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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 4:18 pm
by Jim
Thanks, Uranium !!

Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 10:03 pm
by Jim
Well have the top half of the front panel modded to clipon, still have to do the bottom. Lots of fun. Because of the extra stresses involved with clipon front panels, i think I had better sink the anchors in epoxy to reinforce them too.

Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 9:58 pm
by Jim
Have got the entire front panel modded to "clipon" now, with the "Clips", and their mounting posts sunk in heavy duty blocks of epoxy. Also have the top half of the case modded to take the "Clips"; but still have to do the bottom half. It is the easier half to do, the top was very tight, (very little room for the clips to go into). The bottom is a piece of cake in comparison.

Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 9:40 pm
by Jim
Conversion to "Clipon" front panel complete and working. Will make it much easier to clean the front chassis fan dustfilter.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 3:55 pm
by Jim
At long last the case mods for SCX are done !!! The two permanent HDDs have their "Clipin Ducted Fan Setup" complete. It was a nightmare to do !! The thing has 10 separate custom made aluminum parts in it all of which had to be made to very exacting tolerances in order for it all to fit together and in the very restricted space there was for it. Believe me no fun !!

Now just have to put it together and mod the power supply so as to include a suitable lead for my ducted fans.

Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 5:56 pm
by Jim
It is up and running. Typing on it now. Nightmare getting it to this stage and still has a long way to go.

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:00 am
by Jim
Well it turned out that SC-X has a defective processor, therein lies the reason it was a nightmare to get running. being RMA-ed now. SP2 still runs faultlessly though, and I have been working for the last couple of weeks on getting SP3 back up. It is running now; but I don't have all the software installed yet. That one too, was a nightmare. First problems were 1) The printer port would not install. Found out eventually that newer XP updates set the default settings for the port to : "NEVER USE AN INTERUPT". So it doesn't work till you go in and change the settings. 2) Hangs on shutdown. That one was a b-tch!! only solution I could come up with was restore from an old backup wherein Rodger the hacker, who used to work at "Uptown Computer" had somehow fixed the problem. That led to a third problem : 3) The video card drivers would not load properly, and a reboot would not work. --- Reinstall Windopes and start over; --- about 40 times, using various trial and error methods to get the drivers well enough in to work on reboot. FUN FUN FUN !! 4th problem was Windopes complains when the "Creative", (So creative at F--king up a computer), drivers were loaded they were replacing essential Windopes Service Pack files with unrecognized versions, -- "Please put your "Service Pack Disk in to restore these files". Got it almost through the driver loading phase now though, so it should be OK soon.

Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 1:07 pm
by Jim
Monday, I should have the last bits for SCX. Get them installed, the machine loaded, and photos to follow.

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:55 pm
by Jim
K, Does anyone here know anything about Intel quad cores and the various voltages required to run that kind of machine? I am having a lot of problems with SC-X. It frequently boots into black screens, I get the odd blue screen for no particular reason, and sometimes it abruptly shuts down and reboots, because of a blue screen.

One computer shop told me it was a defective processor so I RMA-ed the processor; but it is still happening. Another computer shop managed to solve the problem; but would NOT tell me how, though they told me if I changed anything I would probably get the problem back. Unfortunately, they also loaded a generic Creative driver which blocked me from installing my Creative audio software. Their stupid driver only made windows noises, no media playing capabilities at all. No Uninstall either; so I had to do a format to get rid of their piece of crap, so I could load the proper drivers for my card. Formatting and adjusting a few bios settings brought the problem back.

Thing is crazy. You set the voltage at one thing; and the system health monitor reports something else. Similarly set the FSB and multiplier at one thing, and Sandra reports something else.

Yet despite all this, that one shop had the thing running dead stable, and even managed to have it stable when OCed by 600Mhz, (Up at 3000 Mhz). They charged me $90.00 to do that, then stuck in that piece of S--- Creative driver. HELP if you can please. I suspect it is a voltage issue; but I don't know how high is safe, and I don't want to damage anything, let alone blow anything up. Another problem is the bios has alot of AUTO settings that seem to be undervolting the system.

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 6:25 am
by Jim
K , My board is a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Rev 2 Running an Intel 2.4 GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600. I am using the following bios settings :

Standard CMOS Settings:
IDE Channel 0 Master - Samsung SP2004C
IDE Channel 1 Master - HL-DT-ST DVD RAM GH20
IDE Channel 2 Master - Samsung SP2004C
IDE Channel 3 Master - Samsung SP2004C
IDE Channel 4 Master - WDC WD400JB-00F MA0
IDE Channel 4 Slave - HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GSA
Drive A None
Floppy Mode 3 Support - Disabled
Halt On - All But Keyboard

Advanced Bios Features :
Hard Disk Boot Priority
1 CH 0 M - Samsung SP2004C
2 CH 2 M - Samsung SP2004C
3 CH 4 M - WDC WD400JB-00F MA0
4 CH 3 M - Samsung SP2004C
5 Bootable Add In Cards (None Present)
First Boot Device - Hard Disk
Second Boot Device - Hard Disk
Third Boot Device - CDROM
Password Check - Setup
HDD Smart Capability - Enabled
Limit CPUID Max To 3 - Disabled
No-Execute Memory Protect - Enabled
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E) - Enabled
CPU Thermal Monitor 2 TM2 - Enabled
CPU EIST Function - Disabled
Virtualization Technology - Enabled
Full Screen Logo Show - Disabled
Init Display First - PCI

Integrated Peripherals :
Sata AHCI Mode - Disabled
Sata Port 01 Native Mode - Enabled
USB Controller - Enabled
USB2 Controller - Enabled
USB Keyboard Support - Disabled (I use a PS2 Keyboard)
USB Mouse Support - Disabled (I use a PS2 Mouse)
Legacy USB Storage Detect - Enabled
Azalia Codec - Disabled (Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Installed)
Onboard H/W LAN - Enabled
Smart LAN - 10 MBPS Cable Length Less Than 10M
Onboard Lan Boot Rom - Disabled
Onboard IDE Controller - Enabled
Onboard Serial Port 1 - 3F8/IRQ4
Onboard Parallel Port - 378/IRQ7
Parallel Port Mode - SPP

Power Management Setup :
ACPI Suspend Type - S3 STR
Soft Off By Power Button - Delay 4 Sec
PME Event Wake Up - Disabled
Power On By Ring - Disabled
Resume By Alarm - Disabled
HPET Support - Enabled
HPET Mode - 32 Bit Mode
Power On By Mouse - Disabled
Power On By Keyboard - Disabled
AC Back Function - Soft Off

PNP/PCI Configurations :
PCI 1 IRQ Assignment - Auto
PCI 2 IRQ Assignment - Auto
PCI 3 IRQ Assignment - Auto

PC Health Status :
Reset Case Open Status - Disabled
Case Opened ? - No
V Core - 1.316 V
DDR18 - 1.872 V
+3.3V - 3.280 V
+ 12V - 12.365 V
Current System Temperature - 34 C
Current CPU Temperature - 39 C
Current CPU fan Speed - 2045 RPM
Current System Fan 2 Speed - 1000 RPM
Current Power Fan Speed - 0 RPM
Current System Fan 1 Speed - 3708 RPM
CPU Warning Temperature 60 C
CPU Fan Fail Warning - Enabled
System Fan 2 Fail Warning - Enabled
Power Fan Fail Warning - Disabled (Note : The Power Supply fan works fine, - but there is no reading of its speed)
System fan 1 Fail Warning - Enabled
CPU Smart Fan Control - Disabled (CPU RAN HOT when enabled)
CPU Smart Fan Mode - Auto

MB Intelligent Tweaker (MIT) :
Robust Graphic Booster - Auto
CPU Clock Ratio - 9X
CPU Frequency 2.4GHz (266x9)
CPU Host Control Clock - Disabled (Note : whenever I enable this setting, I get "System Voltage NOT Optimized" further down)
CPU Host Frequency MHz - 266
PCI Express Frequency - Auto
CIA2 - Disabled
Performance Enhance - Standard
System Memory Multiplier SPD - Auto
Memory Frequency - 800 - 800
System Voltage Optimized
System Voltage Control - Manual
DDR2 Overvoltage Control - Normal
PCI-E Overvoltage Control - Normal
FSB Overvoltage Control - Normal
G MCH Overvoltage Control - Normal
CPU Voltage Control - 1.35625 V
Normal CPU V Core - 1.25000 V (Note : It says 1.35 V right on the box the CPU came in.)

If anybody here knows what must be changed to stabilize this thing please tell me.

Thanks

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:53 am
by kinnsy
Hello, you could ask here http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/ really helpful and friendly bunch of overclockers/enthusiasts. They have helped me get a rock solid 4GHz out of my E8500/Gigabyte X38-DQ6 combination.

I found your site after digging out my old MSI-5169/K6-III 450 which was a delight for me after suffering a FIC VA-503+. :)

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 5:02 pm
by Jim
Will try that Kinsey, THANKS !! Gigabytes tecnical assistance site was no help whatsoever. And by the way, according to Kyle Brant, (An Expert among experts), the FIC VA 503+ has the best memory performance of any of the via chipset Super 7s. He did say that it is fussy about RAM though, seems it wants top quality SDRAM or it doesn't work well.

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:48 am
by stevenaaus
One computer shop told me it was a defective processor so I RMA-ed the processor; but it is still happening. Another computer shop managed to solve the problem; but would NOT tell me how, though they told me if I changed anything I would probably get the problem back.
Man, this is a doozy. I haven't seen anything like this before.
You do have a heap of drives attached, and the relatively high power draw of the Q6600 indicates your problems are power related.

Apart from finding out the voodoo the PC store did, the easiest ~possible~ solution i can see is possibly getting a better power supply, or going for a lower TDP cpu such as the E5200.

(Honestly, IMHO quad cores are a ridiculous idea anyhow. Your 3rd and 4th cores are always drawing power, but only getting used perhaps 1% of the time. I have a Q9400 sitting on the shelf, but use a E5200 instead.)
Thing is crazy. You set the voltage at one thing; and the system health monitor reports something else. Similarly set the FSB and multiplier at one thing, and Sandra reports something else.
This is not so unusual perhaps. Temperature ICs are fairly whimsical things, and often the OS doesn't know about them properly. It could even be the cause of your problems, with the OS not revving the CPU fan enough.

Sorry i cant help much. How's it going ?

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:31 pm
by Jim
It is clearly a voltage issue. I did replace both the power supply and the heatsink combo with good stuff; not that it made the slightest bit of difference. I have managed to stabelize it to some degree, (though not nearly as well as Mr Ferrari did), by incrementing the DDR2 Overvoltage Control,PCI-E Overvoltage Control, FSB Overvoltage Control, and G MCH Overvoltage Control each up by .1v while UNDERCLOCKING the processor to 8x266. That has helped.

The board is supposed to be able to support the Q6600 with the F7 bios, which it has, but supposedly requires the F8 Bios for the faster Quadcores. I think, that unless you are an expert at playing with voltages, they all need the F8 bios. Problem is am afraid to flash when the stupid thing is as unstable as it is. Could windup with a dead board.

Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:25 pm
by stevenaaus
Problem is am afraid to flash when the stupid thing is as unstable as it is. Could windup with a dead board.
Hmmm.. An unstable board is very annoying though. Have you tested stability with case open and a house fan pointed at mobo ? Obviously not a good solution (though my brother played the wqhole of Doom2 on an 486 like this !), but it may be enough to flash bios.

Another long shot... do you have old/misbehaving electrical appliances in the house that may be affecting power quality ?