My HTPC has a problem, please help me!

[VirtualLarry]

Don't use damaged SATA cables, no-where near worth it. Just toss them, and buy some new ones, they're like less than $1 ea on sale at Newegg in their sale flyer every month (usually every week they have one type on sale).

And you're right, if your XP HDD was installed with IDE mode, you'll likely want to install the SSD in AHCI mode. It really only matters for the OS boot drive. You CAN install Win7 on an SSD in IDE mode, it just won't perform as well during heavy multi-tasking. (It reduces an SSD's max random I/O speeds a bit.)

 

[Muse]

So, if I make that change to AHCI mode, will I still be able to boot to the 120GB IDE drive's XP partitions should I want to, i.e. using the boot menu hotkey access?

I think I'm going to wait until Tuesday to do the Win7 install. Busy tomorrow and Sat, Sun and Monday won't work, I want to be sure to have MyHD working on the weekend, and Monday's a busy day.

 

[Muse]

I've seen you mention how happy you are with your 40" 4K display. I was at Costco today. Their 40" was only 1080p. They had a lot of 4K displays, the smallest being 43".

Do you have any suggestions for a 4K display to use with the midtower system(s)? 40"? What make/model and where/when to get them? Thanks!

 

[VirtualLarry]

So, if I make that change to AHCI mode, will I still be able to boot to the 120GB IDE drive's XP partitions should I want to, i.e. using the boot menu hotkey access?

No, you won't. You'll get a blue-screen, XP doesn't "do" AHCI. At least, not natively.

If you want to be able to dual-boot with the boot menu, and not change BIOS settings, you'll have to set up the SSD in IDE mode.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've seen you mention how happy you are with your 40" 4K display. I was at Costco today. Their 40" was only 1080p. They had a lot of 4K displays, the smallest being 43".

Do you have any suggestions for a 4K display to use with the midtower system(s)? 40"? What make/model and where/when to get them? Thanks!

I picked up a couple of "Avera" (complete off-brand) 40" 4K UHD TVs from Newegg around BF two years ago. They might have them again. They've got FOUR HDMI 2.0 inputs, amazingly enough. Some HDR / local-dimming support too.

 

[Muse]

No, you won't. You'll get a blue-screen, XP doesn't "do" AHCI. At least, not natively.

If you want to be able to dual-boot with the boot menu, and not change BIOS settings, you'll have to set up the SSD in IDE mode.

Well, if I install Win7 with the BIOS setting changed to AHCI and want to use XP, can I do that by resetting to IDE? And if so, would removing the SSD allow that?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, if I install Win7 with the BIOS setting changed to AHCI and want to use XP, can I do that by resetting to IDE?

Yes.

And if so, would removing the SSD allow that?

no need.

 

[Muse]

Larry...
FYI... Amazingly, since putting in that dGPU you send me in that box I haven't had a single lockup, not a single weird video thing happen like was happening without warning occasionally when the other video card was in there.

I still haven't installed Win7, but I will!!! Been very busy, want to give this the attention it will likely need. I have some things coming up so good chance I won't get around to installing the SSD (after disconnecting the two HDs in the machine) and then Win7... until after some things happen. I am having cataract surgery on both eyes in 8 days! Then there is the fundraiser for my volunteer job, which is intense. Last week on October, probably I'll be past that stuff and hopefully have the time. Meantime, the machine's acting as well as I could expect or hope for right now. S3 still doesn't work, but I didn't expect it would.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm glad to hear that the new dGPU is working better, and wish you luck with your upcoming cataract surgery. No rush on the other stuff. I should, Lord Willing, still be here in a few months time or whatnot if you need help with anything else.