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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: JaXanim on May 10, 2004, 07:30:54 PM
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I've been given a PC/Pentium-something-or-other/Win95, which was running OK a few weeks ago. When I first tried it, I could hear the HD running but it wouldn't boot.
Later, I couldn't get any life out of it at all. Anyway, I checked all the innards and found that the power supply had blown. There were capacitor casings rattling around in the box.
So, I've just fitted a new 350watt ATX power supply and now the HD runs, but it doesn't boot, the floppy drive seems lifeless, there's no video output and no beeps at all.
Being completely PC illiterate, does this sound bad?
What should I check first? Any advice, apart from chuck it in the bin!
Cheers,
JaX
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Jax, when the floppy is 'lifeless', is the light permantly on or if you put a bootable DOS floppy in it, it does nothing?
You'll probably be safer reinstalling Windoze, but if it's Win95, you're screwed unless you've got a boot floppy.
Are there any BIOS errors upon boot? Does everything seem to startup without any errors? If the floppy is bad, it should give you a floppy fail (40) error. If it doesn't, then unplug the floppy from the motherboard and reboot. If it doesn't give you a floppy fail (40) error, the floppy bus is probably flaky.
As for the capacitator issue, check the mobo to make sure that they AREN'T from the Mobo itself.
give me some more information and I'll see if I can't help you out. Let me appreciate that A+ certification I got years ago.
:-D
[EDIT] After reading again what you wrote, it sounds like the Mobo is dead... :-( :-?
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Remove the video card and switch it on, if the built in speaker on the motherboard beeps at you, it's not all dead. Same if you try without any memory, too.
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@Methuselas
The floppy light never comes on, even with the Win95 boot floppy in it (have that thankfully).
There are no obvious errors on boot, 'cos it doesn't boot!
All I've got is power to the HD and little else apparently.
The capacitors were definitely from the defunct power pack. They were inside the box when I opened it up and the remnants were still attached to the board.
All that seems to work atm is the on/off switch on the front panel. Well it switches on OK, but to switch off I have to use the power supply switch. I guess this means summat...?
Cheers,
JaX
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If it's an ATX PSU the default behaviour is to shut down after you've been holding down the power button for 4 or 5 seconds.
A regular Win95 boot floppy is useless unless someone's put a CDRom driver on and configured it! Of course you could install Win95 from floppy (13 dmf format disks, or 22 regular ones). Win98 or up will boot from the CD itself on any machine new enough for an ATX PSU connector to fit ... provided it's configured to in the BIOS ...
Old PCs get very complicated very quickly!
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for what its worth ..
a brand new Mobo only costs £25 for a cheapy.
But I'd go with Holley's suggestion. If it beeps, It works.
I think no graphics card is around 8 beeps
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Hello
Maybe when the power supply blew, it took some motherboard components with it. I've seen it happen many many many times here at work!
-Jamie
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@All
I think the mobo must have died. There's just nothing happening. No beeps, no floppy drive light, nothing.
It doesn't have a graphics card!
I'll see if I can get another mobo, but I've no idea what I need. It's a Packard Bell desktop with a CD Rom drive and that's about all I know.
Prob'ly easier to take it to local computer fixer and pay to have it fixed, eh?
Cheers,
Jax
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ooooooooooooooo
Packard Bell ( Holds up Crucifix)
:-o
JaXanim ... DONT take it to a dealer !!
The price you pay to fix an antiquated Doorstop like that you could build a low spec (but damn sight higher spec than that PB) PC.
Check out Ebuyer (http://www.Ebuyer.co.uk)
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HERE's (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=59335) a good start.
:-o
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Hmmm... I'm getting drawn into summat I vowed never to do, building a PC!
Well, if I only need a cheap mobo and if all the other stuff in the case will be OK with it, I'll have a shot.
I assume the CPU will transfer?
It's got a whacking great fan on top, but it's not connected, never has been by the look! There's a sort of spring clip/latch gizmo holding it all down. If I manage to get that off, how do I know which mobo I need for the cpu/RAM module, etc?
Sorry to seem so dim, but I've only ever owned Amigas. It's the way I was brought up.
Cheers,
JaX
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A Packard Bell wouldn't even work if you used it as a doorstop. The floppy, hard disk and PSU (if it's a proper ATX one) should swap into something else, throw the rest in an incinerator.
Many Packard Bells use non-standard motherboards, and REALLY bad components (advertising slogan - Packard Bell, 30% slower for free).
You can get 2nd hand reconditioned 200MHz units for under £40 complete, barebones new 2400MHz (equivalent) systems for £100, both without having to open the case. Find a PC friend to get their old Windows CDs from and you're away ;-)
It's more complex than getting an old Amiga because of the myriad of companies churning out PC gear, and Windows can be a PITA to install if you're unfamiliar with how Windows works on the inside (not like installing OS 3.5!) - no worries about sounding dumb when talking about PCs!
This message was brought to you by South Humberside Information Technology :-)
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em, forgive me for being ignorant, but why can't is simply be that the bios chip is buggered? :-?
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Coz its a Packard Bell !!
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How often do you see a bios chip without a motherboard attached?! If it won't boot at all you can't re-flash easily (it's more than likely surface mounted - look for an 'Award' hologram on PBs).
If you had an A4000T that wasn't booting you'd bother with that kind of attention, it'd be like having a vintage Ferrari with a blown engine - if you had a rusty Fiat Uno with a blown engine would you do a ground up restoration?
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Blimey, my freebee PeeCee is not what he thought it was!
I've just managed to get the unpowered hovercraft engine off the cpu and it turns out to be an AMD-K6-2 stuck in a Socket 7 socket. What speed would that little beauty be?
[EDIT: It's 300MHz]
How do I get it out of the Socket 7 socket?
The RAM card says it's PC100 DRAM 32Mb, which sounds familiar. Alongside, there's a second DRAM slot, which presumably will take another 32Mb stick?
[EDIT: I've got two 128Mb sticks of 168-pin 50ns EDO DIMM,
will they be any use? They are physically the same size as the old stick and fit in the socket]
The whole mobo is very thin and flimsy. I have to wedge a pencil under it to push the RAM back it. Scared of busting it, but that's academic now, I guess.
Sooo, I need another Socket 7 PC100 mobo, is that right?
Should I swap the AMD for something else? If so what? I'm unwilling to spend more than thirty quid on this box'a'tricks. Can I get a Socket 7 mobo and an old Socket 7 Pentium whatever for thirty quid?
And what about a graphics card? There seem to be plenty of spare slots of one type or another. Are these things tricky to set up? Is it beginning to sound like a fifty quid project? Is it worth it?
I do need at least a basic PeeCee for some important docs I've got to print.
As before, advice very welcome!
JaX
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More than likely the machine needs a propriatory psu, if thats the case, forget about getting the existing mobo up and running, you may even have trouble with the power switch on a new mobo. Getting the CPU out should be pretty simple, remove the heatsink and lift the little level next to the socket, if that doesn't work, the CPU itself may be glued in (a little trick big manufacturers used to use to discourage upgrades). As for the RAM, unless the board supports EDO, you can't use it, even though the RAM may look the same its not. Your best bet would be to abandon this little bundle of headaches and look for another freebie.
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If all you need is a mobo/RAM/CPU...
.. pay postage and you can have one of these spare ones.. they're not being used.
Be warned, though, Packaged Hell use non-standard cases, so you might need one of them.
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The floppy light never comes on, even with the Win95 boot floppy in it (have that thankfully).
That could just be because floppy boot and seek are disabled.
So when you switch the machine on, exactly what happens? Display? Keyboard light flash? Any beeps?
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Sounds like most PC's to me, "works as designed" ;-)
Sorry, I couldn't resist ..
- Mike
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@mikeymike
Other than the power-on LED, there are no lights at any time. Not from the keyboard or floppy drive. The floppy drive was working before I got the machine. And there are no beeps either. There is no display output on the monitor which came with it.
Other than the HD spinning, the thing seems dead. Remember I fitted a new ATX box to replace the original, which had blown out at least two capacitors. That event probably killed the mobo, eh?
Cheers,
JaX
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@spirantho
Blimey m8, that's a very generous offer!
I'll PM you on this.
Cheers,
JaX
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Do get a new case, though you'll then have a spare PSU ;-)
A K6-2 300 is worth about £2.50, provided it's not glued in. Like I said, strip the drives & new PSU and bin the rest. £50 is worthwile for a working PC, because then you can use UAE and AROS :-) on a Pentium 200 UAE can go A500 speed.
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@Holley
Two pounds-fifty eh? Then it looks like it'll all end up on our local Dumpit site's 'retail counter'!
I may go for a new case, especially with the help offered by spirantho. Depends if I can fit one of his mobos into the Dreaded Packard Bell box. I'll try that first.
Cheer,
JaX
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JaXanim wrote:
@mikeymike
Other than the power-on LED, there are no lights at any time. Not from the keyboard or floppy drive. The floppy drive was working before I got the machine. And there are no beeps either. There is no display output on the monitor which came with it.
Other than the HD spinning, the thing seems dead. Remember I fitted a new ATX box to replace the original, which had blown out at least two capacitors. That event probably killed the mobo, eh?
Cheers,
JaX
No CPU fan either?
Try removing everything (CPU, RAM, graphics etc) except the case connection for the switch and obviously the PSU connection. The system should beep (I can't remember what sequence of beeps) at you. Then progressively put the rest in on each success.
Old ATX motherboards are temperamental. Sometimes for "no apparent reason", they stop booting, and just removing and reinserting fixes the problem.
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@Mikeymike
Yes there's a fan, but it's never been connected to any power.
OK, I'll try your suggestion. Maybe if it works, I can use the mobo as a doorbell?
Cheers,
JaX
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JaXanim wrote:
OK, I'll try your suggestion. Maybe if it works, I can use the mobo as a doorbell?
:lol: Better turn it into a bell ;-) (as in church/ship-type of bell...).
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@Mikeymike
OK, I stripped it down to the completely bare mobo and switched on. Zilch! No beeps, only the sound of the power pack fan.
Once on, the on/off switch on the front of the case wouldn't turn off the power. The power fan kept running. The switch didn't switch off when held for thirty seconds (someone said it should)..?
When I turned off the power on the ATX box itself there was a weak kinda noise from the speaker. It wasn't a beep, more like a faint screech/death-throw..!
What's up Doc? It's dead isn't it..?
Cheers,
JaX
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@odin
Now that's just silly. I think a doorbell would be much more useful!
Cheers,
JaX
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Don't forget you need the speaker connected to hear any beeps (did it beep before, from the speaker?). Don't wanna sound patronising btw - just in case!
Also, I had a mb inexplicably die on me once, and clearing the CMOS sorted it out. There may be a "clear CMOS" set of jumpers on the mb somewhere, you would probably have to move the jumper connector across from where it is to the next set of pins, leave it for a few seconds, then move the connector back to where it was. If you don't have a manual see if you can find any reference or model numbers/names on the mb to Google for to see if you can get a manual online, which will show you where this jumper is if it has one.
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Yes, an ATX will switch off after 4 or 5 seconds of holding the button down, unless the Bios tells it otherwise (as your bios appears to be kaputski I guess the PSU just doesn't get the message). The motherboard speaker is just a mini-piezo device, so you'd know if it was working ;-)
PLEASE save yourself! Packard Bells really are the {bleep}roach of the computer world! If another motherboard fits then fair enough, but the cases really are worse than the cheapest Taiwanese made recycled Fiat case (as you'll find out if you have it apart a couple of times).
EDIT: ok, on any other ATX motherboard than a PB the speaker will be a piezo device mounted on the board itself. Your PB may well have an old AT type speaker, which would be a small regular cone speaker mounted to the inside of the case, and uses a jumper type plug on the motherboard.
If you don't get any bios info on the monitor then resetting the Bios flash area won't make a difference, I'm afraid.
The bleep above was me describing a certain kind of insect that can survive nuclear explosions ;-)
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@BouncyA
Yes, I kept the speaker connected throughout. It didn't beep, never has beeped and I suspect never will.
Remember the power supply had blown some internal components apart. I guess this is more than an inexplicable/probable cause.
I'm inclined to fix it to the front door as I said.
Cheers,
JaX
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@Holley
OK that does it! I'm not gonna bore anyone any longer with this.
@spirantho
Let's do a deal and put the PB to bed, eh?
Cheers,
JaX
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JaXanim wrote:
@Mikeymike
Yes there's a fan, but it's never been connected to any power.
The CPU fan has never been connected? What is the CPU? It would have to be a 486 or a huuuuuge heatsink or a very good PSU to handle the heat from the CPU.
OK, I'll try your suggestion. Maybe if it works, I can use the mobo as a doorbell?
Consider that you might have to 'coax' it into working :-) Use the PSU power switch (if there is one), then pull the power out the back of the PSU, reconnect stuff, put power back in. Try as many combinations as you can think of.
You should get beeps to tell you the following:
* Boot OK (single short beep)
* beeeeep beep beep beep (graphics missing)
* varying sorts of beeps to signify lack of RAM/CPU
If you can't get any beeps at all with no hardware around at all, then start thinking the machine is a doorstop.
Try connecting the PC speaker the other way round as well (temporarily, if it doesn't work).
Try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery also.
(adding to other suggestions already made)
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Jax, SO sorry it took me so long to reply. We had a MASSIVE storm and I lost power. -_-
Anyways, Check the bottom of the CPU for any burn or scorch marks. If there are any, it's toasted.
Packard Bells and Compaq's use a sub-standard bios that's mounted on the HDD, before the MBR. Since it's a 300 MHZ K6-2, odds are the mobo isn't a Pakard Hell custom. Look for a model number on the board itself. If you're lucky, it's probably a Gigabyte board and they, in my experience are farily reliable.
The ram is fine, so long as you use it with a Socket 7 motherboard. The ram you're using is LOW-DENSITY, PC100 SDRAM. Compaq and Packard Hell, for some odd reason, preferred using the low-density variety.
Best thing to do is remove the board from the box, place it on a static-free item, like a cardboard box and start from scratch. Take everything out of the case and plug it in one at a time. Power it on, using a ball-point pen. Since you're not getting any beeps, it could be a dead CPU or mobo, but since it's not in front of me, I can't tell you for sure.
Everyone's correct, though. Packard Bell's are crap. They were never designed well and have a notorious habit of breaking. You, if you want to venture in to the PC world, should look into getting a new mobo.
Oh, before I forget, you said that there was no video card. Is the video on the motherboard itself? If that's true, the power supply you replaced could have spiked the motherboard, killing it. If you get no beeps and nothing, but an LED for power and HDD, I say again, it's a dead mobo or CPU.
I have a compaq 450 K6-2 mobo that I'm not using. It was a 475, but started flaking out until I dropped it to a 450. It is a TRUE Gigabyte board and I reflashed the BIOS to use the Gigabyte version of the BIOS. If you need it and can pay for the shipping (if I could, I would), it's yours. I guarantee that it works, but it's not the best thing in the world. It's got onboard sound and video, but don't expect to play any serious 3D games with the chipset (it's a SIS 530).It requires low-density, PC100 SDRAM, but can handle 3 sticks at 256MB, for a maximum total of 768MB on the board. Up to 8MB is shared video memory. It's a solid board and I used it regularly for 4 years, up until last year. It was my old Amithlon box, until I got a new one. ^_^
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@MikeyMike - please read page 1 ;-)
@JaxAnim - if you get stuck with the new MB and can't get sorted feel free to PM me :-)
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I wouldn't pay 2.50 for an AMD K(anything)
I pitched my K6/2-380(working-somewhat) because of the ceaseless irritation it gave me. The K6/2-450 soon followed.
Never touch AMD voluntarily again.
I've had PBells die on the bench during the diagnostic stage.
That was before any tools touched the machine or any parts were disconnected.
Happily replaced it all with an ASUS 440BX-LE board from ebay (cost me $45us with postage and celeron 667)
PS: beep-codes are here
http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml
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@Everyone
I'm really overwhelmed by the advice given here and the offers of help and parts. Thank you all very much.
I have decided that the defunct Packard Bell is never gonna get anywhere. If I can beg an old mobo/cpu somewhere, I'll try to refit it. If not, well it was interesting while it lasted!
I only need a simple PeeCee/Win95+ so I can use my new Epson to print off my WaveGuide manual. That's currently held on an even older 386/Win3.1 IBM box. It's is very reliable, but is now too old for printer support.
My old printer with Win3.1 support died a fortnight ago. And before anyone suggests transferring the files to my Amiga, I've looked at the options and the job is too complex, for me anyway.
It's in Lotus AmiPro format with about 15Mb of AmiPro graphics which I am not prepared to revamp into Wordworth or whatever. A free PeeCee seemed to be the solution. Well, there it is. If someone really will send me a mobo/cpu for the price of the postage, I'll gladly send them the money.
Thanks again.
JaX
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The Fan was never hooked to the cpu?
I would say the cpu burned up a long time ago?
Also when power supplys blow capicitors, you can get a surge as someone noted earlier. This surge can flash the rom. Since when you do it on purpose you are sending 5 or 12 volts to the rom for a flash.
If this mb has an ISA slot, An old ISA video card can be used to boot up,since ISA cards have there own bios. This way you could see if it posts at all.However no floppy means it probably flashed the boot block on the bios.
If you really loved this computer, you could replace the bios rom chip, or do a hot swap trick if its not soldered on. Last but not least, pulling out the coin battery(if there is one, for 15 min) then put it back in can reset things.
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@bloodmoney
The heatsink with fan attached was clipped to the CPU OK, but the power lead from the fan was rolled up with a rubber band around it. The plug had never been connected to the supply. This is definitely the condition as originally purchased. Would that be likely to eventually fry the CPU?
Strange thing is, the machine had been in very light use since 1996 or so.
ANYWAY, I'm getting rid of the Packouta Hell and cobbling together an alternative system (thanks to the generous spirantho).
I've no doubt I'll be back with updates/problems in due course.
Cheers,
JaX
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The heatsink with fan attached was clipped to the CPU OK, but the power lead from the fan was rolled up with a rubber band around it. The plug had never been connected to the supply. This is definitely the condition as originally purchased. Would that be likely to eventually fry the CPU?
Eventually? It could fry a 486 unless it had a very modern heatsink.
AMD K6-2s don't run very hot (relative to other x86 CPUs), but if you run one for ten seconds without a heatsink from cold, the CPU will be hand-warm. They do need fans. I have a K6-2 450 @ 550MHz, and the heatsink/fan is just about hand-warm after a few hours of normal operation.
I wonder what 'very light use' means. If the machine were kept somewhere cool (ie. a cool breeze could get into it), then it would probably protect the CPU enough. My guess is, that machine crashed quite often. With a couple of other lucky factors, it may have saved the CPU from being damaged.
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@Mikeymike
The more I hear about this contraption, the more I wonder whether my brother-in-law (he gave me it) was taken for a ride when he bought it.
As I said, he bought it brand new from one of the high street suppliers in 1995/6 I guess. At that time, I reckon he'd shell out around a grand for it.
When I opened it up (he never had, nor would he), there were clear signs of tampering to one of the case blanking pieces. A crude self-tapping screw fix had been applied and it certainly wasn't by him (a totally non-practical individual). So who'd done that?
When I next see him, I'll ask him how stable it was when he ran it. As far as I can recall, he only used it occasionally to learn French. The kids weren't interested at all. So no CPU-intensive games, etc. Maybe that's what 'saved' it?
Whatever, the exploding PSU seems to have seen to it in the end. I'll transfer the HD, floppy and CD-ROM drives to a better mobo/CPU and hope for the best.
I assume all being well, it will boot into the OS as if nothing had happened. Is that so?
Cheers,
JaX
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The K6-2 300 would put it around 1998-99 IIRC. 95/96 were the days of ~100MHz. I remember getting a P133 machine (which was about midrange then) in mid to late '96.
As for the CPU fan not being connected - does it look like there's any chance the fan might have been connected but somehow came out of the socket? I'm clasping at straws here, because I simply don't believe anyone would be quite stupid enough to unplug it :-)
As for the 'signs of tampering', I wonder whether someone was planning on scrapping it for parts, like maybe a card was in it but now has been removed.
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@mikeymike
Your guess at the date is clearly better than mine and I'm sure you're in the right ballpark.
No, it's absolutely impossible that the fan could have been connected at the time of purchase. The fan wires were tightly rolled up and tied with an elastic band. No possibility that they were ever used. The wires were of the through connection type with a male and female connector attached and each connector was tied into the wire bundle.
I think he was sold a runt, but I don't know if I'll have the heart to tell him!
Cheers,
JaX
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One other thing, is any dust collected in strange patterns in the heatsink?
- edit - also, is the amount of dust on the heatsink about the same as on the motherboard / inside the case generally?
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Eeek! Dust-Circles! That must mean that aliens unplugged the CPU fan! :)
Kev
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Not quite :-) If there is a circular dust pattern on the heatsink, usually along with dust clogging up the heatsink in a consistent pattern, then the fan has been running on it at some point in its life.
If the dust is spread around the heatsink as if it were any other unventilated surface, then the fan hasn't been running on it.
If there is less dust on the heatsink than on the rest of the machine's insides, then the heatsink/fan has probably been swapped out at some point.
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I wouldn't pay 2.50 for an AMD K(anything)
I pitched my K6/2-380(working-somewhat) because of the ceaseless irritation it gave me. The K6/2-450 soon followed.
What kind of irritation?
Note that Intel has its dark days e.g. FDIV bug(costed Intel about $500 million), early 1.1Ghz PIII Linux recompiling flaws and "Caminogate".
Happily replaced it all with an ASUS 440BX-LE board from ebay (cost me $45us with postage and celeron 667)
Such a setup would be considered matured i.e. I still have P6 microcode patches to fix some issues with the early P6s. 440 series chipset was based from on SOHO server targeted Pentium Pro based system (Socket8/i450 KX).
Timeline...
i450GX/KX (PPro) -> i440FX(PPro/PII) -> i440LX(PII) -> i440BX(PII/PIII) -> i440ZX100/66(PII/PIII)
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What kind of irritation?
Mainly crashing of software. Also th 3dnow/mmx issue at the time was still being sorted out.
But when I switched to the BX440/celeron , 99.8% of all the problems went away. (yes I retained all other parts in the xfer, vid-card,net-card,ram..etc) The remaining .2% I'd have to say were WinME related.
...Intel has its dark days...
won't dispute that , they may have returned, thus the dropping of prescott for Pentium M.
Such a setup would be considered matured
Aye, but its been going strong since the day I got it, its always powered on. runs Win2kpro/Slackware a.t.t. Neither of which have crashed yet.
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I find it really annoying when someone blames the CPU for their problems with their set up... it gives perfectly good firms a bad name and helps the monopolistic ones succeed. For instance, in this case, you blame AMD for your shaky setup when chances are it was the _motherboard_ that was flakey, or you weren't using the latest BIOS or drivers, or something.
Whatever, we have a K6-2/500 in the other room running Windoze XP Pro perfectly happily - it's been running 24/7 for the last 5 years or so. At home I have a K6-2/380 running Win98 - it also runs 24/7 as it's my ADSL gateway. Again, it runs wonderfully (a decent Tyan Trinity Mobo helps).
It is no co-incidence that these machines are running decent motherboards, decent RAM, decent HDs etc.
Either way it is _not_ the CPU that is at fault.
[No, I'm not an AMD fanboy - though I do use an Opteron as my main machine - I just hate to see a good firm done down when it's not their fault, especially when Intel are such a shady company with their tactics.]
That's my final comment... this is an *Amiga* site after all.
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Mainly crashing of software. Also th 3dnow/mmx issue at the time was still being sorted out.
What type of crash?
3DNow/MMX shouldn't be an issue except for timing loop issue (K6 issue) and JPEG/MPEG distortions issues i.e. any chip upto 1.2Ghz and prior to July 2001.
"the testing methods in past production cycles of the AMD-K6®, AMD Athlon™ and AMD Duron™ processor families did not detect a small number of processors that exhibited a minor manufacturing issue that could potentially cause the distortion of JPEG images or MPEG audio/video. The issue is not design related and has been addressed through additional manufacturing tests AMD has implemented." - AMD spokesman Damon Muzny, July 21, 2001.
Such issues are not applicable to "Athlon XP", "Athlon 64", "Athlon 64 FX" and "Opteron" and "Geode" processors.
Another issues are
1. Microsoft's wayward 3DNow optimizations in DirectX 8.1 runtimes libraries on AMD processors. Refer to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321178
PS; Only applicable to Windows XP(pre-SP1 or pre-DX9).
2. "Hangs or Slow Performance on AMD System with VIA Chipset"
Refer to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;274629
But when I switched to the BX440/celeron , 99.8% of all the problems went away. (yes I retained all other parts in the xfer, vid-card,net-card,ram..etc)
Note that, Windows has built-in support for Intel chipsets.
won't dispute that , they may have returned, thus the dropping of prescott for Pentium M.
Intel wouldn't be dropping Prescott core due to EMT64 considerations. It's still questionable if Dothan core contains the EMT64 extensions.
PM(P6+) vs A64(K8) battle royal would probably duplicate the earlier PIII(P6) vs K7 entanglements i.e. clock speed (and factored in IPC issues) yield per die process.
For multiple "thin and light" X86 benchmarks refer to
http://www.vanshardware.com/reviews/2004/04/040405_efficeon/040405_efficeon.htm
It contains
TM5600 @600Mhz
Efficeon @1Ghz
Crusoe @1Ghz
VIA C3s @1.33Ghz
P4 Celeron @2.4Ghz
Athlon 64 3200+ @2Ghz
Mobile Athlon XP 1800+ @1.5Ghz
AMD Geode GX2 @366Mhz
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I find it really annoying when
not that it matters now, and not that I care now, but it took several months of trying to fight thru the wierdness, (I was at the time an AMD fanboy). Im certain AMD chips are far better now, but I realise commodity PC hardware is cheap enough to pitch/recycle when there is a need for something different.
(the problems followed the chip to other mainboards)
If my current setup starts to flake out, I'll pitch/recycle and get a replacement.
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You see you shouldn't waste 25 (whatever pommie money) on a new motherboard. You should spend it on a good shovel and use it go and bash whoever gave you the machine and then use the shovel to bury the it. The thing probably comitted suicide anyway. Now naff off, this site is reserved for Amiga/MOS people who hate each other, take your old platform arguements elsewhere buddy, we're busy.
Joking
ACE
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Blimey!
I ask for a little advice and end up thumping somebody! Easy to see how wars start, eh?
Anyway, back to dust patterns.
There was no dust pattern of any kind. No rings, no swirls, no alien traces at all. Inside, it was clean. I said it was hardly used and that's what I meant.
So, as far as I'm concerned, I got my advice and I've hopefully been put on the right track. Thanks everyone. If the latecomers wish to argue about the things PeeCee users argue about, please feel free to continue this thread wherever it takes you.
Many thanks,
JaX
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Let us know how you get on ;-)
PCs cause stress because instead of a Guru meditation they have a General Protection Fault, or in Linux a Kernel Panic ... I'm convinced it's a military conspiracy.