, it's done now.

396

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 03, 2011, 02:53 PM »

A more serious comment - have you invalidated the warranty by fixing their mess?

-Carol Haynes (July 03, 2011, 09:41 AM)

I really don't want to know the answer to that one. Really, you know how to push my stress levels into the red don't you, Carol.

Anyway, more importantly, I've put my hard drives from the old machine into the new one.  The "wrong" sata cable is still in there and being used but I didn't pay enough attention to remember if I've attached it to a hard drive or the DVD. I suppose, time will tell if there's a problem with it. Okay, so it was stupid of me to leave it in there...

...It so happens that I'm even more stupid than that. I've just been adding up the cost of the components they sent me as part of their "choose your own system" deal. It appears I've paid them around £150 simply for the task of putting the components into the case. In other words, I've paid them £150 to put the machine together wrong, let them waste 8 hours of my life AND, I've had to undo all their daft neat cabling as I needed the plugs for all of my old hardware.

Honestly, I was absolutely shocked when I calculated I'd paid them all that for building the machine. I only went for the "choose your sytem" deal as I thought it would involve a discount compared to buying all the parts individually - like what usually happens when you buy several items at once.

When I think about it, it makes me feel sick. An absolute insult to injury. Okay, maybe charge a bit for building the machine, maybe £50, but not £150. That's just robbery.

You know. If I really didn't want to just move on and get back to sitting in front of a working computer, I'd send the whole lot back and ask for a full refund (it looks like they do that under their terms & conditions under the 7 day distance selling thingy). Anyway, I can't as I've messed about with all their tidy cable ties so I'm sure they'd say the machine isn't as sold.





Moving on, something I found interesting. Because of the 12 gig ram and pagefile, hibernate and other stuff, Windows was occupying around 40 gig on the SSD. Before realising this, I thought I'd made another mistake in buying only a 60 gig SSD - believing there was nothing I could do to stop Windows hogging everything. But it's quite simple, you just disable or reduce all the hogging features. Now Windows is consuming around 11 gig, yes from 40 down to 11 and everything works fine. No doubt Windows 8 will be a bit more intelligent when it comes to drive space (or maybe not, the Microsoft solution is probably just to recommend only buying drives above 200 gig).


This would be the final chapter but I've a 30" monitor being delivered. I'm sure this will induce more pain - especially when it was £300 less than all the other places I saw online. Too good to be true? We shall see.

397

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 03, 2011, 07:00 AM »

I didn't realise Overclockers were like that, Carol. But then, you never do find these things out until the damage is done. Any recommendations for a similar styled store but with a nicer attitude?

The advice people are providing about checking the cables and anything else that might have come a little loose when equipment gets moved around is sound good advice. But, I hope I've made myself clear about the problem I had, if not, here goes again: it was not a loose cable it was a wrong cable. I disconnected and reconnected this "wrong" cable several times during my install procedures (I disconnected it whilst installing to an old hard drive I had - which allowed a perfect install first time, and I also tried putting the cable into a 2nd socket).

Okay, I haven't ruled out that the orignal "wrong" cable may just be damaged, maybe there isn't even any difference between a normal sata cable and a 6gb - I suspect there is as they are clearly labelled with 6Gb/s on the connectors. To me, it now seems quite obvious that a 6Gb/s solid state drive connected to a 6Gb/s socket (clearly marked on the motherboard and in the manaul) require a 6Gb/s sata cable, not just a standard cable.

I'm boring everyone by repeating all this as it's not my job to check every component in the machine to see if it's correct - not when I paid the extra for the "professionals" to build the machine for me and make all the cabling look neat and tidy inside the case. I assumed they knew what they were doing. Seems they aren't much better than any other typical computer shop - and as Carol has pointed out, they are probably a lot worse.

p.s.

Just thought I'd quickly comment about Carol's (and mousers) comments about they should have checked the machine before shipping it. I'm sure they did check it. But what does that entail? They could only check it so far - maybe they do an electronic test but not a visual inspection - so they never noticed that they'd overlooked using the correct type sata cable. Their test simply showed that the hardware was fine and working correctly - which it was, until you try putting windows 7 64 bit onto it.

(I guess I'm banging on about all this as I am trying to convince myself that the problem is solved. I've not turned the machine on today. Maybe I'll be looking for a pickaxe to put through it later on today.)

398

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 02, 2011, 10:55 PM »

I don't think the cable was bad; it was simply the wrong cable for the socket it was plugged into. The manual clearly states that the socket is 6gb as does the 'special' cable itself (the one I had to plug in, which clearly looks different to the standard sata cable that they'd used).

The conversations I had on the phone with their support staff indicates that their testing procedure may be nothing more than a quick visual check. Their first response to the problem was: it could be the ram or the ssd.

So, how could it be either if they were tested before shipping.

I think they just made a simple error. They thought a cable is a cable. Maybe it is with a different motherboard and ssd. Maybe the cable isn't the problem; I believe it is as I'd tried connecting the original cable into a second socket several times.

The truth may simply be that the machine was built in England. A common work attitude here tends to be if you make a mistake and can't be bothered to correct it then that's perfectly acceptable. It's far more important to get your fag (cigarette) break in or steal something from the company you work for. So someone used the standard sata cable, wrapped it all up nicely with plastic tie wraps with all the the other cables, stood back and admired the nice neat cabling they'd done all through the case, then realised they'd used the wrong sata cable for the ssd. At this point they had two options: redo all their precious work or go and have a fag-break and pretend they didn't see the mistake.

Or they just weren't paying attention or thought they knew best and didn't need the 'special' cable. Either way, they used the wrong cable and wasted my time. Next time I'll just save a lot of bother and build the machine myself.

399

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 02, 2011, 05:38 PM »

I admit, I don't trust the machine yet. It appears to be working fine but I am almost expecting to turn it on tomorrow to find it bluescreen after 5 minutes.

Or, to be more precise, I'm expecting the problem(s) to reoccur if I attempt to put my other hard drives into the machines - as that could mean I'll move the "special" sata cable by a few nanometres and that will kill the solid state drive.

I guess I've just got to bight the bullet and see. Put all the hardware inside and then stress test it like you say.

400

Living Room / Re: nearby lightning skrike kills neighbours computers (and mine)

« Last post by nudone on July 02, 2011, 05:22 PM »

Mouser was right. And maybe I was just lucky.

I tried to get windows installed for about the twentieth time this morning (after wasting about five hours of my life yesterday attempting the same). I decided enough was enough and arranged for the machine to be collected monday. The shop I ordered it from could have a go and I'd happily pay them to do so.

But, after finishing the phone call I decided I'd try one last thing...

I replaced the sata cable connected to the solid state drive with one of the 'special ones' still wrapped up in the motherboard box. This suddenly allowed windows to install perfectly.



The machine was built by Overclockers (in the uk), a store that have dealt with high end machines for years - so you'd assume they know what they are doing when it comes to putting a new build together for a customer. Somehow they overlooked using the correct 6gb sata cable.

I could have just ordered the parts myself and then built the machine AND double checked which cables to use as I put it all together. I didn't as I thought it would be good to let the experts do this one and save myself hours of stress and trouble.

Moral of the story: it's an old one but...

If you want something done properly, then you better do it yourself.