Computer Upgrade - Finally

[Shamus MacNoob]

I aggree a suckers bet

 

[kcnychief]

Well, that was interesting.

I decided to fiddle with it a bit before going to work this morning, as I was going to find a way to do it without getting that USB floppy.

I hacked apart an old machine I had, hooked up an internal floppy, went inside the BIOS and changed required settings, the FDD was bad

Got another FDD, hooked it up, everything was working just fine. Came to read drivers off disk, error 4112 (read issues from floppy - bad disk)

Made another disk, same FDD, process worked

Oh Joy!

 

[kcnychief]

I aggree a suckers bet

Extended warranties are always a sucker's bet.

I understand that the two of you are pro-building a system, which I normally am as well, but you have to understand my point of view.

I was looking for a new rig, as my current setup was slowing down productivity. What I paid for this sytem, and what comes with it, was a MUCH better deal (IMO), than something I could have built. It came with a 3-Year warranty, which I was debating (when I posted about it), to extend to 4 years, depending on the cost. After madmatt's post, I will wait it out and see what happens towards the end of the 3 years.

I bought this new PC with a few things in mind, scalability, potential to handle future OS technologies (Vista, most noteably), and ROI (Return on Investment). I don't need to get into details as to what it cost, but the machine was a great value, again, IMO. If the upgrade to 4-years would have been cost effective, I may have gotten it. It was only a question, and I was not 100% sure going to get it.

On another hand, if you have a computer with a 4-year warranty, who's to say it won't last that long? Vista has been touted as an OS that can last 10 years, which is obviously longer than 4, at least last time I checked. Do I believe that Vista WILL last 10 years? Probably not, but I am pretty sure it will at least last 4. Do I NEED to get a new PC over the next 4 years? Probably not. Will I? Probably. The fact of the matter is, I wanted something that has the potential to last those 4 years, regardless if I get a hard on for some new technology and want to invest my money in it.

From where I stand, this was a good, smart purchase. I have no problem trying to protect my investment for 4 years, and I definitely don't think that makes me a sucker.

 

[madmatt]

Don't use nLite, do the work yourself. I can walk you through it if you need help.

 

[kcnychief]

Don't use nLite, do the work yourself. I can walk you through it if you need help.

Not really a big deal, I used nLite at the time because I wanted it done quicker and was lazy.

I have done it before, and I will be doing it again in a few days to make things a bit smoother. If I have questions, I'll let ya know

 

[kcnychief]

OK, more explanation time.

As I stated previously, I was able to install a working FDD with the drivers on a disk. I hit F6 as Windows loaded, eventually it prompted me to choose, which I did, no worries there. I format the partition, go to install Windows, BAM, error. Windows can't copy copy the driver files, I believe it was isastor.sys (don't quote me on that). Those were the files on the floppy, but Windows can't load them. No option to point from the FDD, just the CD. I took the CD out, forced it to look at the disk, still nothing. So, for the heck of it, I skipped the file, Windows finished copying the files. After the reboot, guess what, BSOD (no surprise). Just for experimental purposes, I booted into BartPE, dropped the driver files in c:\windows\system32. Reboot, still BSOD.

I poked onto Google, and found some interesting tidbits. Apparently, if I go into my BIOS, switch the SATA settings from SATA/AHCI to SATA/ATA, and then give it a try, it will work. So, I switched that in the BIOS, re-ran Windows setup, this time everything went off without a hitch. That is the reader's digest version, and I have to finalize everything tonight (switch settings back to SATA/AHCI), here is the steps taken, pulled from a MSNF forum post...

1) go into bios and select 'RAID/ATA' option

2) install xp [not necessary if already installed]

3) boot into xp

4) go to device manager and update the ide controller that's connected to
SATA drive. make sure you force it to select
'Intel® 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller'
*note- u can get the driver from dell CD or u can download R78496.exe
from dell, but in this case, u'll need a PC with floppy to extract
the image unless u have winimage, but i'm not sure if it's gonna
extract it for u. *forget to mention that u still need to be able
to access those driver either by lan, cd/dvd reader, hardrive to
hardrive,etc....

5) make sure you don't update the driver for PATA IDE. if you do that,
you won't be able to boot back into windows regardless of which mode u
choose in bios for ide controller.

6) after u update the driver for the IDE attached to your SATA drive, windows
will ask you to reboot.

7) once reboot, go into bios before windows start and change 'RAID/ATA' to
'RAID/AHCI'

8) save and exit bios, now you should be able to boot into windows and install
intel application accelerator.
------------------------------------------------

Full post, for those who are curious

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?act=ST&f=34&t=32993

As soon as I get everything all set, I am making an image of this bad boy so it's not such a pain next time

 

[madmatt]

Are you running a RAID?

Make sure you have the latest version of BIOS installed. When you first configure a SATA RAID you need to go into the BIOS and select the option for SATA RAID. After you reboot you need to go into the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (CTRL+I I believe) and configure your RAID (whether it be 0 or 1). Once you get that squared away, install Windows, etc. Once Windows is on the box you need to go back into the BIOS and switch it back to auto detect.

 

[kcnychief]

Nope, not running a RAID, but the machine has the possibility to do it. The machine only has one drive, a 250GB SATA drive. I was more going to set that back for the AHCI mode.

 

[kcnychief]

Computer up and running for the most part, man this baby hauls!

I'm going to benchmark it and post some results

 

[Mainframeguy]

So when is it folding the first WU for you?

 

[celticfan11]

I might even have an un-expected kid on the way now :s

shhhh!

I never know if i should shake my head and say "tough luck, better luck with the contraceptive next time" or say "congratulations" when people say they are having a child. What do you think the percentage is for actual PLANNED babys is now a days? lol

 

[kcnychief]

I never know if i should shake my head and say "tough luck, better luck with the contraceptive next time" or say "congratulations" when people say they are having a child. What do you think the percentage is for actual PLANNED babys is now a days? lol

Not sure, but I escaped this one it appears, just barely

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

So where are the benches from the Dell monster?

 

[Mainframeguy]

awww hey - be nice to "mom" those "escapes" can be tough on the ladies. Plus there is no need for this to be totally "planned" (it's not like a new machine or something!) and hey you guys tied the knot, so in my book that's all the planning you needed to do!

And yeah - like the frog said - where are those WU's and benches?

 

[kcnychief]

So where are the benches from the Dell monster?

They are coming, rather busy with a few other things atm

 

[Mainframeguy]

They are coming, rather busy with a few other things atm

for a minute i thought the babies (IE THEY = babies!) were coming and i was gonna go like WOOOO HOOOOO double congrats on the twins man! :nervous: