9 Oct
2007
9 Oct
'07
1:53 p.m.
Oh %deity,
where to begin...
OK, it works with 2 DIMMs, not 3. My first question is 'should it work
with 3 DIMMs of that size'. Or is there a limit on the total memory
that's been exceeded.
AFAIK, yes, it should, but it doesn't. This sort of thing appears to
be a consistent fault with old ~1.5GHz Athlon XP motherboards.
Assuming there isn't, it would _appear_ the
problem is with the memory
controller on the motherboard. If it's some large ASIC that's failing, =
my
expeirince is that when a chip starts to go bad,
it gets worse. So the
machine might have more mrmory errors shortly. I'd want to be sure any
machine I'd fixed was working, and would carry on working. Not fail on =
me
when I need it most
It might do, yes, but I don't have any suitable spares and it's for
someone who can't afford to replace it. And I said
'appear' above. Maybe the motherboard is fine. Maybe it's a
marginal PSU that can't supply enough current for the 3 DIMMs. Did you
even chack the PSU votlages under load? Let alone ripple?
And again, you're working on the assumption that I am you, or that I
work like you, or that everyone should work like you.
No, I didn't, and no, I'm not about to, because I don't do hardware
repairs and if the hardware is faulty it goes in the bin and gets
replaced wherever possible.
And when, as here, it's not possible to replace it, what do you do?
Now perhaps you know why I do all diagnosis and
repairs of _everything_=
I
own myself...
No, Tony, I don't. While I have huge respect for your apparent abilities at troubleshooting, diagnosing and fixing
classic kit,
comments like "I won't run a modern PC because I can't afford the test
equipment to analyse it if it goes wrong" say to me that you are so
obsessed that you will shoot yourself in the foot and drastically
inconvenience yourself rather than change your behaviour. If a PC goes
How am I inconveniencing myself? What do you think I want to do that
could be done more easily by having a modern PC? (And remember I think
_you're_ inconveniencing yourself by not having electronic test gear and
learning how to use it)
wrong, one does not analyse it, one junks it and
replaces it, because
ARGH! When are you going to understand that I don't replace parts without
knowing what's failed and why!. I simply don't. I never will...
PCs are interchangeable commodity kit. To spend
thousands on repairing
Oh yes.... And then find there's no driver for the new video card for
whatever odd OS I want to run. Or that the hoebrew add-on hung off the
parallel port won't work correctly with a USB-parallel converter and no
new PC has a real parallel port. Or that the floppy cotnroller (if
there's on at all) doesn't support 5.25" drives proerly, or ...
It's a lot less inconvenient to me to stick to hardware I know, that I
understand, and that I can keep going to avoid any such problems.
something worth at best hundreds and probably in fact
worth perhaps
the cost of a pint or a train ticket is not sensible pragmatism, it's
You also have to realise that not everybody knows people who give away
old PC hardawre. I don't, for example.
not commendable attention to detail, it's bl**dy
daft. And to say "I
won't run it if I can't repair it" is dafter still!
I disgaree, but there you are...
-tony