IGNORE THIS POST (testing, 1, 2, 3...)

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I know you said to ignore, but I just wanted to say it looks like a great start. I just updated my BIOS today and ran into one interesting problem. I loaded optimized and rebooted, however when I got in it reported my CPU temp was 6C. It wasn't until I adjusted more settings and rebooted again it reported properly. Just a random tidbit of info.
 

bilbat

Splendid
Over 100 reads. I don't think any of us are doing a good job ignoring your work in progress.
I know you said to ignore...

Just goes to show how bad everyone in this %^#$ forum is at following instructions [:bilbat:9] [:bilbat:9]

All kidding aside, I'd be glad for help, suggestions, topics that should be covered, critiques... Lets see; five Tom's Points for every misspelling caught; ten for excessive or misused puctuation; twenty-five for every error of fact! Like, I could give out points, and anyone else would ever care about them [:bilbat:5]
 

ekoostik

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Looking good so far. You've already got two of the more common questions of late covered - how to update BIOS (and more importantly how not to update bios), and the missing memory mystery. Is it worth mentioning somewhere what slots the memory on the recent Intel boards goes in? I.e., Gigabyte's slot 1 is actually the second physical slot from the CPU and slot 3 is the fourth slot? I know the trick if you start going down the memory path is it'd be very easy to get off track, but you already had a note about updating BIOS for the new chipsets so not totally off track.
 
Hmm, here's a mystery/potential typo for ya. What is the correct way to refer to the company?

I see, you used: "GigaByte"
Some sites use: "Gigabyte"
And a brief perusal of their website (and a glance at my 3 GB boxes) show: "GIGABYTE" (always in all caps).
 

ekoostik

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It's coming together nicely. I had a couple thoughts as I was reading through it again, and of course I forgot one of them already. Oh well. The one I remember is - are you going to throw in your standard advice to set the floppy as the first boot device in case of disaster?
 

bilbat

Splendid
are you going to throw in your standard advice to set the floppy as the first boot device in case of disaster?
Ya know - I've been debating that with myself (one of the good things about being fairly crazy :pt1cable: , you've always got someone handy to debate with!) I know the 'fan-boiz/gamer-kidz' think floppies are something us antiquated geezers [:bilbat:6] carried in our shirt pockets when we rode our dinosaurs to work in the 'olden days'; and a lot of cases these days don't even have a place to put one; but - when you need one, you really need one!

Everything 'tech': pre-load driver installs, saving CMOS to an external (or, more importantly, loading it back!), the rescue 'blind-flash', and umpteen bootable utilities - 'wants' a floppy, works with a floppy 'no-effort', and just makes life all-around easier!

The other 'against' issue, is that with the 1156/1366, the BIOS went to 2meg, so the 'blind flash' is history for those...

I'm thinking, with your vote, the tie is broken, two to one, in favor! (...but don't be expecting any medicaid 'set-asides' for your vote!!) [:bilbat:9]

I had a couple thoughts as I was reading through it again, and of course I forgot one of them already
...broken interrupt return mechanism... [:bilbat:2] Happens to me three times a day - this process reminds me of doing 'brain-dumps' after the MCSE exams! You just reminded me of another thing - gotta have a thingie extolling the virtues of adding that lousy two-dollar case speaker!!
 

bilbat

Splendid
Ackk - 'nother bad click... But what isn't a bad click is really ticking me off. Tom's here has been stumbling and stuttering for days now, recently was down for hours, and now, an edit has somehow relaced every 'img' tag with a 'url' tag, and obliterated every image! [:bilbat:3]

...god. I hate Java programmers [:bilbat:7]
 

ekoostik

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Looking good. I can't wait to see the USB woes section, every time it's not included the suspense builds. A few thoughts:

1. A comment about this sentence: "You may not be seeing some of this if you have the boot 'splash' screen enabled (see BIOS - General Settings above) this will allow you to 'see' more of what's going on..." -- it's not clear what will allow them to see more.

You may want to clarify by adding one word: "You may not be seeing some of this if you have the boot 'splash' screen enabled (see BIOS - General Settings above); disabling this will allow you to 'see' more of what's going on..."

2. Under "Sorting out SATA" you get into "and then you need to put in the AHCI 'pre-load' drivers - this is easiest done during the OS install - it's a nasty, more complicated job to add 'em to an already installed system... "
Is it worth mentioning that this procedure is unnecessary with Windows 7? Many new builders, especially as more time passes and as they move to the latest OS, will find that this whole overcomplicated process is no longer necessary.

3. This may be more of a question than a comment but I got to thinking while reading your "Sorting out SATA" section - I actually disabled the secondary chip, the "Onboard SATA/IDE Device". I only have two harddisks plus a DVD drive and I've plugged them into the main SATA ports. If you don't have enough drives to even fill up all the southbridge SATA ports, is it a good idea to connect everything to the southbridge and turn off the secondary chip?

4. This is just an editing comment, at the bottom of your Sorting out SATA section there's some edit tags showing, you can see two tags (and both are opening tags) in a section thats already in italics:
always want this setting at "Enabled" - it turns on
 

bilbat

Splendid
I will catch most of these...

Probably worth mentioning that the AHCI drivers are 'native' to seven - what I don't know for sure is whether they're all 'native' (GSATAs and Marvells), or if its just the southbridge ports... Hesitant to mention it until I find out for sure :pt1cable:

I actually disabled the secondary chip, the "Onboard SATA/IDE Device". I only have two harddisks plus a DVD drive and I've plugged them into the main SATA ports. If you don't have enough drives to even fill up all the southbridge SATA ports, is it a good idea to connect everything to the southbridge and turn off the secondary chip?
Always best to disable anything you're not actually using - saves interrupts, discovery, and interrupt services...

'Nother interesting (but esoteric) optimization for the ICH's - if you're only using a couple ports, and neither using RAID or AHCI, they're best 'split' with one drive on port 0-3, and the second on 4 0r 5 - from "Intel® I/O Controller Hub 10 (ICH10) Family Datasheet" (Page 176):
5.16 SATA Host Controller (D31:F2, F5)
The SATA function in the ICH10 has three modes of operation to support different operating system conditions. In the case of Native IDE enabled operating systems, the
ICH10 utilizes two controllers to enable all six ports of the bus. The first controller (Device 31: Function 2) supports ports 0–3 and the second controller (Device 31: Function 5) supports ports 4 and 5. When using a legacy operating system, only one controller (Device 31: Function 2) is available that supports ports 0 - 3. In AHCI or
RAID mode, only one controller (Device 31: Function 2) is used enabling all six ports.
Now, whether you'd gain by putting the HDs on, say, 0 and 4, and enabling the jMicron to handle the DVD - only testing would tell; what you gain in raw port speed, you might lose in interrupt service...

As for 4, I'm laughing [:bilbat:9] When I did the 'refresh' after the last edit, I noticed that at the same time I saw your post regarding it - was just 'headed back in' to fix it!
 

bilbat

Splendid
OK - I think were getting pretty close to "ready for prime time" here!!

[:fixitbil:1]

Any last minute topics missed? Errors in: fact? spelling? grammar & punctuation (beside, of course, my usual, rambling, ellipsis-ridden 'style' - or lack, perhaps, thereof [:bilbat:2] )

Got another trouble that I'd like to see if someone can confirm for me - and, maybe, point out my troubles :cry:

I keep getting 'smiley' tags that don't show pictures of the sticky! I'm losing my mind in general, as:

-at first, it seemed like it was a particular 'spot' where they wouldn't work - I tried moving 'em around endlessly, and searched for a somehow 'disrupted' tage before or after, forever! 'till my eyes are bleeding...

-then I thought there may be a 'limit' on how many you can use, but that didn't seem to be it - some seem to work, some not...

-then I thought maybe it was 'user' tags that were limited - the :usename:# tags - that didn't pan out either...

-sometimes it seems like the last couple edited have the problem, but never consistently...

EEEKKK!

I've tried:

-flushing my browser cache...

-using a different browser...

-updating my Sun Java...

I'm ready for the nets!!! [:bilbat]

Main thing - can someone else confirm for me that they're seeing the same thing I am??
 
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