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sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:16 pm

vidoman wrote:........I'm to start work on Thursday, running machines, dozers, trackhoes, ect., building a runway. This kind of weather really screws things like that up..

Congratulations and good luck, watch out for low flying aircraft!!

Post by **Ron P.** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 11:20 pm

Thanks,

Yep, I'll have to remember when someone yells DUCK

they don't mean the type that goes quack, quack

Other news...

I've upgraded my DSL from the 1.5Mbps, to a whopping 3.0. I can tell a little difference, when downloading larger files.

I had to replace my monitor. This process however involved first replacing the video card, then the PSU, because the video card required a larger PSU then I had. I thought I had my problem corrected. Wrong, what was happening, was the screen would suddenly go blank, or black. I could turn the monitor off and back on, it would work for some time then do it all over again. Well this progressed to where it could not be used. A Google search revealed that these monitors, HP's Paviliion f1703 were defective. HP however refused to replace it. I however managed to get 4 years out of it, where the others were only getting at best 13 or 14 months, just beyond the warranty.

So I purchased a Dell SE198WFP (19" Widescreen) LCD Flat Panel Monitor. Nothing extravagant but seems to work quite well.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 3:14 am

Update on my various set ups. If you recall I purchased Vista Home Premium for my "Main Desktop" but had problems with the graphic card and gave up trying to install a replacement that was aero compatible.

Despite having Vista Home premium on my two laptop computers neither is equipped with a TV card (yet - got a USB stick on order) so I thought why waste all that money I spent on the Vista Home Premium Disc.

I did some research and found you are allowed to transfer the Vista System to another computer so that's what I have done. I had to telephone Microsoft for it to be activated. The other desktop is newer and more powerful but lacks all the bells and whistles of my "main" desktop equipped with removable hard drive trays.

Anyway back to the important point - I can now use Windows Media Center with the Hauppauge digital TV card so hopefully this will increase my skills base for solving problems with video captured from that source.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:50 pm

The good thing about placing here some problems you've had whilst they are fresh in your mind is that they may assist others who come across these and also as a personal reminder to ones self for the future.

Boy what a horrible weekend. Just after midnight Friday into Saturday I set my computer up to transfer some recordings from my Sky+ to my main desktop computer. This was to be just before going to bed as I had to be up early for work. I had up until then been using my notebook computer.

As I watched the first few minutes to make sure the recording was working OK so that I could let it run whilst I went to sleep, I noticed the monitor started going black for a few seconds and then the picture coming back on.
I thought "This isn't good, I had better turn the recording off and investigate."
Problem was the machine refused to respond and the monitor was still going on/off. Eventually it went off and stopped off.

The computer otherwise appeared to be working - lights on the keyboard would respond to caps lock, number lock etc. So I had no choice but to turn off the Power. Problem was the computer was then dead as a door nail and refused to turn on again. Spent the next 30 minutes fiddling around to no avail. Decided to leave it and check the following day as I had to go to bed due to work in the morning.

On my way home from work I went via the computer superstore and picked up a new ATX power supply. That afternoon was already booked for a visit to my sons house some 10 miles away, his girlfriends parents had travelled over a 100 miles and it was to be a family meeting regarding their forthcoming wedding. It was therefore late evening before I was able to look again at the computer.

I swapped the Power supply and...... still dead as a doornail.
At this point I was considering swapping the motherboard - My AMD Athon 2400+ was now a few years old and has no slot for a PCI-e graphics card which seems to be more of a requirement nowadays with modern software. I had previously had to remove my copy of Vista off this multi boot machine due to the fact the graphics card was only a PCI and I had no luck with an AGP Graphics card. My Vista installation is now on my other desktop computer.

I remembered my youngest son telling me a couple of weeks earlier that he no longer had any use for a computer I bought him about 2 years ago
an AMD Athlon 64 bit 3200+ with 1GB RAM. He was only too happy to let me have it to free up some much need space in his house. He now exclusively uses their two family laptop computers.

After checking that I had all the drivers for the 3200+ I set to work dismantling the two machines so that I could replace the hard drives, TV card and everything else from the 2400 into the 3200. This included removable drive trays which is the meat of my set up so that I can quickly swap drives around - I have several hard drives in drawers.

After completion it was on with the power and..... dead as a doornail.
Unbelievable I thought and now suspected a broken fuse in the kettle lead.
So I went to my stock of spare parts and grabbed another kettle lead and .... dead as a doornail. Now imaging the next couple of hours methodically removing this that and the other attempting to isolate what part was preventing the computer from starting.

Eventually I discovered why it wouldn't start, the fuse in the kettle lead had blown and as luck would have it when I swapped it for another - the other kettle lead also had a blown fuse. A third kettle lead and the start up problem was resolved.

Problems didn't stop there though. Now the computer wouldn't boot up stating "Please insert a system disc" or something similar - meaning that it was not reading the boot sector of the hard drive. So having a multi boot system I tried booting one of the other hard drives to be faced with the same error message.

To cut a long story short(er) after a hour or so I discovered that by removing the hard drive from the carrier and installing it in the more traditional fashion directly to the IDE cable - the computer would start.
No logical reason for this but had to give way as no amount of swapping leads or caddies had any effect.

So I then start up the computer and once XP had loaded it started asking for the drivers (expected) so I pop in the CD with the drivers and .... even though the DVD/CD drive is detected it is not reading the disc. I try a few more and most discs have the same problem. Strangely the few it DID read were home made discs - I was having problems with commercially produced (pressed) discs. Normally you would expect it to be the other way round.

So its back to dismantling the computer again - this time I try the CD drive from the other machine - same problem. Again to cut a long story short - this took all of Sunday afternoon, evening and night to work out.
Imagine how many times I removed things from one computer and swapped them with the other and then back again.

Turned out the problem was one of the two IDE slots on the motherboard.
IDE 0 was OK and if the CD drive was connected to IDE 0 it worked. If connected to IDE 1 it didn't. This also probably explains the issue with the drive caddies. So after 2 days I have the desktop working but I am a little concerned about the two hard drives now connected to IDE 1 and will have to keep an eye on them.

I did a TV recording last night to one of those IDE 1 hard drives and it seems to have recorded correctly.

Hopefully this will also explain why I appeared to be "missing" this past couple of days. Unfortunately the clock is again ticking and I have to go to work again soon.

Here is my former AMD 2400+ extensively used to troubleshoot on this forum!

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:19 pm

Oh yeah Steve! Been there done that! All the while the missus looking at me totally perplexed asking, "What are you doing now!"

Post by **Ron P.** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:38 am

I totally sympathize with you Steve. I just went through something similar, as stated in my previous post above.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:17 pm

Oh yeah, sh*t does happen, doesn't it?

I feel with you, been there, done that, umpteen times

DLA · Post by **DLA** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:18 pm

Here are some picture about the weird weather we had here, in Quebec, Canada this year so Ron is not the only one complaining about it.

http://www.meteomedia.com/your_weather/ ... _weather/3

Have a look at this one, it is a compilation of images taken every 2 minutes during a snow storm. http://www.celinium.com/via/video/

Quebec City broke the record this week-end. 500 cm of snow, this is a bit more than 16 feet! See this for the previous storm (to be updated with Easter week-end storm) http://news.webshots.com/album/562702388loQvnk

Ron, at least the snow you receive is melting the same day. Here, it doesn't. We just don't know anymore where to put it.

John Moran_2 · Post by **John Moran_2** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:47 pm

Good read, but please define "kettle lead" for me in "english".

Post by **Ron P.** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:16 pm

John Moran_2 wrote:Good read, but please define "kettle lead" for me in "english".

I had to look that one up, It's the power cord that plugs into the PC.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:36 pm

DLA wrote:Here are some picture about the weird weather we had here, in Quebec, Canada this year so Ron is not the only one complaining about it.

http://www.meteomedia.com/your_weather/ ... _weather/3

Have a look at this one, it is a compilation of images taken every 2 minutes during a snow storm. http://www.celinium.com/via/video/

Quebec City broke the record this week-end. 500 cm of snow, this is a bit more than 16 feet! See this for the previous storm (to be updated with Easter week-end storm) http://news.webshots.com/album/562702388loQvnk

Ron, at least the snow you receive is melting the same day. Here, it doesn't. We just don't know anymore where to put it.

Gee - Hope you all had plenty of warning and were able to stock up with food etc. looks like a scene from "The Day after Tomorrow"

DLA · Post by **DLA** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:06 pm

sjj1805 wrote:
Gee - Hope you all had plenty of warning and were able to stock up with food etc. looks like a scene from "The Day after Tomorrow"

No need to stock up food. Although 500 cm is a record year (breaking a 1965 record), snow storms are usual and we all get used to it. The March 8-9 snow storm was from Saturday to Sunday morning. On Monday, I went to work not problems. All major streets and highway were cleaned-up. The guys cleaning up the streets are becoming efficient at the end of the season. No fatalities during this storm. When such thing occur, believe me, a lot of people are outside helping each other.

More images here, have a look at photo #6. I guess you would not like to be the policeman stuck in his car like this!
http://galeriedephotos.cyberpresse.ca/i ... =4533&m=cp

Have a look at this to see how cleaning is done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLNUPDsZ ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhFELmEW ... re=related

Post by **Ron P.** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:25 pm

And they are screaming about Global Warming???

I guess we really don't get that much snow here..

We don't have the snow-blowers to clear the roads, just big snow-plow blades that mounted on the front of dump trucks and motor-graders. However a severe snow here, is less than 2 feet. It is rare that we get close to that amount. 16 feet of snow would cripple the area for about a week. Everything would be closed down.

When we get anything more than 6 inches of snow all the schools are closing.

It just seemed this winter season the pattern we were in, provided rain, sleet and snow more than once a week. Then out of the blue, it would warm to 60-70 degrees for a day, and then right back into winter. That one day, rain to snow, and all gone was really strange though. That just does not happen much. The snow generally will stick around for at least a couple of days.

Thanks for reminding me that our winter weather is really not that bad..

DLA · Post by **DLA** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:16 pm

Just to be clear, 16 feet is the cumulative for all the season. On Easter week-end, Quebec City and the surrounding got 2 feet in one shot.

Yeah, a lot of people here are just wondering where the heck global-warming is this year. Still -12 this morning, nothing to get rid of all that snow. Guess what, with spring being that late, watch out for flooding when warm weather will finally show up.

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 5:08 pm

As an ex-UNEP guy, let me say that global warming doesn't really exist. It is climate change and it may be that Quebec's climate is changing to longer, colder winters with more snow. However, I cannot even state that without a lot of scientific evidence that I don't have. All I do know is that it is certain that some places do have a colder climate than 50 years ago. But climate is more than temperature, it includes precipitation, humidity, barometric pressure, insolation, cloud types, density and altitude, wind (direction and velocity), suspended solids etc. And climate is not weather, either. Take rainfall where I am. The average is 380 mm. This rainy season (now all but over), I've measured only 101.8 mm yet a few years ago we had >800 mm. The difference between these is weather. Climate is the long-term trend measured over 30 year averages.

In the meantime, we are DESPERATELY short of water because of weather and no one know what to do (this is actually the third dry winter in a row). So, please, Quebec, put your 460 cm of snow in a boat and give it to us!