Did I get screwed? you make the call. Long rant...

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DABANSHEE

Banned
Dec 8, 1999
2,355
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Ah Russie-pooh, can't you tell when someone's kidding arround.

Still I bet there's nothing wrong with that CPU. Did he fiddle with the BIOS settings (the RAM settings for instance), using the scientific method of trial & error? Or tried different chipset drivers? Or tried disabling DMA mode in the device manager? Not that that would probably make any more than buggerall difference. Did he try hooking up another powersupply - maybe the 3.3v output (useally the orange wire) is a bit low, SDRAM doesnt like that. But it can takes many days 'n nights of re-booting to find the problem. Unless one is lucky, it can often take many, many re-boots before finding what the problem is.

"Why do you always insist on puking all over yourself. You don't know jack about technology, so why don't you stick to talking about how wonderful the commie system is on that little prison island you call home."

Ah, Russucker, is talking out of his arse again. Now how do you know I "Don't know jack about technology", when you don't know anything about me or the jobs I've had, or how I spend my time (not all of us spend our time posting a 1000 posts a month on Anandtech). Well I'll tell you something I spent 2 years (on & off) working for at a dyno tuning place, wiring up & designing & modding Haltech & Motech Electronic fuel injection installations for modded Carby era Streetcars & Yamaha Supercarts, plus I've completely rewired a few cars, building completly new wiring harnesses in the process. PC's are like leggo kits in comparison. Speaking of which, over the last 3 years I've developed a little sideline building systems for local businesses, included a couple of whole networks, which works out at arround 30+ systems so I've got the trial 'n error routine downpat. Maybe I'm biased (or lucky) as in those 30+ systems I've never once got a dud CPU, & the bloke at the local computer warehouse said that whenever he gets someone returning a 'Dud' CPU he just swaps it & resells the dud & he's yet to have a comeback, because in his 15 years he's only come across a couple of real CPU duds at the most. He reckons that useally what happens is that either people don't know what they are doing or that they just don't have the patience to spend all night fiddling, adjusting, loading & rebooting, every 5 minutes, till they find out what's going on.

Maybe you should follow your own advice Russiebabe, & should stop posting on topics about the world, because have you actually been anywhere else other that the US, the only country where 1 in 4 people beleive in creationism as taught in the bible (sounds like you sought of place). Your a typical failed politician in that you like to get your word in on every subject, yet somehow always does it without really saying anything. BTW, whats this "commie system" you're talking about the only Commies I know about in Oz are some badge engineered 2-stroke vans that were imported from Asia many, many years ago (basically re-badged Suzukis), no I'm not talking about Combies or Commers, but maybe you are.
 

Passions

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2000
6,855
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My advice to others, dont build computers for others. Sure u can save them alot of money, but if and when things go wrong. Its a major pain in the arse!! And you feel bad totally. I only try to build myself a computer, or if a friend asks me I make sure I have at least a couple of weeks to do it.
 

Warrenton

Banned
Aug 7, 2000
777
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When I build for friends #1 rule: Intel and VIA chipsets don't mix well. Unless I will be around to do the support for them, I wouldn't use that combo. Not a single shop in my town has a clue about VIA, and not a SINGLE one uses VIA chipsets, not do any sell athlons (except Staples). So in this town you get Intel on an Intel chipset. And nor do any sell BX boards, all i810 with PCI video or i820 using the defective boards. This is a bad place to buy local (hence I order all my stuff in)
 

DABANSHEE

Banned
Dec 8, 1999
2,355
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Wow, a 2nd response from his highness, Sir Russ of Anandtech - I must be lucky today. I ought to go up the Blue Gum Hotel (one of the local pubs) & put some money on a horse.
 

Russ

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
21,093
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Warrenton,

Intel works just fine on VIA if the builder knows what they're doing. All of my P3 and Celeron systems are built with the Pro133A chipset and they are perfectly stable even with the highest end components. Here's an example:

ASUS P3V4X 133Mhz motherboard
Intel 800Mhz Coppermine CPU,
(133Mhz, 256k full speed cache, boxed version)
Ata66 controllers & high speed serial and parallel ports
USB Ports
Enlight 7237 Mid-tower ATX case
Enermax dual fan, 350w power supply
Intake fan and exhaust fan
Triple fan hard drive cooler
256MB Micron 7.5NS PC133 SDRAM (Upgradable to 1GB)
IBM 18.2GB, 10,000RPM LVD SCSI hard drive, 4MB cache
1.44MB floppy drive
Internal SCSI Iomega Zip drive
NEC SCSI 40X CD-ROM drive
ASUS V6600 32MB Geforce graphics accelerator
Creative SB Live! Value soundcard
Altec-Lansing ACS-45.2 speaker system
Tekram DC-390U3W, U160 SCSI adapter
Intel Pro/100 PCI network adapter
105 key enhanced keyboard (PS/2)
Microsoft Wheel mouse (PS/2)

This system is dual-booting 98SE and Win2K and works perfectly. BUT, I did not use the drivers that came on the CD's. That is where builders run in to problems.

Russ, NCNE
 

DABANSHEE

Banned
Dec 8, 1999
2,355
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I'll conferr with Russ, on that. I've had buggerall trouble with VIA chipsets. However I find that mostly one shouldn't load the VIA busmaster driver, as they are useally much more stable with the default MS IDE drivers. Actually in the last couple of revisions of VIA's 4in1 driver set (4.24 & 4.25) the VIA busmaster driver has been a vast improvement on earlier revisions. However, on some earlier revisions of VIA's Southbridges, Seagate Barracuda drives don't seem to like DMA mode enabled in the Windows Device Manager.
 

Warrenton

Banned
Aug 7, 2000
777
0
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Oh I know the VIAcan be just fine, but if you can't support the system for them, don't do it. Anyway for me I won't because there are ZERO shops in this town that know what the heck they are doing. I have fakes problems doing a report on fraud (like dateline) and I found only three shops that weren't commiting fraud, but of those 1 didn't use namebrand anything (well namebrand crap!), one charged $175 an hour just to diagnose (I did have sponsorship from the local newspaper for this), and the third was unable to diagnose the trouble (cas set to 2 with memory that was only capable of 3). So with that said, there are absolutely ZERO shops in my town that I would ever trust to do anything with VIA boards (they may know but will rip you off). So I won't build with a VIA133 chipset because I don't want to put anyone through hell with a local shop (heck I won't build usually if I will not be able to support for as long as possible).

That said, I need to get some capital. And start a real shop here that is honest, doesn't over charge, knows what is going on, and uses top quality parts. Not to mention, it will be damn nice to get my parts at cost!