Fess up! Simming...and the machine.....

OK, fess up, your video card fan...when is the last time you actually
checked it with regard to the small cooling muffin fan actually
turning!? Well? When? Fess up! If you have, as most folks do, a 'tower'
case set-up, then that decent bucks video card is no doubt facing
'downwards' .... and you can't normally see the fan, yes? Well, I'm here
to tell you to get a small mirror and check it! Mine, when I looked,
brought memories of reading Shackleton when the 'Endurance' became beset
in the Weddel Sea at the South Pole! The small on-board video muffin fan
was sooooooo full of dust and grit that it was frozen solid! 'Beset' as
Sir Ernie would say! THAT, inter alia, perhaps explained those periodic
system halts! Comment: check the fan [in fact take a few moments and
check ALL the fans in the system!] and even when you see it turning and
doing its thing, get out the old toothbrush and clean it! CAUTION on
that air can zap because the gas residue can cause component problems
and NEVER use an air can on a system fan while the system is running!
Never! Don't ask! :-(


And this for which I award myself the yoyo of the hour award. :-( An
amigo went to that P4 top o' the line 3.06 gig CPU and that new 'hyper'
memory with the 2.5 CAS speed and fancy cooler covers and so that left
his now used [pardon...make that 'pre-owned'] P4 2.8 gig 533 Mhz FSB CPU
[which my mobo would accept short of another BIOS hit to make the thing
3.06 ready but I'm not a great fan of changing the BIOS as there are too
many horror stories of BIOS upgrades going sour....] and 1 gig [two
512MB sticks] 3.0 CAS PC-3200 DDR memory and I got both for a great deal
to use on m work machine. Hey, the price was right! Why not!

Now...the work machine was using a P4 2.4B gig 533 MHz FSB with PC2100
DDR memory and a SOYO P4X400 Ultra Platinum mobo and I 'assumed' [BIG
ERROR!] that the machine/BIOS set internal multiplier for the 2.4B would
remain the same [*Ohhhh the pain for that assumption!] thing for the 2.8
gig 533 FSB CPU update and so when the 2.8 fired up with the 'machine'
and hence BIOS doing the multiplier math, so to speak, and which is NOT
shown [the multiplier] in SOYO mobo systems, well then, 'I' then
calculated an 'approximation' of the OLD multiplier of what 'I' thought
[based on the OLD machine 2.4B gig CPU multiplier] would come close to
the new 2.8 gig CPU and ....and.....after clicking OK to set and save
the BIOS settings....WHAM! Knocked the entire system out cold! Forget
blue screen....try full black screen...absolutely nada! Panic!


Cutting to the chase...MANY hours later....and a now corrupted BIOS but
later a virtual miracle that the thing finally took a re-flash of the
BIOS using DOS and discs! Comment: When you install an updated CPU in
your system...assume ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Some motherboards have their
own internal way of calculating the FSB multiplier so when the machine
starts up with the new CPU, do NOT fiddle with the BIOS page but rather
go into Windows and run one of your system data info programs and see
what the 'program' says as to your current CPU speed! THEN, if you wish,
you can 'cautiously' tinker with the BIOS FSB adjustment page.

This too....if you really don't know how these things tick when that
updated memory goes in and you're asked in the BIOS pages all manner of
'manually' [read: user set] set memory settings on the BIOS page --or--
'manual' set FSB multiplier CPU stuff, hey, until you've got the ear or
presence of a tech or at least a person who 'does' savvy the stuff [and
what can go wrong] or indeed, enough savvy [and in some cases, 'nerve']
to proceed after BIOS tinkerings, consider the generally prudent setting
of "SPD" which essentially lets the 'machine' decide the timings and
speeds. Run a check too! Sometimes the 'SPD' setting is just as decent
[read: fast] as countless tinkerings with 'manual' memory timings and
settings! Run a read/write memory speed test in Windows and compare your
'manual' user-set tinkerings with that of 'SPD' or machine set settings!

And then...unless you're an expert, be VERY, V E R Y careful of ever
changing or indeed even touching the motherboard 'voltage' settings for
the motherboard, the CPU, the video card and the memory! Present day
machines allow much user tinkerings within the BIOS pages but this is
also a dangerous waters area if you don't have the savvy! One small
error there [voltage tinkerings] can VERY QUICKLY do intense damage or
fry the stuff right there and then! Then you'll weep! It happens!
Voltage settings NOT as forgiving as the other BIOS user-set tinkerings!
And be realistic! If your memory has a rated CAS [memory timing speed]
of 3.0, hey, if you simply 'must' tinker/experiment in that 'manual'
[read: user set] BIOS area, be 'grateful' if you get the memory working
at a CAS of ONE HALF-STEP LOWER THAN THE RATED CAS [generally one 'CAS'
setting down] because setting it 'too' low [for an even faster memory
latency timing speed a la 2.0 ] can 'zap' the system or corrupt the
machine BIOS...THEN you have big problems! It just may NOT recover!

Just passing it on.... .

Doc Tony