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    9600GT into Dell E521, loud scary alarm sound?

    I wanted to upgrade the gf's computer with an XFX 9600GT that I had lying around. I put it into her Dell POS E521, connected everything, powered up, and was nearly deafened by a constant tone (think the same tone as a smoke alarm, but constant). I put my finger over the little mobo...
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    How to deal with vendor repack?

    FYI, Provantage did exactly what they said they'd do. I have two nice new Lenovo monitors on my desk right now. So, although i cannot say whether they have an issue with sending out repacks in the first place, they do aggressively fix the situation if called on it. Thanks to all for the...
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    How to deal with vendor repack?

    Yeah, I'm not sure that faking RMAs is a good thing to do, especially when you can protect yourself with a chargeback. I can't think of a need to screw around and act in such a manner. At any rate, Provantage continues to redeem themselves. The replacement monitor showed up today as promised...
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    How to deal with vendor repack?

    I guess that this is good advice, but I figure if all goes to crap, there's always Amex chargeback. That seems to be the great consumer equalizer. To wit: I just charged back a few hundred dollars worth of clothes and shoes that my gf bought on sale from Kenneth Cole. Seems that Kenneth Cole...
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    How to deal with vendor repack?

    Provantage is claiming that the error was made by their distributor, who drop-shipped the monitor. They're still taking responsibility for the mess - at least, so far. As for recording conversations - I hope that keeping notes will be good enough!
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    How to deal with vendor repack?

    See my previous post, which I edited. Looks like Provantage is going to do the right thing without any arm-twisting, so props to them for that. They're claiming that they're going to have everything in motion by tomorrow, so I'll update the status then.
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    How to deal with vendor repack?

    Update: While Provantage could use some improvement in their customer service, it looks like a happy ending may be in the offing. + No response to email sent out on Friday thus far; + Excessively long hold times to get to an representative; I finally got a representative after 35 minutes...
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    How to deal with vendor repack?

    OK, the vendor was Provantage - I've been repeat client, and they've never pulled this kind of crap before.
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    How to deal with vendor repack?

    So, I ordered two monitors from a well-known vendor. One was obviously new - it had "tamper tape" on it. The other one? Definitely repacked. They had covered the "tamper tape" with generic tape; the stuff inside is in the wrong places (including leaving the DVI cable rattling against the back...
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    [Retired] The LCD Thread

    I cheaped out even more on the monitor for my nephew; it was a closeout AOC/Envision that actually got very good review elsewhere - I hope that we're not disappointed. As for me, I see two of the L220X's in my future, unless I find another deal like I got with Gateway last year - when I ended...
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    [Retired] The LCD Thread

    Need some help with monitor selection. I need to buy my little cousin a monitor; it basically needs to be 19" or larger, quality that won't make him go blind, and is going to be reliable and cheap. DVI is a plus, but isn't even required. So essentially - acceptable quality, cheap, reliable...
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    Gateway downgrades monitor on RMA!

    Well, I did more tweaking and calibration, and in short - it is a very, very good TN panel. Nonetheless, it is not in the same league as the older model with the S-PVA panel. For example, you cannot get it to the point where gray is just gray - it always has some slight ting of another...
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    Gateway downgrades monitor on RMA!

    Yeah, it really isn't bad in isolation, to be totally fair. But sitting next to the old model? Whoa - now I really understand why people try to avoid getting TN's. The worst part? They're selling the FPD2400 for more than I paid for the old model. While the HDMI port is nice, you could get...
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    Gateway downgrades monitor on RMA!

    I guess I'm going to have to just resign myself to having a less optimal setup. No, they have no other stock whatsoever. It appears that this is related to them getting out of the direct-sales business. OK, scratch them off my "will ever consider again" list. Guess the Acer takeover isn't...
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    Gateway downgrades monitor on RMA!

    I did a quick calibration, and while that improved things, the new panel simply will never measure up to what's sitting next to it. It has a reddish cast, and it is somewhat less sharp. It never occurred to me that this would be a factor in choosing a monitor - that you could end up with a...
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    Gateway downgrades monitor on RMA!

    I bought two beautiful Gateway FPD2485W 24" monitors last November, mostly because they used a non-TN panel type (I believe that they used a S-PVA for that model). Both were the nicest monitors that I'd ever had the pleasure of using. I set them up as a nicely extended, dual monitor desktop...
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    Best monitor AND support?

    Yeah, my bitch was that it took almost two hours on the phone to get an RMA, and that there was no opportunity to use their faster Web support. I consider that to be a terrible theft of my time. I'd rather pay more and not every have to deal with such foolishness, or frankly, get a...
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    Best monitor AND support?

    Sorry to bump my own thread... but trying to be fair.... Gateway finally "troubleshooted" my monitor after 100 minutes on the phone. Yup, its dead, Jim. To their credit, they're shipping out another monitor for arrival by Thursday, no charge, and I think that they're paying for return...
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    Best monitor AND support?

    My 6 month Gateway 24" monitor just died - probably the power supply. It won't turn on. I'm currently in my 4th phone queue, and have been on hold for 80 minutes thus far - I keep on getting xfer'd from one phone person to another. The web based support doesn't seem to work; it doesn't...
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    Intel motherboards + artificial limits

    I'd think twice about using that board for any real fileserving. I found something bizarre about the Bad Axe 2 (not sure how similar the original Bad Axe is): Bad Axe2 can't copy a lot of files without crapping out. My Intel boards are going back, and getting replaced with Tyans.
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    Copy 700k files and die: how to report Intel mobo bug?

    I have a new Badaxe 2 installed. No overclocking, new WinXP SP2 install with all updates, latest BIOS, latest drivers, Kingston memory, Q6600. Almost no other software has been installed, so this is very much a "virgin" install. The system operates perfectly normally in most respects...
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    AMD BE2350 availability?

    Thanks very much for the heads up. Nice thing for you to do! jh
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    AMD BE2350 availability?

    I caught that, too. I'm guessing, like you, that this is an indication that they're finally hitting the channel. Or that Directron is really, really off :) Oh, thanks for replying to my email, very nice of you to do so. jh
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    AMD BE2350 availability?

    These have been reviewed here and elsewhere, yet, nothing to buy? Anyone know when they'll be shipping?
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    X-M Sat Radio Hardware Super Cheap w/ F+F deal

    Didn't even to check to see that most of the good stuff is out of stock. Sorry... A friend of mine that works at X M Radio let me know about their friends and family dealio just now. You buy directly from XM Radio with a special code that someone in the F+F program gives you. If you're...
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    Anyone RMA Gainward?

    Well, Gainward has had my card for week, but they haven't acknowledged that fact, NOR have they responded to any emails sent. Of course, I have a tracking number showing their acceptance of my card, no problems there. Anyone have a suggestion about how to proceed? Jonathan
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    Anyone with a TiVo: I have Questions!

    I have a two person household that shares the Tivo. The first Tivo was a modded unit, Series 1, from back in the day, increased to 120 hours at worst quality. At best, it holds about 40 hours (I think). It was replaced by a DTivo, one of the DirecTV models. These are different than the...
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    Anyone RMA Gainward?

    Um, it took them three tries to get you working hardware under warranty? And that's a good experience? Might have to convince the gf that it's time for a new video card :)
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    Anyone RMA Gainward?

    Let me get this straight - under warranty, but they wouldn't fix it? Huh? Or they wouldn't give you tech support?
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    Anyone RMA Gainward?

    Nope, not at all. I just wanted it for the dual DVI more than anything - it was the cheapest way to get Dual DVI two years ago.
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    Anyone RMA Gainward?

    My Gainward Dual DVI Ti4600 blinked out and died after a reboot today. It had provided exactly 2 years and 1 day of reliable service before crapping on me. I figured it was time for an upgrade, until I found the Gainward support pages. Seemed that they offered a three year warranty up until...
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    Promise Taketh Away

    RAID 5 Mini-Primer: Capacity = (Number of drives -1) x Size of smallest drive. Therefore, if you want 1TB from 250GB drives, you need _5_. Also, on RAID 5 (and most other RAIDS), all the drives are active at the same time. If you use a master/slave relationship, you cut your performance...
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    Promise Taketh Away

    I think that we're in agreement, but again... The older Promise cards, like the Ultra 100 controller, would bring up to two instances of the BIOS, and then stop (or run out of room). But Linux ignores the card (and main) BIOS anyway, and would bring they all up. FreeBSD, too - I've had up to...
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    Promise Taketh Away

    That's exactly my point - you should be able to have as many of these cards as you want. Typically, it is either an OS or driver limitation that would keep you from using more than a certain number. HOWEVER: Promise actually now seems to put in some kind of limitation code in their bios. In...
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    Promise Taketh Away

    I wanted to mention something that really, really pissed me off. In the last few years, I've built a number of "storage appliances". The formula is typically the same: Linux or FreeBSD, plus a whole lot of drives, plus cheap controllers in many PCI slots. Add software RAID 5, 0 or 1...
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    Need "Custom" PC Vendor Recs

    I think that I found a vendor - gamepc.com - they have exactly the hardware that he'll want. Very expensive, but that's his issue. Anyone have an opinion?
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    Need "Custom" PC Vendor Recs

    I could use a recommendation for a PC vendor that can build a PC to spec, more or less, but will also offer a warranty, a price quote, and some level of support. He wants something like what I would build him - Athlon 64 with Nvidia chipset, RAID'd drives, dual DVI video card, etc. But he wants...
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    Official DVD-R 4x media thread

    I'm sure that a lot of folks will throw bottles at this suggestion, but it works for me. I get Princo 4x media at Rima. Current price is $87/100 for the whitetops, and it works perfectly in my unmodified Pioneer A05 - I've burned over 100 discs with only two coasters. Both of those were likely...
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    Philips Monitor Problem

    Sounds like the power supply inside the monitor is dead or dying. This is typically why CRTs "go bad" . jonathan
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    Radeon 9100 Dual Monitor Probs

    Well, I got some info from PowerColor, and they suck. From PowerColor: "If this model name has "L", it means this card doesn't support 2nd CRT function." So you fell into the same trap that I did - the product listing says dual monitor, the connector on the card is meant for either digital or...