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 Post subject: New computer story
PostPosted: Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:30 pm 
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Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2005 4:54 pm
Posts: 392
I ordered a new computer from Polywell Computers. Three Intel SSDs in RAID 0. Intel I7 CPU. ATI 5770 GPU. Boy was I excited!

After 2 days, the machine would not boot: continous loop of start & turn-off. Bad power source, right? No, bad cable to the Power ON/OFF button. I had had to return the machine to Polywell to troubleshoot. The Z-Machine case had multiple rub marks. They also had to remedy that.

I get the machine back & notice that the machine is registering only 4 GB of RAM. 6 GB are installed. I troubleshoot & find 1 dead RAM module. They are sending a new set (3) of RAM (Kingston).

In the meantime, I detect a new problem. During boot-up or coming out of Sleep mode, 1 of the 2 90mm front fans is making a horrible noise (as if the fan is hitting something). And, the case is vibrating. The fan finally will settle down (strange). Anyway, I decide to remove the front panel to investigate the fans, etc. There are 4 allen-type screws. Turns out the front panel cannot be removed easily (bad design) because the hard drive case along with many other cables are attached to the panel.

So, I've basically told Polywell that I will return the "lemon" computer for a total refund unless they can come up with something (other than returning the machine again). I live in Philly & Polywell is in California.

We shall see. Needless to say, I am quite peeved.


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 Post subject: Re: New computer story
PostPosted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:53 am 
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Bad luck, John. Probably not Polywell's fault either, as this stuff happens.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer buying components and then building the PC myself. I get to 'pick & choose', and, if something is not working right, only a single component needs to go back.

Just to add to your story: on the weekend I bought a 1 TB external WD My Book 3.0 as I needed some extra storage space and this drive comes with a two port USB 3.0 NEC controler card.

Even though I'm still weary of their external drives after all the trouble I went with my two previous My Books (one of them is now an internal 1 TB drive, haha) I had read some nice reviews, so I decided to go ahead, in part to get that USB 3.0 card as well.

Right from the start I run into problems: the drive was not being recognized. While trying to turn it on and off at the back switch, the switch also completely gave away!!!! Plastic flimsy stuff.

Anyway, after a while this is what I found in WD's KB:

"A known issue with the NEC controller is that it passes the PCIe spread spectrum to the device through the USB 3.0 interface. The NEC controller does not have it's own reference clock for USB 3.0. If the motherboard has an out-of-spec PCIe reference clock (either incorrect frequency or excessive spread spectrum), the device attached to the USB 3.0 controller will not be able to track the signal and will fail to enumerate on the system."

It then goes on to list a bunch of motherboards *incompatible* with the My Book 3.0 drive. Turns out my motherboard (an Asus P6T Deluxe V2) is NOT among them.

Since I am overclocking my system, I thought 'uh-oh'. I had already disabled the PCIE Spread Spectrum option in the BIOS too, to no effect. That's when I remembered that some time ago I had set the PCIE frequency to 101 Mhz instead of the standard 100 Mhz.

I changed it back, and that single 1 Mhz (!) is what made all the difference. The drive was instantly recognized. 1 Mhz! If you ask me, I suspect the problem is not the NEC controler itself, but the electronics of the My Book 3.0 which are unable to cope even with small signal range deviations.

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 Post subject: Re: New computer story
PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 1:22 pm 
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Joined: Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:42 am
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Location: Paarl, South Africa
3xSSD in RAID - boy, u are spoiled :lol: :lol: Send a few my way :D

but seriously,

Quote:
This is one of the reasons why I prefer buying components and then building the PC myself


I agree here 100%. Built up PC's are overpriced (for my last upgrade I saved over 30% by buying components) and most of the times badly built. What can you expect from 16yo kids building it for emm... $10/hr?

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